Woman, 33, becomes first S'porean to summit 10th highest mountain in world, did it in just 8 days

Growing up, 33-year-old Vincere Zeng had never shown an interest in sports or anything physically demanding.

"I was the opposite of sporty," she called herself.

Then in 2015, her life took a different, or rather, a more vertical trajectory when she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for fun with a friend.

A decade later, Zeng has become one of Singapore’s most celebrated mountaineers.

She has summited six of the world’s ten highest peaks, including Everest, Lhotse, and K2.

Speaking to Mothership, Zeng shares how her love for mountaineering came about.

Start of the journey of a lifetime

After graduating from Nanyang Technological University in 2015, Zeng volunteered to teach mathematics and English to children in a town in Tanzania.

She had Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, as her view for the next month, as the town was close to the mountain.

She and a friend decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro after that one-month stint.

As a sport-averse person myself, trekking up a 5,895m mountain didn't sound like my idea of fun.

I was curious why a fellow non-sporty would embrace this physical torture; perhaps it was because she didn't view it as a sport.

"That was more like a backpacking and hiking trip, just for fun," Zeng told me.

Her propensity for adventure gamely trounced her non-sporty nature, and she managed the seven-day trek quite quickly.

So much so that her performance surprised her guide, who told her she was even faster than some porters.

This ignited a small passion in her, and she went on to summit Mera Peak in Nepal in 2017, "for fun" again.

Zeng's passion only turned serious when she attempted Aconcagua in Argentina, but failed to summit.

It is the highest mountain in the Americas and the highest outside Asia.

"I was young and bold and reckless, and I wanted to just try," Zeng said, adding that she didn't have proper training or even the proper gear for it.

Stirred by that first failure, Zeng embarked on a rigorous training programme in 2018.

She started to climb more and eventually summited around 30 mountains above 5,000m — all while working a full-time job as a strategy and platform transformation manager at a tech company.

Fast forward to 2023, she became the first Singaporean and the first Southeast Asian to summit three of the world’s highest peaks – Everest, Lhotse, and K2 – within a single year.

One of the hardest climbs

Her achievements in 2023 didn't scratch that mountaineering itch.

In April this year, Zeng summited Annapurna in Nepal, which she described as one of the most challenging mountains she has ever climbed.

Notorious for its frequent avalanches and unpredictable climates, the mountain had a fatality rate of approximately 32 per cent before 2019.

Zeng said that it would usually take about three to four weeks to climb the 8,091m mountain, but she did it in just eight days (excluding the time taken to descend).

She went into base camp on Mar. 31 and reached the summit on Apr. 7, before a 24-hour descent back down.

She didn't initially aim to climb it in such a short period of time, Zeng admitted.

Weather conditions predicting a big storm and heavy snowfall meant they had a shorter window of time to climb, so by the time she went to base camp, she only had a week left to summit, she said.

She had to skip acclimatisation training, where they climb higher and back down multiple times to gradually increase altitude exposure, allowing their body to adapt to lower oxygen levels.

Instead, she pushed through the trek and safely reached the summit.

Chance of avalanches

It may sound like it was an easy feat for the now-experienced climber, but Zeng shared that the climb was "dangerous all the time".

And while the whole way was "steep" and "exposed", the most dangerous part was in an area prone to avalanches.

It was an area full of rocks and ice that you cannot avoid passing through to get to the summit.

"If you're the unlucky one, you encounter the avalanche here and you're gone," she said.

"It's kind of like you're basically just praying to not be the person meeting the avalanche at that point of time of the day."

It was quite emotionally intense when they passed that area, she said.

Tragically, during their descent, they heard that two Sherpas had fallen into a crevasse in an avalanche.

When they passed through the area again, the landscape had completely changed from when they first ascended.

Love to be in the mountains

When I commented on how she's being a role model for younger girls, Zeng humbly brushed it off, saying she wasn't sure where that sentiment came from.

For Zeng, her journey comes from purely her own passion, and she wasn't looking to prove anything to anyone.

"I think it's important to like, stick to the things that you really like, you really love, and just be there to do it," she said.

"For the younger generation out there, just stick to the things that you're passionate about and just make it happen. I think if your mind wants to make it happen, it will."

While she's grateful she can serve as an inspiration to others, Zeng was quick to add that others shouldn’t follow in her footsteps and jump into mountaineering without adequate preparation.

"It all comes with experience and knowing your body," she said.

That reticence in recommending this activity is entirely understandable.

To me, it sounded like such a scary thing to do, going out there at the mercy of nature. One slip-up and it's over.

How do you conquer that fear? Turns out with an equally strong emotional counter.

"I just love to be in the mountains."

"The mountain makes me feel alive," she added.

This has been her answer every time (and there have been many times) someone has asked her this question, and I doubt it will change anytime soon.

"Every mountain has its own charm, right? And I'm just interested to explore different mountains," she said.

While my jaw was now permanently on the floor as she went matter-of-factly on about climbing mountains I couldn't even imagine, Zeng appeared almost ready to climb another mountain in that instant.

In fact, remember how dangerous and exhausting her April climb in Annapurna, the 10th-highest mountain, was?

In May, she began climbing Mount Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain in the world.

And she made history again, becoming the first Singaporean woman to reach the summit of Mount Makalu.

Not bad for a non-sporty person.

Top photos from vincerez & ntu_sg/Instagram