| Nadhira Al Harthy | |
| Native Name: | نظيرة الحارثي |
| Birth Date: | c.1978 |
| Birth Place: | Muscat, Oman |
| Known For: | First Omani woman to summit Mount Everest, K2, Nanga Parbat |
| Employer: | Oman's Ministry of Education |
| Occupation: | Civil servant, mountaineer |
Nadhira Al Harthy or Nadhira Alharthy (born c.1978) is an Omani civil servant and mountaineer. She was the second person from Oman, and the first Omani woman, to climb Mount Everest. She has also summitted several other eight-thousander peaks, including Manaslu, K2, and Nanga Parbat.
Al Harthy was born in about 1978. She went to Rustaq College of Education and she has a Masters degree in geography.[1] She worked for four years as a geography teacher[2] before she became an Omani civil servant who works for Oman's Ministry of Education.[3]
In 2015, she brought a group of students to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro as part of a project for the Ministry of Education. She tried to climb the peak, but was unable to do so because of altitude sickness.[4]
In 2017, she set herself the goal of climbing the world's highest peak. She had met Khalid al-Siyabi who was the only Omani person at the time to have climbed Everest which he did seven years earlier. He came to the ministry where she was director of citizenship and she was inspired. She went to the gym each week[5] and she started running and climbing mountains in Oman. In 2018 she took part in the 130km Ultra-Trail Mont Blanc. She did the ultra-marathon in Oman, but had to retire before she completed 100 km. That year she also attempted to climb Nepal's Ama Dablam, but was unsuccessful. Instead of being discouraged, the experience only strengthened her resolve to climb the world's highest peak.
She was training under the guidance of her mentor, Khalid al-Siyabi, and for a long time her ambition to climb Everest was a secret. She told her own family of the plan just two months before she set out.
She was the second person from Oman and the first Omani woman to climb Mount Everest in 2019. This was in a year that the queues on the mountain to climb it became a news story and the year that her mentor died.[6] She was part of a team which included Mona Shahab of Saudi Arabia and the Lebanese climbers Joyce Azzam and Nelly Attar. She reached the summit on the anniversary of her mentor's ascent and she left his name at the top. The achievement was described as being by an "all-woman Arab team"[7] and it was filmed by the Canadian climber Elia Saikaly.[8]
In 2021, she returned to the Himalayas to summit Manaslu (8,156 meters). That year she also became the first woman from the Arab world to climb Ama Dablam. This peak defeated her before when she was training for her Everest ascent.
The next year she summitted K2 (8,611 meters). She was the first ever Omani woman at the summit.[9] In 2023, she climbed the Matterhorn (4,478 m).[10]
On July 10, 2024, Al Harthy summitted Nanga Parbat as part of a 10-person expedition team. She is the first person from Oman to summit the Himalaya's "Killer Mountain".[11]