Melissa Arnot Reid : Who Climbed Everest Without Supplemental Oxygen and Found Herself Along the Way
Melissa Arnot Reid stands at just 5’3″. In most settings, she wouldn’t command a second look. But in the world of high-altitude mountaineering, she’s a giant. She has summited Mount Everest six times, including a historic 2016 ascent that made her the first American woman to reach the world’s highest peak and survive the descent without supplemental oxygen.
Her story isn’t just about climbing mountains it’s about conquering herself.
Humble Beginnings
Born on December 18, 1983, in Colorado, Melissa’s early life was marked by financial struggle and family hardship. Her father Jim worked as a ski patroller at Purgatory Resort before opening a construction business. When Melissa was just five years old, her father broke his back in an accident, forcing the family to rebuild their lives around his disability.
The family moved to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe Reservation in Ignacio, southeast of Durango, where money was tight and dreams seemed distant. “When your pocket is empty, the thought of mountaineering does not even come to your mind,” Melissa would later reflect.
At age 12, another upheaval the family relocated to Whitefish, Montana, a wealthy resort community where Melissa felt like an outsider. High school became a battlefield of social hierarchy where her family’s modest means made her a target for bullies who mocked her clothes and lack of designer brands.
By 13, she was cleaning hotel bathrooms to earn money. The work was hard, but it taught her something valuable she could endure discomfort. At 16, she graduated high school early and moved out of her parents’ house, determined to forge her own path.
The Spark That Changed Everything
Melissa’s introduction to mountains came not from childhood dreams or family tradition, but from a chance invitation. After graduating from the University of Iowa with degrees in Literature, Creative Writing, and Business, she was heading back to Montana when a friend asked her to climb Great Northern Mountain a non-technical 8,705-foot peak outside Glacier National Park.
She was 19 years old, and that first climb changed everything.
“I have always said that what makes a good mountaineer is somebody who has a deep sense of self-hatred and a belief that they deserve to suffer,” she says, only half-joking. “For me, the mountains and climbing mountains has always represented this very intense and very tangible type of independence and freedom.”
That first experience revealed something profound: in the mountains, she felt like she belonged. Here was a place where her ability to endure discomfort honed through years of challenging circumstances became an asset rather than just survival.
Building a Foundation
Driven by this newfound passion, Melissa made a radical choice. She began living out of her car, saving every dollar to fund her climbing. She pursued wilderness medicine certification, becoming a Wilderness First Responder and later a certified EMT in Montana.
In 2001, she climbed Mount Rainier for the first time what she calls her “watershed moment.” The 14,411-foot peak in Washington state would become her training ground. She has now summited Rainier more than 100 times, mentoring countless climbers along the way.
By 2002, she was working as a guide on Mount Rainier with Rainier Mountaineering. By 2004, RMI Expeditions hired her as a guide, and by 2006, she had become a lead guide. Her career was taking off, but her biggest challenges lay ahead.
The Quest for Everest Without Oxygen
Most climbers who attempt Everest use supplemental oxygen above 26,000 feet, where the air contains only one-third the oxygen available at sea level. But Melissa had bigger ambitions. She wanted to join the elite few who had reached the world’s highest summit breathing only the thin air around them.
Her first attempt came in 2009, and it failed. So did her next attempt, and the next. For eight seasons over nine years, she pushed herself through a punishing training regimen that she describes as “masochistic” depriving herself of food and water during long training sessions, running and hiking six days a week, always pushing the boundary between discomfort and danger.
“I always think about it like the dial between discomfort and danger, and it’s like really super sensitive dial,” she explains. “The only way to get to know where that click in between discomfort and danger is, is to like rotate the dial.”
She would set out on 24-hour endurance pushes, climbing 10,000 to 20,000 vertical feet without food, water, or rest, always in controlled environments where she could stop safely if needed.
This wasn’t just physical training it was mental preparation for the moment when her brain would scream at her to turn back, even when her body could continue.
