What Did Mountains Teach Me: Bouchra Baibanou (Full Transcript)

Bouchra Baibanou is the first Moroccan woman mountaineer to summit the seven highest mountain peaks on every continent. In this inspiring TEDx talk, Bouchra is not only sharing her outstanding achievements, but she is inviting all of us to dare to dream, and dream big.

Below is the full text of Bouchra’s talk titled “What Did Mountains Teach Me” at TEDxCasablanca conference. This event occurred on December 1, 2018.

Bouchra Baibanou – TRANSCRIPT

Tomorrow, I will be going to Antarctica to achieve my dream.

Do you know where Antarctica is? It’s the seventh continent, located in the South Pole. It’s the coldest continent in the world; the temperature there reached -144 °F. And the highest recorded wind velocity there, exceeds 186 mi/h.

It is a frozen continent. No one lives there except for scientists who go there to do scientific research, and adventurers who want to achieve special challenges. Like what I’m going to do tomorrow.

I’ll climb the highest summit there, the Vinson Massif, which is the last summit left in my Seven Summits Project. A challenge to climb the highest summit in each continent. By climbing this summit, I’ll achieve my goal of completing the Seven Summits and I’ll be the first Moroccan doing that, hopefully.

I’m scared from this journey. But I’m also excited. I’m scared because we always fear the unknown, because it always pushes us out of our comfort zone. And excited because I want to know this new world, and to explore it. These are the reasons that make me energetic and enthusiastic.

I still remember 2011, when I finished climbing a group of Moroccan summits. I decided to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest summit in Africa, which is about 19,000 ft. And there, I knew about the seven summits project.

I knew that it’ll be hard and the Everest summit will be in this project. Also, it’ll be expensive. Although of that I dared to dream, and said: “Why not? I’ll try and see where I’ll reach.”