Norwegian Kristin Harila, 37, and her Nepali guide Tenjin Sherpa became the fastest climbers on Thursday to climb the 14 peaks over 8,000m on the planet, successfully climbing K2 in Pakistan, their team announced. .
The duo scaled those 14 peaks in three months and one day (92 days), according to a statement from their team. The record was held by the Nepalo-British Nirmal Purja, who had established it with a bang in 2019, in just six months and six days.
He had erased from the tablets the Polish Jerzy Kukuczka who had accomplished these ascents in 7 years, 11 months and 14 days in the 80s.
This record reflects “their steely determination, teamwork and sheer tenacity during this entire monumental undertaking,” their team said in the statement.
“The collaboration between Harila and Lama (Tenjin Sherpa’s nickname) showcased the essence of unity in mountaineering, transcending borders and cultures to achieve excellence together,” she added. .
About forty men and only a few women have reached the 14 peaks culminating above 8,000 meters. Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner, in 1986, was the first to do so.
The duo completed Thursday at K2, the second highest peak on the planet (8,611 m), located in Pakistan, in the Karakoram massif, a quest started on April 26 with the ascent of Shishapangma (8,027 m), in Tibet. , in the Himalayas.
“Kristin said it was a very difficult climb because of the amount of snow. She is grateful and extremely happy to share the record with Lama,” Rigmor Berthier, a member of her team, told AFP. press team.
Last year, Kristin Harila had already tried to break the speed record of 14 “8,000”, but her project had been thwarted by China’s strict fight against Covid-19.
After climbing the first 12 peaks in record time, she hadn’t obtained the necessary permits to climb Shishapangma, which is entirely in Tibet, and Cho Oyu, which mountaineers attack from the Chinese side.
She relaunched her project this year, called “She Moves Mountains”, with a new team of Nepalese guides.
The great mountaineers are mostly men and only a handful of women have distinguished themselves and climbed to the top in this discipline.
Kristin Harila wanted to change the way women climbers are perceived. “I hope this project will be a source of inspiration and make things easier for the girls who will succeed me,” she told AFP in May.
Few women manage to arouse the interest of sponsors. During her first attempt, the Norwegian had so much trouble finding sponsors that she had to sell her apartment to finance her ascents.
“This project would be much easier to carry out if I were a man,” she lamented in the same interview with AFP. “It’s purely and simply different to be a woman in the world, and not only in the eyes of the sponsors.”
Originally from Vadso, in the Barents Sea in the far north of Norway, a town where the highest point is 633 m, Harila was first a high-level cross-country skier.
It was not until 2015, during a trip to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, that she made her first real ascent.
And six years later, she made headlines by becoming the fastest woman to connect the peaks of Everest and Lhotse, in Nepal.
Tenjin Sherpa, who has been a guide since the age of 16, according to their team, brought his “invaluable expertise and (his) deep connection to the mountains”.
Nirmal Purja is currently trying to break the 14-peak ascent speed record, but without the aid of oxygen.
His performance in 2019 had been praised by his peers. But his use of oxygen, fixed ropes, helicopters to go from one base camp to another had also aroused criticism from purists, who had denounced a spectacle of mountaineering, far from the original spirit of the explorers. .
Ms. Harila, who adopted the same modus operandi, did not escape similar controversies. In June when climbing Manaslu, Nepal, she was accused of using helicopters to send her guides to the higher camps, only to have them trace the route back down, which is easier and fast.
27/07/2023 10:46:44 – Islamabad (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
