Evelina Tshabalala, Zukiswa Matamo and Nomawethu Nika from Mandela Park informal settlement in Hout Bay, Cape Town are used to making their way through hardship.

That's why they're not daunted by their latest project: to climb the highest mountains on each of the seven continents and, in the process, become the first black women to conquer Everest.

The Journey Begins
Matamo and Nika summited Russia's Mount Elbrus on 9 September 2006. Tshabalala summited Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro on 8 July 2006, followed by Matamo on Women's Day, 9 August and Nika on 9 November.

Next up was Aconcagua in Argentina, South America's tallest peak, summited by Matamo and Nika on 7 January, followed by Tshabalala on 26 February. Australia's Mount Kosciuszko is next in line for the trio, with Tshabalala planning to catch up on Elbrus before or after the Australasia trip.

They've called their project "Isicongo", after the isiZulu word for the top of a mountain.

The Seven Summits
Less than two hundred people have climbed all of the so-called Seven Summits, the highest mountain top on each of the seven continents.

John Reader, in his book Kilimanjaro, describes climbing Africa's highest peak as follows:

"The climb is not difficult in mountaineering terms, you could say it is equivalent to scrambling up a staircase more than three kilometres long. Or you could say that it is equivalent to clambering up the side of nine Empire State Buildings laid end to end at about sixteen degrees.

"But then at 4 710m, where the final ascent of Kilimanjaro begins, there is little more than half the density of oxygen which occurs on Manhattan or at the foot of most staircases. So, in effect, the aspiring climber attempts the equivalent of those feats with the equivalent of only one lung.

"The result is agonising. No other word for it." 

Beating the Odds
Tshabalala, 41, is a single mother, the sole bread-winner in her family, and lives in a one-bedroom shack next to a rubbish dump. She's survived a car accident, the death of her second son - and the news that she's HIV-positive.

She's also an accomplished marathon runner: in 1994 she realised her life-long dream of taking part in the London Marathon, where she placed 25th.

It was running that first brought Tshabalala and Matamo, a domestic worker and mother of three, together in 2003.

Matamo had spent the previous two years struggling to lose the weight she had put on after the birth of her third child. Tshabalala's solution began with a 20-kilometre run.

"After that run I decided I never wanted to see Evelina again," says Matamo. "I kept looking at her and thinking, I'm never running with you again."

Eighteen months later, the two were running marathons together, Matamo had shed 42 kilograms, and the friendship was unbreakable. They remember each others' times for every race they have run together. And Matamo doesn't mind finishing behind Tshabalalo - because she always runs back to keep her company until the finish line.

Then There Were Three
In 2005, Tshabalala and Matamo climbed Table Mountain, and were hooked at once on this lofty new expression of their sporting abilities.

In the same year, Matamo met Nika, also a mother and domestic worker, who had also starting running in order to lose weight.

Matamo encouraged Nika to start running competitively, and within the space of a few months Nika had completed the Winelands Marathon, Two Oceans Half Marathon and Knysna Marathon.

Achieving their new goal will require intense physical and psychological effort - and a fair dose of good luck, especially when it comes to the highest of them all: Mount Everest.

Mountains of the Mind
"What we are doing may be newsworthy because it is a 'first', and no other black women have done this," says Tshabalala.

"But just because it makes the papers, it doesn't make it more important than someone overcoming their own challenges - whether it's getting an education, a promotion, or surviving an ordeal.

"Isicongo is a project that we hope will move others to move their own mountains."

Source: SouthAfrica.info