After Hiker, 17, Suffered 'Hallucinations' in Mt. Everest's 'Death Zone,' She Was Forced to Make a Heartbreaking Decision (Exclusive)

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As a little girl, Bianca Adler would sit cross-legged on the floor, flipping through her family’s picture books of Mount Everest — mesmerized by the snow-dusted peaks and climbers standing at the top of the world. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is beautiful,’ ” she recalls to PEOPLE. Her fascination was fueled by her parents’ expeditions to Everest in 2006 and 2007. Adventure, it seemed, was in her blood.

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00:00Both of my parents have actually climbed Everest before.

00:03They raised my brother and I just with a big value for outdoor experience.

00:19I had it always in the back of my mind ever since I was really little,

00:23but I hadn't done enough climbing to sort of understand what that really means

00:29to climb Everest.

00:46The start of the Everest expedition is a trek from to Everest base camp,

00:50which a lot of people do.

00:52So it's about 10 days of hiking.

00:59Once we reach camp three, we need to start using the bottled oxygen because there is such

01:15little oxygen up there.

01:17And even when we use the bottled oxygen, it doesn't feel like it's really doing much.

01:22It's still, it feels horrible really.

01:25You're in what's called the death zone above 8,000 meters.

01:43And that's just where no human can really survive for an extended period of time.

01:49Just because there is such little oxygen.

01:52There's only about 30% of the oxygen that there is down here.

02:05Climbing up this steep face, there's wind blowing snow everywhere.

02:11I couldn't see anything, it's pitch black because the sun had just set.

02:28I didn't want to risk my hands or my toes or my life for just a potential summit of Everest.

02:34And I knew I wanted to keep climbing for the rest of my life.

02:37I didn't want to, you know, risk not being able to climb again.

02:51My face looked very, very burnt.

02:54It looked very dark on my cheeks because of all of the snow blowing on my face

02:59and just sort of burning my skin a little bit.

03:01I did not expect them to sort of get as many views as they did.

03:17And it just makes me so happy that more people and more girls are getting out in the outdoors

03:22and challenging themselves and doing something new.

03:25And I think that, yeah, that really, really means a lot to me.

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