Race To Climb All 14 Eight-thousanders
Pasaban summited her ninth eight-thousander, Broad Peak, on July 12, 2007 together with the Austrian climber Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. On May 1, 2008, Pasaban summited Dhaulagiri, as did Kaltenbrunner the same day again. Both downplayed the aspect of a race between them for the first woman to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. On May 18, 2009, Pasaban climbed the Kangchenjunga with, among others, Juanito Oiarzabal and the Polish climber Kinga Baranowska. With that she exceeded Kaltenbrunner and Nives Meroi and she became the first woman in climbing twelve eight-thousanders. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner equaled her two days later when summited Lhotse. Nives Meroi, then tried to achieve the summit in the Kangchenjunga, had to give up when her husband and fellow climber, Romano Benet, had health problems.
On April 17, 2010, she added Annapurna to her record, and proceeded directly thereafter to climb Shisha Pangma, where she completed her quest on May 17.
On April 27, 2010 it was announced that Pasaban might have lost out on becoming the first woman to climb all 14 8,000 meter peaks to Korean climber Oh Eun-Sun. However, Pasaban and other experts disputed Oh's summit of Kangchenjunga. Following a conversation between Elizabeth Hawley and Pasaban, Hawley announced that Oh's summit would be marked as "disputed" in future editions of her Himalayan database. On May 3, Oh Eun-Sun had an hour long discussion with Elizabeth Hawley in Kathmandu, in which she asked Oh about the details of her Kangchenjunga climb. "Oh will be credited for her climb to Kangchenjunga but the ascent will be marked as disputed," Hawley later told the press. "Her account was completely different from Pasaban's so I really don't know who is right," she added. Hawley reportedly said the Kangchenjunga entry will be switched back to "successful" if the Spanish team withdraws its allegations. Rejecting Pasaban's claims, Oh added, "I believe that according to Pasaban, some Sherpas told her that I hadn't climbed Kangchenjunga. But no names of the Sherpas have been mentioned. Why?" On May 4, 2010 Pasaban mentioned the names of the seven Sherpas involved: "Dawa Ongchu Sherpa, Pema Chiring Sherpa, Chheji Nurbu Sherpa, Dawa Sangge Sherpa, Ong Darchi Sherpa, Cuombi Sherpa and Phurdorchi Sherpa." She declined to give these names earlier as these Sherpas were still working for the Korean climber. Later Pasaban conceded that she was the second woman to climb the 14 highest peaks, but questioned whether the Korean climber had actually conquered them all.
However, on August 29, 2010, it was announced that the South Korean Hiking Federation, after examining the proofs presented by Oh, had refused to acknowledge her Kangchenjunga ascension, accepting the sherpas' version according to which Oh was not able to complete the ascension due to bad weather conditions. Oh Eun-Sun later admitted that she had to stop a few meters below the Kangchenjunga summit, and therefore the renowned mountaineering site ExplorersWeb considered on December 10, 2010 that Edurne Pasaban is the first woman that has climbed all fourteen peaks. This would settle down the polemic in favour of Pasaban.
Other women attempting to climb all 8,000 meter peaks include Nives Meroi from Italy.
Read more about this topic: Edurne Pasaban
Famous quotes containing the words race and/or climb:
“In the race for wealth, a neighbor tries to outdo his neighbor, but this strife is good for men. For the potter envies potter, and the carpenter the carpenter, and the beggar rivals the beggar, and the singer the singer.”
—Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)
“The tops of mountains are among the unfinished parts of the globe, whither it is a slight insult to the gods to climb and pry into their secrets, and try their effect on our humanity. Only daring and insolent men, perchance, go there. Simple races, as savages, do not climb mountains,—their tops are sacred and mysterious tracts never visited by them. Pomola is always angry with those who climb the summit of Ktaadn.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)