Kosovar mountaineer Uta Ibrahimi is not long back from a ski tour in her local Sharr Mountains when we sit down to talk. “We still have a lot of snow, and it’s been a great season this year,” she says. Uta smiles when I ask her to describe the Sharr range, which criss-crosses the border between Kosovo and North Macedonia. “For me, it's true love,” Ibrahimi says. “People often joke with me, because the first thing I always do when I get back from the Himalayas is go to Sharr. They’ll ask ‘are you not tired of the mountains?’ but for me, it’s where I go to refill myself with energy. It’s like a mosque or a church.”
For eight years I’ve been climbing in the Himalayas now. The biggest drive has always been Kosovo...
To say Ibrahimi is no stranger to a Himalayan summit is an understatement.
When Uta reached the top of Mount Everest on 22 May 2017, she became the first person from Kosovo to have ever climbed the highest mountain in the world.
“When I climbed Everest, it was for Kosovo," she says, "but the other thing that really pushed me hard at that time - and it’s not an issue now - was convincing people to believe in me." That was despite preparations that included ascents of several 6,000m (19,865ft) peaks, and years of mountaineering in Europe.
“The city I was born in is on the east of Kosovo, and it’s flat,” she says. “So people were saying ‘oh, you want to climb Everest but you come from Gjilan? And you’re a girl? You’re not strong enough'. For me, being on top of Everest was showing that I did it - being from the east of Kosovo; being a girl."
Ibrahimi was originally set to climb Everest with a group of her countrymen from Kosovo - but the team leader decided to have an all-male group instead.
“Only a few people believed that I could do it," says Uta. "It was a mentality which isn’t just here in the Balkans - it’s everywhere else in the world too. Girls are often seen as inferior, especially when it comes to professions where you need more power. Everybody believes that men are strong, but not girls. That was something that helped me to push more - and to always fight against this.”
After summiting Everest, Uta returned to Kosovo to a hero's welcome, with crowds at the airport waiting to cheer her arrival. Today, her climbing credentials are not in question - not just because of her effort on Everest, but because of the feats of mountaineering that she has achieved in the Himalayas since.
At the time of our interview, Uta has climbed 13 of the 14 eight-thousanders (8,000m/26,246ft) in the world, and she’s currently in training for an expedition to Kangchenjunga to complete the full set. If she succeeds, she will become the first person from the Balkans to have climbed each of the eight-thousanders.
If she succeeds, she will become the first person from the Balkans to have climbed each of the eight-thousanders.
“You can climb Everest just once and be finished with it,” she says, “but for eight years I’ve been climbing in the Himalayas now. The biggest drive has always been Kosovo, because I think it needs to be seen by the world and understood better - that our country is beautiful and safe to visit, and we can do great things.”
Uta was 15 and living in Gjilan, the third most populous city in Kosovo, when the war broke out. A violent conflict between the ethnic Albanian population and ethnic Serb population, the war lasted almost a year and a half from 28 February 1998, with thousands killed and many more displaced by the fighting.
“I was at that age where I knew it was going on, but I didn’t really know exactly what was happening,” Ibrahimi recalls. “Before the war, a lot of schools in Kosovo were closed and a lot of people would give their houses to become schools, because the Serbian regime closed schools. They wouldn’t let Albanians go to school properly. And the sports hall were closed.”
In her teenage years, Ibrahimi had dreamt of becoming a basketball player.
“All I wanted to do at that age was play basketball,” she says. “I had a big dream. I was following NBA games and I wanted to maybe play for a European team, but then the war happened, and everyone’s dreams were just... stuck in the middle."
Ibrahimi and her family had to hide inside for large periods of bombing.
“For three months of bombing, I was at home, isolated,” she says. “My father and my mum didn’t want us to leave the house because it was dangerous." They also didn't want to flee the country. "We felt like this was our country and our home. Of course, it was very difficult to spend days and nights totally isolated in one or two rooms; listening every day to all of the bombs and the massacres and people being killed. I also lost my uncle, who was part of the Kosovo Army, at that time.
The war made us stronger people; fighters.
“I am lucky to be here today. I cannot say that I’m lucky to have experienced that, but I always try to find something positive in whatever has happened in my life, and for many people here, the war made us stronger people; fighters. I think that is why Kosovo has produced a lot of individuals who have achieved big things since, whether that's in sport or in culture."
Ibrahimi moved to Pristina to study after the war, and became interested in mountaineering, growing an interest in hiking and camping born out of family trips around the Balkans when she was younger. “It’s quite different to how it is now,” she says. “In 2011, you wouldn’t see many female mountaineers. So it was a big change for me when one time I did see a girl in the mountains - Dita. She became my role model in mountaineering. When I saw her, something changed in me. I thought ‘okay, so mountaineering is also for girls.’”
