How Nelly Attar Became the Arab World’s Revolutionary Sports Icon

How Nelly Attar Became the Arab World’s Revolutionary Sports Icon

In the pre-dawn darkness of July 22, 2022, Nelly Attar stood atop K2, the world’s second-highest mountain. As she raised Lebanon’s flag on the 8,611-meter peak known as the “Savage Mountain,” she made history as the first Arab woman to climb one of mountaineering’s most formidable challenges.

Overwhelmed with emotion, she cried for 20 minutes a mixture of tears and laughter thinking of her late father and the journey that had brought her to this moment

From Psychology to Peaks

Born in Riyadh in 1990 to Lebanese parents, Attar’s path to becoming a record-breaking mountaineer was anything but conventional. Her professional life began far from the mountains, in the structured world of mental health.

Armed with a B.Sc. from the American University of Beirut and a Master’s in Research Psychology from Kingston University in London, Attar spent four years working as a psychologist and life coach across challenging environments from Lebanese prisons to rehabilitation hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

“I worked in the mental health field across diverse and challenging environments for four years,” Attar reflects. “My work was dedicated to helping people through therapy. Yet, in my personal life, I found my own form of therapy through movement exercise and dance became my escape, my source of strength.”

The seeds of her mountaineering passion were planted at age 17, when her father took her on her first climb up Mount Kenya, Africa’s second-highest peak.

Though they didn’t reach the summit her father suffered hypothermia due to inadequate gear the experience left an indelible mark on young Nelly.

“It was the first time I spent a couple of days on a mountain and that left me changed,” she recalls. “I felt so enriched, so alive. And I just knew it. I want to do more of this in the future.”

A Leap of Faith

By 2017, Attar was ready for a dramatic career shift. In a country then ranked among the least active in the world, she saw an opportunity to make a difference through sports.

Without major funding or resources, she launched a modest movement community in a warehouse within her stepfather’s office building in Saudi Arabia.

This humble beginning quickly blossomed into MOVE Saudi Arabia’s first-ever dance studio. What started as a small initiative to provide Saudi women with access to sports transformed into a national movement.

Within five years, Attar’s studio was empowering thousands across the Kingdom to embrace physical activity, earning her the title of “Female Fitness Influencer of the Year” in 2019.

“Movement has been medicinal for me,” Attar explains. “I wouldn’t be able to move on if it wasn’t for sports.”

When not managing her studio or coaching women, Attar pursued increasingly challenging mountaineering expeditions. Her climbing résumé grew steadily; by the time she set her sights on K2, she had already summited over 17 major peaks, including Mount Everest in 2019.

The Darkest Valley, The Highest Peak

In 2020, tragedy struck when Attar lost her father the man who had first introduced her to the mountains. His death created a void that would ultimately fuel her most ambitious climbing goal yet.

“Ever since my father passed away, that feeling of wanting to do something more demanding something that would take me to another level, encourage me to take bigger risks was running deep inside me,” she says. “On a day that was very dark for me, I felt like I wanted to have something to look forward to. I wanted to help push myself forward through the grief I was experiencing.”

The decision to attempt K2 was deeply personal. Known as the “Savage Mountain” for its unforgiving terrain and extreme conditions, K2 has one of the highest fatality rates in mountaineering.

For every four climbers who reach the summit, one perishes in the attempt. Before Attar, fewer than 20 women worldwide had successfully climbed it.

Her preparation was methodical and exhaustive. She first climbed Ama Dablam in Nepal, considered a prerequisite for K2 due to its technical demands. She trained relentlessly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, climbing Saudi’s highest peak more than 12 times in a single year.

“This is the most I had ever trained for an expedition,” Attar notes. “I was writing down everything, how I felt, what I ate, what I wore.”

The Savage Mountain

The journey to K2’s base camp alone took a week, with six to seven-hour hikes daily. At base camp her home for a month Attar focused on acclimatization, the delicate process of allowing her body to adapt to extreme altitudes.

“Acclimatisation in itself is an art,” she explains. “It’s a balance between challenging your body and then allowing it to recover. It’s the same as training.

If you train every single day, you will overstrain and won’t benefit from it. But if you give your body a recovery period, your muscles adapt.”

The final push to the summit was fraught with danger. She lost contact with her guide for an hour and a half, faced the constant threat of avalanches, and challenged perilously close to hanging seracs that could collapse without warning. She battled potential frostbite and oxygen depletion, all while maintaining the slow, deliberate pace necessary at extreme altitudes.

During the climb, Attar experienced panic attacks when her heart rate spiked. She learned to pace herself “one foot at a time” a strategy that became a metaphor for her approach to life’s challenges.

“On high altitude, you always have to be slow and steady, one foot at a time. You’ll get there,” she says. “It’s never about following someone else’s pace. When I feel good, I move faster. When I feel I need to slow down, I slow down. You need to think of the long term.”

Where the Real Challenge Begins

While reaching the summit was an emotional triumph, Attar knew the real victory was making it back alive. The descent from K2 is notoriously dangerous, with falling rocks posing a constant threat.

“As soon as the rocks start to fall, you hear people scream, ‘Rock, Rock’, and your heart sinks. You can hear the boulders falling, similar to a helicopter sound,” she describes. “It’s kind of like a PlayStation game, you have to dodge them.”

The descent presented grim reminders of the mountain’s dangers. At one point, Attar was clipped to the same line as a deceased climber for 45 minutes, waiting for others to make their way up.
“It’s literally a life and death situation. Our life is in our hands,” she reflects solemnly.

Legacy and Impact

Today, with more than 30 major peaks to her name, Attar divides her time between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, working as a professional climber, leading community adventure trips, and delivering keynote talks worldwide on sports, physical health, and mental wellbeing.

Her achievements have earned recognition from prestigious organizations, including a Laureus Sporting Moments award in 2023 and being named among Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” the same year.

But beyond the accolades, Attar’s most significant impact lies in breaking barriers for Arab women in extreme sports and inspiring others to push beyond perceived limitations.

“They can do it, regardless of the challenges that they’re faced with, regardless of the limitations,” Attar insists. “Nothing, and no one should stop you. If you have a vision, if you have a dream, go and achieve that dream… Don’t use your circumstances as an excuse, use them as your reason to go forward.”

When asked where she calls home Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, or the UAEAttar’s answer reveals her true north: “Mountains are my home. Where I feel happy, where I feel like there’s a purpose for me, that’s my home.”

For Nelly Attar, the mountains have been more than conquests; they’ve been teachers, healers, and ultimately, the place where grief transformed into triumph.

Her journey from psychologist to pioneering mountaineer embodies her own philosophy about sports “Sports isn’t just about what our bodies can do. It’s not just about fitness, health, or longevity. Sports unites. Sports inspires. Sports shatters stereotypes. Sports drives change, in a way that nothing else does.”

As she continues to scale new heights, both literal and figurative, Attar carries with her the legacy of her father, the strength of her heritage, and a message for anyone facing their own mountains “If I can do it, you can too. And I’m here to help.”