How Aretha Duarte Discovered Mountaineering at Grade 6
From a 2007 lecture to Aconcagua Base Camp, the athlete pursued a persistent strategy to break into the sport.
Aretha Duarte reflects on her first steps into mountaineering and her four-year journey to join expedition company Grade 6. Discover how curiosity sparked by a lecture turned into a career and opened doors to the high mountains.
Aretha Duarte's mountaineering journey began with the visual impact of a lecture in Campinas at expedition company Grade 6 in 2007. Faced with images of rock climbing and expeditions, her fascination with outdoor sports was immediate, but it came with an uncomfortable realization: why did the sport feel so distant from the reality of the underprivileged neighborhood where she lived?
Determined to climb and lacking the funds to join expeditions as a paying client, Aretha devised a strategic plan to enter the industry: secure a job at the company itself. To build connections with Grade 6 and learn technical fundamentals, she invested in a basic rock climbing course at Pedra Bela, a traditional climbing crag in the Bragança Paulista region.
Earning a permanent role at Grade 6 took four years of persistence. During that time, she worked as a freelancer assisting corporate training sessions led by veteran mountaineer Rodrigo Raineri, keeping her high-altitude dreams in sight until she was formally hired in sales in April 2011.
High-Altitude Debut and the Aconcagua Turning Point
With Grade 6 encouraging employees to experience expeditions firsthand, Aretha soon began supporting guides in the Mantiqueira Mountains. In January 2012, she took on her first high-altitude challenge: Aconcagua Base Camp in Argentina, at roughly 14,100 feet (4,300 meters).
That initial experience brought the physical shock of high altitude, including shortness of breath and head pressure, leaving her questioning on the return trip why people endured such intense discomfort. However, as soon as she rested in Mendoza, the sense of accomplishment took over, confirming her passion for high-altitude environments.
This field experience transformed her work in client support and paved the way for expeditions across South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. For Aretha, the mountains became a life-defining school, sharpening her decision-making, resilience, and teamwork in extreme conditions.