Uta continued to hike and climb more until in 2015, she left her full-time job at a marketing agency in Kosovo to re-route her life to the mountains.
“I started working as a guide,” she says. “I decided to turn my passion into my profession. The only way that I could spend more time in the mountains was to find a job in the mountains, so I started my company, Butterfly Outdoor Adventure. It was soon after that we started working with Much Better Adventures - so we have been working for so many years now.”
Uta designs and guides adventures in Kosovo for Much Better Adventures with her team, including the latest - a hike in her beloved Sharr Mountains.
Uta is one of the first female guides in Kosovo, and her company and foundation - the Utalaya Foundation - now organise training programmes encouraging more people of all genders, but especially women, to work in the mountains.
“I got more and more into climbing peaks around Europe and I started doing lots of expeditions in the winter," Ibrahimi recalls. "I did a lot of trips to Turkey, for example, and then in 2016 I went to the Himalayas for the first time, where I did a few 6,000m peaks. Then in 2017, I went back for Mount Everest.”
Mount Everest proved to be just the beginning of the story for Uta Ibrahimi.
The Kosovar climbed the mountain in May 2017, and followed it up by climbing Manaslu, the eight-highest mountain in the world, four months later. She climbed Cho-Oyu and Lhotse in 2018, Gasherbrum I in 2019, and after a covid-inforced break, climbed Annapurna 1, the world’s deadliest mountain, in 2021, with Makalu, Dhaulagiri, Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak and K2 following.
I put so much effort in to be 100% present. I try to feel everything around me and to see and to hear.
“It's very different from one climb to another,” says Uta. “But now, because I have spent so much time on expeditions - in 2023, I went on six expeditions, for example, so I stayed six or seven months in the Himalayas - everything has become much easier. Now, when I pack to leave, I don't need more than three hours to get everything ready. Before, it was three weeks!”
Staying focused is key, regardless of how many mountains you’ve climbed.
“I still try to be very careful, especially when climbing, because sometimes when you think you know everything, then you can get things wrong or end up in a dangerous situation,” she says. “I put so much effort in to be 100% present. I try to feel everything around me and to see and to hear."
The mountains always demand respect.
"A lot of the time we have avalanches," Uta recalls. "I was on Shisha Pangma two years ago [2023] and we lost four people. We have an expression in my language - you have to have four eyes open. You have to be very present and aware.”
After climbing Gasherbrum II in 2024, Ibrahimi went back to summit Shisha Pangma in October 2024 - successfully reaching the summit on that occasion and thus, completing her 13th of the 14 eight-thousanders.
“Now there's only one left,” she says. “I will go at the end of March. Soon.”
I ask how the idea of completing such a long-term project makes Uta feel.
“For sure, I'm going to be sad,” she admits. “It has been such a big part of my life. Every end of March I go somewhere. I'm going to be sad to finish on the Himalayas, but I will also feel a little relieved, because there are so many beautiful places and countries to climb in the world. I have also been to other countries to do ice climbing, but I would like in the future to do shorter trips than two month expeditions, to visit more places and focus more on trail running instead of climbing. Plus, I want to spend more time at home in Sharr.
“All of these years I couldn't plan anything else in life. For a man it's different, because if you're a woman, if you are planning to have a baby, or to do something else in life, you cannot. It's a sacrifice - and I know a lot of people would say 'come on, you're doing this out in the mountains' - but it is still a sacrifice. It has been such a journey that sometimes I cannot believe it. I love training, of course and I would do it anyhow. So I train every day. I go running in the morning and I do crossfit. Every day. Every second or third day I still spend in the mountains.
You should do something that makes you happy. This is what I try to share.
“I haven't planned much, but there are plenty of ways for me to keep myself happy and fulfilled.”
Uta will continue to balance a busy schedule of guiding, climbing and speaking.
“I have become a role model for other girls, which is great,” she says. “So I am not only climbing now, I’m also working with kids in Kosovo and I do a lot of presenting in schools about general equality and protection. I have three books, and I do various projects to empower women, not just in the mountaineering community but also in whatever profession they decide to follow.
“Whatever anybody wants to be, they can be. Three things that helped me to achieve and be where I am today; hard work, love for what you do, and especially consistency. Believe in yourself in whatever you want to do; whatever makes you feel alive and happy, even if it is just a small action like planting a garden - you should do something that makes you happy. This is what I try to share.”
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