Trailblazers The inspiring people we met around the world this year

From an exuberant mountaineer to a woman defiantly facing the guns of war, here are some of the brave individuals who gave us hope in a tumultuous 2024

- Sarah Johnson, Mark Townsend, Thaslima Begum, Caroline Kimeu, Kaamil Ahmed, Kat Lay, Eromo Egbejule, Isabel Choat, Fred Harter, Saeed Kamali Dehga, Aung Naing Soe

The Bolivian mountaineer who scaled new heights

Nine years ago, Cecilia Llusco was one of 11 Indigenous women who made it to the summit of the 6,088m-high Huayna Potosí in Bolivia. They called themselves the cholitas escaladoras (the climbing cholitas) and they went on to scale many more mountains in Bolivia and South America. The word cholita comes from chola which was previously used as a pejorative term for Indigenous Aymara women.

In August, I travelled to Bolivia for a three-day expedition up Huayna Potosí with Llusco, 39, who, along with many of her fellow cholitas escaladoras, now works as a guide. She first started working in tourism at the age of eight, alongside her father, a trekking guide.

Llusco takes enormous pride in being an Indigenous woman and always goes up mountains wearing her pollera, a voluminous floral skirt, over layers of petticoats. Watching her ascend an ice wall wearing crampons and a helmet, and holding two pickaxes, while her skirt and petticoats billowed in the wind, was unforgettable.

She and her peers have faced discrimination for being Indigenous women and for daring to reach the tops of mountains. But despite everything, Llusco is full of an infectious joyful exuberance when out in nature. And her belief in the strength of others, particularly women, is steadfast and reassuring. Sarah Johnson

The woman who stared down the guns in Chad

She strode across the border, back straight, face raised towards the burning sky. A soldier from Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) turned towards her.

Nadifa Ismail slowed, staring him straight in the eye. Weeks earlier the RSF had executed her only son, burned down her home, raped her friends. She kept looking at the man and his gun. The man, eventually, backed off.