Biography

Vibeke "Vibi" Sefland was born in the city of Kristiansand on the southern coast of Norway. She is a mountain climber, expedition guide, adventurer, aid worker and military officer in the Norwegian Armed Forces, and has had voluntary deployments for several “United Nations Peacekeeping Missions” around the globe. She has served more than 25 years in the Norwegian Army and as a coach for the “NATO Centre of Excellence Cold Weather Operations” (COE CWO), she became the main instructor for the first all-female team to cross Antarctica coast to coast. Vibeke is one of only a few Norwegians who have climbed “The 7 Summits” (the highest mountain on each of the 7 continents) and has also mastered 4 of the world’s 14 highest peaks in the world, located in Himalaya (Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Manaslu) with several more on her bucket list. Vibi came to international acclaim and received global media coverage in August 2018 when she led the first Afghan woman to the top of Afghanistan's highest peak (Mount Noshaq, 7492m). She was one of two female guides for the “Ascend: Leadership through Athletics in Afghanistan” project. She took part in rescue missions in the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal earthquakes and since then has combined her own expeditions and UN peacekeeping missions with aid work for local organizations, especially focusing on the empowerment of children and women. In that way, all of her expeditions and missions have been imbued with a greater goal and deeper meaning. She continues to run diverse aid projects in Nepal, Afghanistan, Uganda and South Sudan, some of which she founded.