Italian climber Nives Meroi is gearing to become the first woman to climb 11 of the world's 14 highest mountains.
When they set off for the top of Himalayan peak Makalu on Christmas Eve, Meroi and husband Romano Benet will also be aiming to pull off the first midwinter ascent of the mountain known as Big Black.
''We know what to expect: short days, high winds, biting snow, cold, and more cold. But with the help of our crack Kazakh team we think we can do it,'' Meroi told the website montagna.tv.
''We'll be going up the so-called 'normal' way, over the north-west ridge,'' she added.
The last winter attempt on Makalu, on the same route, was by Frenchman Jean-Christophe Lafaille in January 2006.
Lafaille died near the summit.
The 47-year-old record-breaker from Tarvisio in Italy's northeastern mountains climbed Everest in June to conquer her tenth 8,000 metre-high peak.
In all, there are 14 of these in the world.
Meroi is vying with Austria's Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, who caught up with her mark two months ago, and Basque climber Edurne Pasaban who has climbed nine.
In June Meroi also became the first Italian woman to conquer Everest without oxygen tanks or high-altitude bearers - the so-called 'Alpine way'.
She'll be taking the same approach to Makalu.
With her conquest of the world's highest mountain, Meroi managed to beat three of the world's 8,000m-high peaks in less than a year.
The others were world No.2 K2 and No.7 Dhaulagiri.
After Makalu (No.5), the three left for Meroi to achieve her feat are No.3 Kangchenjunga, No.8 Manaslu and No.10 Annapurna.
The eight-thousanders are all in the Himalayan or Karakoram ranges in Nepal, Nepal/Tibet, Pakistan and Pakistan/China.
