Spanish climber hopes to be named record holder

Spain’s Edurne Pasaban said yesterday she hopes to be recognised as the first woman to have climbed the world’s 14 highest peaks, after official doubts were expressed over a claim by her South Korean rival.

South Korean Oh Eun-Sun claimed the record after her April 27 ascent of the 8,091m Annapurna in Nepal, the last of the world’s 14 mountains over 8,000m she said she had conquered.

But the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) ruled on Thursday that Oh probably failed to reach the top of one of the peaks, Mount Kanchenjunga on the Nepal-Tibet border, in May 2009.

Pasaban last May became the second woman to claim the feat, after scaling the 8,027m Shisha Pangma in China’s Tibet region.

She has since challenged Oh’s claim to the record, saying there was no conclusive proof that the Korean reached the summit of Kanchenjunga.

Pasaban said yesterday that she was reassured by the Korean federation’s announcement.

“This confirmation (by the KAF) eases my mind as it shows that it’s not only me who is saying that, after receiving information from several sherpas,” she said.

She said she didn’t know what the “next step” would be in order for her to be named as the record holder, as there is no official organisation that validates such exploits, but hoped that American expert Elizabeth Hawley would “take some kind of position on this.”

Hawley, regarded as the leading authority on Himalayan mountaineering in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, heads a team that compiles the Himalayan Database, an authoritative account of all major climbs in the region.

Oh has said she sent a video to Hawley proving she reached the top of Kanchenjunga.

Pasaban, 36, declined to openly claim the record for herself.

“What I can say is that I climbed the 14 peaks of more than 8,000m and that I have provided proof,” she said.

Oh, 44, has refused to accept the decision by the KAF, which has said it could meet again if the climber provided clearer evidence.

The KAF meeting came after a Korean local television, SBS, aired a special programme last Saturday casting doubts on Oh’s claim.

The programme highlighted anomalies in photos provided by Oh and interviews with sherpas, local climbers and Hawley.

Legendary Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner became the first man to achieve the 14-peak feat in 1986. The 14 mountains are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges.

via Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper – Europe/World.