Last year she came close to beating Nirmal Purja's 14×8000 record time. Now Kristin Harila wants to try again - and she goes one better: The Norwegian not only wants to climb all 14 eight-thousanders in the world within a year, she also wants to do it without artificial oxygen.
had 147 days Kristin Harila needed to climb 12 of the 14 eight-thousanders last year. In the end, the missing permits for Cho Oyu and Shishapangma thwarted their record attempt. Even if her disappointment was huge, the Norwegian made it clear even then that she would not stop. Everest Chronicle has now published her latest plans: Kristin Harila wants to climb all 14 eight-thousanders within a year and completely do without bottled oxygen.
Only managed by two alpinists
The significance of this announcement by Kristin Harila is shown by the fact that so far only two women have succeeded: Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner was the first woman to climb all 8000m peaks without artificial oxygen. She needed a total of 13 years (1998 to 2001) for this gigantic undertaking. The second woman to do this so far is the Italian high-altitude climber Nives Meroi (1998 to 2017).
Permits as a risk factor
According to her expedition operator Seven Summit Treks, Kristin Harila and her Sherpa team plan to climb the 8000m peaks in Nepal in the spring and tackle the remaining peaks in Pakistan in the late summer. First up is the 8156 meter high Manaslu.
It is still unclear what the situation will be with the two "problem summits" Cho Oyu and Shishapangma. On his website, high-altitude mountaineering expert Stefan Nestler refers to Kari Kobler's sources in Tibet, according to which there will be no permits for non-Chinese people this spring. In the autumn season, however, the eight-thousanders would open.
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Credits: Cover picture Kristin Harila