Anja Blacha: “I will push my limits to show everyone that there are none.”
The extreme athlete Anja Blacha fought her way alone with a sled weighing over 100 kilos over a 1400-kilometer distance through Antarctica to the South Pole in just 58 days – a historic record, because it was the longest “solo, unsupported, unassisted” polar expedition by a woman in history and at the same time Anja Blacha was also the youngest woman ever to succeed in such a polar expedition.
When she reached her destination, she raised her flag with the message “NOT BAD FOR A GIRL”.
Anja Blacha dedicates her expedition to all women and dispels prejudices by showing what a woman is capable of even without extreme muscular strength with precise planning, the right focus, motivation and perseverance.
Speaking topics Anja Blacha:
Think Big: Setting Big Goals and Achieve them.
Topics focus on motivation, resilience, risk management, team and self-leadership:
- How to make it to Mount Everest, the South Pole and completely different goals.
- How to persevere in the face of challenges, overcome limitations and move forward.
- How to turn weaknesses into superpowers.
- What makes successful teams and how they master even extreme situations together.
- How you can safely face risks with the right risk management.
NOT BAD FOR A GIRL.?! World record!
How to deal positively with stereotypes and how to go your own way as a woman in male domains.
Anja Blacha: Adventure extreme.
Fascinating insights into expeditions to the highest mountains in the world and the polar regions: Seven Summits, Mount Everest, Broad Peak & K2, Greenland, Antarctica.
Anja Blacha grew up in Bielefeld, Germany. Today Anja Blacha lives and works in Zurich. A few months before her South Pole expedition alone through Antarctica, she was the first German woman to conquer K2 and even before that the youngest German to conquer Mount Everest. She also climbed the Seven Summits – the highest mountains on the continents – in less than 3 years.
Anja Blacha: Daring and achieving big goals.
She gives lectures on motivation, goals and challenges, resilience, risk management as well as team and self-leadership – An extraordinary variety of topics, which form the basis for the extraordinary successes of extreme mountaineer and extreme sportswoman Anja Blacha.
Anja Blacha grew up in Bielefeld, Germany, and studied business administration at the University of Mannheim up to her bachelor’s degree, supplemented by studies at UC Berkeley and Korea University. She then moved to London and completed a master’s degree in philosophy at Birkbeck University of London before moving to Zurich in 2016, where she has since worked in the telecommunications industry.
Anja Blacha was also active as a fencer. In 2012, she was named Sportswoman of the Year by the University of London.
In 2013, accompanying her sister on a backpacking trip through South America, she discovered the ruined city of Machu Picchu in Peru. This experience motivated her to take up extreme mountaineering and ignited her “wanderlust.” In the years that followed, this led her to the seven highest mountains in the world and to other places such as from the largest ice dome on Earth, Berkner Island, to the South Pole.
In 2018, she was featured by Zeit Campus magazine in its #18FÜR18 section as one of 18 people under 30 who are “making Germany better.” The Campus editorial team writes: “What we can learn from her: Stay down-to-earth despite top performance. And take the trash back with you”. Anja Blacha had previously described, “On the expedition, I collected empty canned goods and bottles that were left lying around.”
Her most recent expeditions were followed with great interest by the media, and her accompanying campaign “Not Bad for A Girl” won several awards at the New York Festivals Advertising Awards.