Norway's Kristin Harila came close to beating Nirmal Purja's record time for climbing all 14 eight-thousanders. Only two peaks were missing. However, since the Chinese authorities refused her permits for Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, her record hunt is over at this point.
Kristin Harila has to bury her dream for the time being of being the fastest person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders in the world. The Norwegian would have had time until November 2nd to list the remaining two 8000m peaks – Cho oyu and Shishapangma – to climb.
Lacking the permits to climb from Chinese territory, her team initially attempted to climb Cho Oyu from Nepal. However, these plans were thwarted by harsh weather conditions. All that remained for Harila was the goodwill of the Chinese authorities, which, however, would not be relented.
"Right now I'm trying to process the past six months, particularly the efforts we have made to get permits for the last two mountains, Cho Oyu and Shishapangma."
Kristin Harila
sequel follows
They left no stone unturned in this process and exhausted all possibilities to get the approval on time, says Kristin Harila. The fact that it didn't work out is something that she finds difficult to deal with.
However, the Norwegian stresses that she will come back and complete her record next year. "I have to find a way to financially support this, but being so close now only makes me more determined to make it happen once and for all."
The stages of the record attempt
- Annapurna I, 8091 m, climbed on April 28th
- Dhaulagiri, 8167 m, climbed May 8th
- Kanchenjunga, 8586m, climbed May 15th
- Mount Everest, 8849 m, climbed on May 22nd
- Lhotse, 8516 m, climbed on May 22nd
- Makalu, 8463 m, climbed May 27th
- Nanga Parbat, 8126 m, climbed on July 1st
- K2, 8611 m., climbed on July 22nd
- Broad Peak, 8051 m, climbed 28 July
- Gasherbrum II, 8080 m, climbed on August 8th
- Gasherbrum I, 8035 m, climbed 11 August
- Manaslu, 8156 m, climbed 22 September
- Cho Oyu, 8201 m
- Shishapangma, 8013 m
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- No summit success on K2: The team around Taiwanese Grace Tseng is back in the base camp
- Nirmal Purja: doubts about credibility | research
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Credits: Cover picture Sandro Gromen Hayes