Brigitte_Muir
Brigitte Muir
Belgian-born Australian mountain climber (born 1958)
Brigitte Leonce Suzanne Muir OAM (born 8 September 1958)[1] is a Belgian-born Australian mountain climber. Her climbing career spanned over thirty years.[2]
Personal information | |
---|---|
Birth name | Brigitte Leonce Suzanne Koch |
Born | (1958-09-08) 8 September 1958 (age 65) Ougrée, Seraing, Belgium |
Career | |
Notable ascents | Mount Everest (1997) Seven Summits (1997) Shivling (1986) |
Family | |
Spouse | Eric Renz. Former husband Jon Muir |
Muir was born Brigitte Koch in Ougrée, Belgium.
In 1986, she made, with husband at the time Jon Muir and friend Graeme Hill, the first ascent of the South West Pillar of Shivling in Northern India.[3]
In 1997, she became the first Australian woman to summit Mount Everest[3][4][5] and the first Australian, male or female, to climb the Seven Summits (the highest summit on each of the continents).[6]
In 1998, Penguin (Viking) published her autobiography, The Wind in My Hair.
In 2008, SBS broadcast The Eighth Summit, a documentary directed and produced by wife and husband team Anne and Wayne Tindall, and based on Brigitte’s life.[7]
After her career in mountaineering and adventure, Brigitte became a film maker[8] and an inspirational speaker.[9] She now leads community building treks in her beloved village of Lura in Eastern Nepal, where she started a women’s literacy and empowerment program.[10][11][12]
- Australian Geographic Society Spirit of Adventure Awards, 1997[13]
- Australia Day Achievers Award 1998
- Order of Australia Medal, for services to mountaineering, 2000[14]
- Centenary Medal, For service to Australia through mountaineering, 2001[15]
- First Victorian Honour Roll of Women, 2001
- Ross MacDowell, Inside Story. 20 Famous Australians Tell Their Story, Hobson Dell, Brighton,2001
- Susan Geason, Australian Heroines, stories of courage and survival, ABC Books, Sydney, 2001
- Martin Flanagan, Faces in the Crowd, One Day Hill, 2004
- Everest. Reflections from the Top. Edited by Christine Gee, Garry Weare and Margaret Gee, Rider, 2003.
- Lily Portugaels. "La Liégeoise qui a conquis l'Everest". lalibre.be.
- "EverestHistory.com: Brigitte Muir". Archived from the original on 14 September 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
- Will Steffen (2010). Himalayan Dreaming: Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia, 1922-1990. ANU E Press. pp. 562–. ISBN 978-1-921666-16-2.
- "At last our Brigitte is on top of the world". The Age, STEPHEN CAUCHI, 27/05/1997 via the SMH News Store
- "Civics | Brigitte Muir". Archived from the original on 1 November 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
- "Conquering Everest". The Age.
- "Brigitte Muir takes us 'behind the smile'". abc.net.au.
- "Business Beyond the Earthquake Trek". hdfa.org. Archived from the original on 31 August 2015.
- "AG Society Spirit of Adventure Awards". Australian Geographic.