The Breakthrough
On May 23, 2016, after nearly a decade of attempts, Melissa reached the summit of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. She became only the fifth woman in history to achieve this feat, and the first American woman to summit and survive the descent.
But the moment of summit wasn’t what she expected. Standing on top of the world, she felt “sheer terror.” As she puts it, “You’re like out in the ocean as far as you can swim and you have to swim back.”
The summit was only half the battle she still had to descend safely, where many climbers without oxygen have perished. The accomplishment only mattered if she made it home alive.
More importantly, by the time she succeeded, she had learned something crucial the summit wouldn’t fix her internal struggles. “I had to do some really intense personal work to recognize that just existing made me worthy of having big dreams,” she reflects. “I wasn’t going to go and achieve some accomplishment that was gonna allow me to then be deserving of all the other very tangible and intangible things that I was seeking.”
Philosophy Born from Pain
Melissa’s approach to mountaineering is deeply philosophical, shaped by her difficult upbringing and years of pushing physical and mental limits. She has developed several core principles that guide both her climbing and her life
“Nature isn’t your competitor, but your teacher,” she emphasizes. Rather than trying to climb mountains, she learns from them about resilience, humility, and growth.
Her childhood taught her to calculate “how uncomfortable can I be without being in danger?” This skill became crucial in mountaineering, where the difference between productive suffering and life-threatening risk can be razor-thin.
She warns against believing that reaching any goal even summiting Everest will solve deeper issues. “True worth is not earned through external achievements, but is inherent,” she says.
Her experiences with Sherpa guides taught her the importance of partnership and support. In 2012, she co-founded The Juniper Fund, providing financial support to families of local workers in Nepal’s mountains.
Breaking Barriers in a Male-Dominated World
As a woman in mountaineering, Melissa faced constant questions about her capabilities. Starting as a young, small woman in a field dominated by larger, older men, she initially tried to prove she belonged.
“If you’ve ever been a person trying to prove your way forward, you know how well that works outreally not well at all,” she admits. Instead, she learned that persistence and consistent showing up would gradually change the landscape.
Her advice to women entering male-dominated fields is simple “That will never change if you don’t take that courageous step of just being the first person.” She encourages people to close their eyes, imagine a mountaineer who has climbed Everest six times without oxygen, then open their eyes and see her challenging preconceptions about who belongs in extreme sports.
About 50% of the year, she’s traveling and guiding climbs. She works domestically during summer and spring, travels to Nepal twice yearly, and typically plans a South America or Africa expedition during winter. The rest of her time is spent running The Juniper Fund, speaking at events, and writing.
Despite her achievements, she remains grounded. “I think it’s really important to know that no matter who you are, where you are, you can be somebody’s legend,” she says.
The Memoir: Enough
In her 2023 memoir “Enough,” Melissa writes deep into the relationship between her internal struggles and mountaineering achievements. The book reveals how her journey for Everest was really a journey for self-worth, and how she learned that “self-forgiveness is just as important as audacity.”
Writing the book was its own form of mountain climbing. “You realize what you thought were scars were scabs, and there’s areas that could still bleed,” she says. But like her climbs, the difficult process led to growth and healing.
Current Philosophy
At 40’s, Melissa has evolved from someone driven by the need to prove herself to someone focused on helping others find their own paths. She sees mountaineering as a metaphor for life: “The expedition takes so long to do… you’re in this really long-term grind and the actual climb to the summit is just incredibly beautiful but unsexy, not glamorous.”
Her message is clear success comes not from the moment of achievement, but from the daily practice of showing up, even when nobody’s watching. “You will become what you’re trying to be if you consistently can show up every day, and that’s the most important thing.”
Melissa Arnot Reid’s story isn’t ultimately about climbing Everest it’s about conquering the voice that tells us we don’t belong, we’re not capable, or we’re not worthy. Through mountains, she found not just her strength, but her purpose: proving that with enough persistence, curiosity, and self-compassion, anyone can find their summit.
As she says, “You can’t prove your way into belonging. You sort of have to beat your way into belonging.” For Melissa, that journey led to the top of the world and back to herself.
