In 2019, Anja Blacha became the first woman to walk 1,400 kilometers from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, alone and on skis. She has climbed all 7 Summits and is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable personalities in extreme sports.

When she talks about her experiences, she sounds modest, no trace of pride. The native of East Westphalia is far too down-to-earth for that. She wants no goal to seem too big for people. She says, “The more challenging a goal is, the more valuable it becomes for me.”

Don’t be afraid of big goals!

In her talks, she takes you on a fascinating world of adventure without being particularly adventurous herself. She shares her sometimes unbelievable experiences in such a way that they give courage and properly boost one’s own willpower and motivation. She especially wants to help young people to create and keep clarity in their minds and to realize that big goals are important and achievable.

Non-Profit : Anja Blacha is Vice-President of the Project Management Institute

Before she started her career as an extreme athlete, she studied business administration, had a stopover in philosophy, did her master’s degree and then worked as a telecommunication expert for companies like Vodafone or Swisscom.

By chance, she came across the non-profit organization Project Management Institute, which aims to empower people to turn their ideas into reality. Today, she is vice president of the organization.

How do you succeed in turning great ideas into reality?

Anja Blacha smiles when she considers that, as a child, she didn’t have the slightest contact with mountains or tracking vacations. If at all, she went on beach vacations with her parents.

It wasn’t until 2013, when she was 23, that she traveled to Peru with her sister and discovered her penchant for backpacking. The next time she wanted to vacation in Argentina, it was clear from the start that tracking had to be a part of it. During her research, she came across the 6.961 meter high Aconcagua, no less than the highest mountain in Argentina. She inquired with a tracking organization about what it took to climb the mountain, found that she could do most of it, and soon climbed the mountain. It’s that easy?  When she tells it, it sounds like it was a piece of cake. Laughing, she says, “It’s just so much fun for me.”

Skills + strengths + gut feeling = success

Anja Blacha knows from experience how important it is to know and contribute one’s own skills and strengths: “I know what I can do and what I can’t do. I certainly don’t fit the stereotype of the swashbuckling, daredevil, muscle-bound adventurer. But that doesn’t matter because I know what I can and can’t do. The right combination of my strengths and skills compensates for what I can’t do, or even makes it better. It’s also important to set the right goals from the beginning, ones that suit you.”

Motivation, resilience, team and self-leadership

Anja Blacha encourages people to dare big ideas and see them through to the end without inner resistance. In her presentations, she talks about motivation, resilience, risk management, team and self-leadership.

She tells how she herself made it to Mount Everest, the South Pole, and completely different goals, and why and how anyone:r can do it.

She talks about challenges and how it is possible to accept them and to persevere and move forward despite headwinds. Anja Blacha invites people to use their weaknesses as superpowers. She designs concrete scenarios for how teams can become successful and master extreme situations together on their own.

She dispels stereotypes because she is living proof that as a woman it is absolutely possible to be successful in a male domain.

A mental journey into the fascinating world of adventure

Anja Blacha takes you into the extreme, breathtaking world of expeditions to the highest mountains and the polar regions. This alone is a pure, exciting, inspiring pleasure. How many people are there who have climbed Mount Everest or the “Savage Mountain” K2 in Pakistan at the age of almost 33, or have dared expeditions through Greenland, Antarctica, or even to the South Pole alone?

You don’t have to become an extreme athlete to be infected by Anja Blacha’s enthusiasm. She brings pure empowerment to the world. That’s something you’ll have to find someone else to do.