Above, Alysa Liu, left, stands at the Mount Everest Base Camp with friends.
By Troy Schwindt
It could be said that Alysa Liu climbed the highest mountain to achieve the title of World champion in March. After two years away from competitive figure skating, the two-time U.S. champion and 2022 Olympian returned from retirement to claim one of figure skating’s most coveted crowns in front of a packed house at TD Garden in Boston.
The soon-to-turn-20-year-old from California, though, has always been able to scale the highest peaks, such as winning a U.S. title at age 13 (the youngest ever), landing a quadruple Lutz at age 14 (the youngest ever), going to the Olympics and securing a World bronze medal at 16.
Fearless and undaunted, Liu lives her life carefree and always up for a challenge.
In May 2023, she joined her best friend, Shay, and Shay’s mother, Eve, to trek to the Mount Everest Base Camp — elevation 17,500 feet. At 29,032 feet, Mount Everest — located between Nepal and Tibet in the Himalaya Mountain range — is considered the tallest point on Earth.
“My best friend’s mom had trekked to base camp before when she was younger,” Liu said. “She decided to take me and my best friend to do it as well.
“It was a fun trip, very difficult, of course. It definitely tested our friendship and our physical strength.”
It takes, on average, two weeks to make the 40-mile trek to base camp, and another four to seven days to return down the mountain. Porters and Sherpas carry equipment and food for the hikers.
“You go up there for weeks and you are not in the best conditions,” Liu said. “It’s not the usual life, but I love that. I loved getting away and experiencing something I’ve always searched for. To date, it’s the best trip I’ve ever been on.”
There was never any talk about not making it to base camp during the journey, Liu said.
“We had to keep going and we really wanted to do it as well,” she said. “The nature around is so pretty; it’s quite motivating. … “It’s really cold, no trees, really rocky. It’s like you are on a different planet.”
Once they reached base camp, it was time to celebrate, right? No, Liu said.
“When we got there, I looked at the stars because you can see everything,” Liu said. “The clusters and different colors that are out there, it’s awesome.”
Check out Liu's cover story in the Summer 2025 edition of SKATING magazine.
