Melissa Arnot is attempting to be the first american woman to summit Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen and will track her effort with the ALPINA Horological Smartwatch

Melissa Arnot 31 year old American Alpininst, Alpina Watches Ambassadress, and current Western women's record holder for Everest summits will attempt, as first American woman, to reach the top of Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen in late May 2015 using the South Col route. As part of her attempt she will be using the Alpina Horological Smartwatch to log her activity and effort of the expedition. She will be monitoring steps, distance, calories and sleep for the entire expedition, including the summit push. 

Mount Everest, also called Sagarmatha (meaning "Head of the Sky" in Nepalese) and Chomolungma (meaning "Goddess Mother of the World", in Tibetan), is the world's highest mountain with its 8.848m (29.029ft). Most climbers climb Everest with supplementary oxygen, because the oxygen levels at that altitude are only 33% of the oxygen at sea level. It takes significantly more time and additional training for a climber to climb without oxygen. Less than 100 summits out of the over 6500 have been accomplished in this pure manner. No other American woman has climbed the Everest without supplementary oxygen. 

"This challenge is a truly personal one that will allow me to push my body and test my own limits. It is the most difficult thing I have attempted in my climbing career thus far and the idea that the limits of possibility are something I can challenge is incredibly inspiring to me. I'm fascinated how my body will react to this challenge and the Alpina Horological Smartwatch will track that performance for and provide a valuable measurement ." 

She is climbing with a very small team of 4 - including her climbing partner, Ben Jones, and expedition photographer, Jon Mancuso, and Ang Nuru Sherpa. All of them except Melissa will climb with the aid of oxygen. 

Melissa is expected to arrive at Everest base camp in these days. From April 18 to the end of May, she and her team will make 3-4 acclimatization climbs up Everest to Camp 2, 3 and 4 - this gets their bodies used to the altitude and the lack of oxygen. This is necessary to make their summit push. When the weather will be perfect, and their bodies are ready, they will make their summit push. This is expected to happen anytime in late May. 

Melissa will wear the Alpina Smartwatch along her entire climb and she will use it to measure her body output during the challenge, with is complementary to her personal challenge. Every day the Alpina Horological Smartwatch will record the main activity and sleep data of Melissa. 

"At Alpina we are all behind Melissa in her extremely difficult attempt and are sure she will perform in an outstanding way. If there is one woman who can succeed it's her. We are also very curious about the data which our Horological Smartwatch will bring back to see what it really takes to get to the top of the Everest without supplementary oxygen" 

Keep track of Melissa's efforts on Facebook and Instagram @melissaarnot @alpinawatches #meliclimbs #Horologicalsmartwatch #smartwatch #alpinawatches