"I climb for those women who came before, for those who are yet to come, for the women we once were, and for the women we are yet to become."
To empower women and girls, no matter their passion or pursuits - to go for their dreams and live big, bold lives.
Mountains have this incredible power to teach us invaluable lessons that help us grow as people, as women, as adventurers and athletes.
To inspire women and girls through sharing her truth, her struggles, her strengths, and her vulnerabilities - both on and off the mountains - to serve as a role model of the power of sisterhood and community.
There are so many misperceptions about what draws humans to mountaineering, how mountaineers view risk and safety, and why we climb mountains.
So why do I climb? Mountaineering is an incredible journey of learning and self-growth. It transforms the body, mind, and spirt. It is challenging and humbling, yet empowering.
It is a balance of leading and following; a balance of individualism and teamwork. It forms amazing, transformative, life-long bonds.
Risk management, mitigation, strategy, and problem-solving are huge components and wildly exciting - but also sometimes scary - and challenging to work through. And like anything worth it in life, you have to show up and put in the work to have any chance of success. It requires investing in myself and working through fear, self-doubt, failure, and success. I climb each big mountain for unique reasons and motivations, and it requires a great deal of introspection and self-reflection. Mountains are the greatest teachers.
Syanna has always been an adventurer and a calculated risk taker, but there was one major event that forever changed the course of her life.
Syanna was an avid athlete until she was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart birth defect and had open heart surgery to repair it at the age of 14. That event led her to focus less on sports and more on an adventerous life of living, studying, and working abroad in 9 countries on 5 continents over the course of several decades.
While living in Ghana in 2009, Syanna received an invitation to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Up until that point, she had never climbed a mountain or done any serious hiking. But at the summit of Kilimanjaro, a passion for climbing was born, quickly leading to subsequant climbs in Argentina, Peru, Nepal, Switzerland, Italy, and all over the US.
Syanna trains with mountaineering coach Kate Sielmann, and it was in training with Kate in 2023 to climb Aconcagua - the tallest mountain in the world outside of Asia - that she began to truly see herself as an athlete again. She realized that with the right mindset and training, she could accomplish a new goal: climb Mt Everest.
In January 2024, Syanna - along with a team including 8 of her “Summit Sisters” - climbed Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America and her first taste of big mountain climbing. It tested her body and mind and taught her invaluable lessons about high-altitude mountaineering.
Syanna climbs to inspire herself and other women and girls to be the most badass versions of themselves. She climbs to embrace the experience of what the mountains have to teach us and shares her learnings and wisdom obtained from each expedition.
For Syanna, climbing mountains is both a humbling and empowering experience. She now has her sights on fundraising and filming a documentary of the history of women mountaineers from the 1800s and early 1900s and how they paved the way for what the 8000m peak women climbers accomplish today.
Support Syanna as she summits Manaslu and Everest.
For her upcoming expeditions, Syanna will be filming a documentary about women high-altitude mountaineers with the intent to inspire women and girls everywhere to chase their dreams.
Manaslu | Sept. 2025
Syanna is joining the Imagine Nepal team led by Mingma G to climb Manaslu, the 8th highest mountain in the world and her first Himalayan 8000er.
Everest | Spring 2026
Having already made the trek to Everest Base Camp in 2011, Syanna now aims to summit Everest itself, the highest peak in the world.
Support Syanna by purchasing a limited edition We Do It for the Climb Axe tee.
Featuring the 8000m Peaks, 7 Summits, and 14ers in Colorado.
