It was not meant to be a „race“ between Edurne Pasaban, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Nives Meroi two years ago. But since the Korean ladies Oh Eun-Sun and Go Mi-Sun climbed one 8000er after the other, everything has changed. Now Edurne Pasaban and Oh Eun-Sun have thirteen of the fourteen each and Miss Oh could finish the “race” on Annapurna within the next days.

Since quite a while some doubts were discussed among climbers especially concerning the ascent in stormy weather on Kangchenjunga last year, but nobody wanted to talk about it in public. But now Ferran Latorre published his doubts, after one Sherpa climber told Edurne Pasaban just recently, that he would know, that they did not go to the summit. After a long conversation between Elizabeth Hawley and Edurne Pasaban it’s now up to Miss Hawley to clear it in detail. At the moment the summit is marked as ”disputed”. She will ask the three Sherpa climbers again and also Miss Oh after her return from Annapurna. It is possible, that it might be marked as “unrecognized”, when all facts are finally cleared.

The achievement to be the first woman on all 14 8000ers is a big one and it should be cleared exactly, if there are reasonable doubts.

In the mean time Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner is attempting the North Face of Everest with her husband Ralf Dujmovits without bottled oxygen.

Ferran Latorre
BBC
Overview about the TOP 5 ladies

Edurne's website published the news yesterday. She climbed her 13th 8000er! Now she only needs Shisha Pangma to finish the 14! Nacho Orviz (8000er Nr. 5), Alex Txikon (7) and Asier Izaguirre (5) also summited and Portuguese climber João Garcia finished the 14! The four relevant tables are already updated in the Download section!

Original source