Edurne Pasaban

Life and career

Pasaban was born in Tolosa, Spain. She summited her ninth eight-thousander, Broad Peak, on July 12, 2007, together with the Austrian climber Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. On May 1, 2008, Pasaban summited Dhaulagiri, as did Kaltenbrunner the same day again. Both downplayed the aspect of a race between them for the first woman to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. On May 18, 2009, Pasaban climbed the Kangchenjunga with, among others, Juanito Oiarzabal and the Polish climber Kinga Baranowska. With that she exceeded Kaltenbrunner and Nives Meroi and she became the first woman in climbing twelve eight-thousanders. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner equaled her two days later when summited Lhotse. Nives Meroi, an Italian climber, then tried to achieve the summit in the Kangchenjunga, but was forced to abandon the climb when her husband and fellow climber, Romano Benet, began suffering health problems during the ascent.

On April 17, 2010, she added Annapurna to her record, and proceeded directly thereafter to climb Shishapangma, where she completed her quest on May 17.

On April 27, 2010, it was announced that Pasaban might have lost out on becoming the first woman to climb all 14 8,000 meter peaks to Korean climber Oh Eun-sun. However, Pasaban and other experts disputed Oh's summit of Kangchenjunga. Following a conversation between Elizabeth Hawley and Pasaban, Hawley announced that Oh's summit would be marked as "disputed" in future editions of her Himalayan database. On May 3, Oh had an hour long discussion with Hawley in Kathmandu, in which she asked Oh about the details of her Kangchenjunga climb. "Oh will be credited for her climb to Kangchenjunga but the ascent will be marked as disputed," Hawley later told the press. "Her account was completely different from Pasaban's so I really don't know who is right," she added. Hawley reportedly said the Kangchenjunga entry will be switched back to "successful" if the Spanish team withdraws its allegations. Rejecting Pasaban's claims, Oh added, "I believe that according to Pasaban, some Sherpas told her that I hadn't climbed Kangchenjunga. But no names of the Sherpas have been mentioned. Why?" On May 4, 2010 Pasaban mentioned the names of the seven Sherpas involved: "Dawa Ongchu Sherpa, Pema Chiring Sherpa, Chheji Nurbu Sherpa, Dawa Sangge Sherpa, Ong Darchi Sherpa, Cuombi Sherpa and Phurdorchi Sherpa." She declined to give these names earlier as these Sherpas were still working for the Korean climber. Later Pasaban conceded that she was the second woman to climb the 14 highest peaks, but questioned whether the Korean climber had actually conquered them all.

However, on August 29, 2010, it was announced that the South Korean Hiking Federation, after examining the proofs presented by Oh, had refused to acknowledge her Kangchenjunga ascent, accepting the sherpas' version according to which Oh was not able to complete the ascent due to bad weather conditions. Oh later admitted that she had to stop a few hundred meters below the Kangchenjunga summit, and therefore the renowned mountaineering site ExplorersWeb considered on December 10, 2010 that Edurne Pasaban is the first woman that has climbed all fourteen peaks. This would settle down the polemic in favour of Pasaban.

Other women attempting to climb all 8,000 meter peaks include Nives Meroi of Italy, and Go Mi-young of Korea, who fell to her death from a cliff while descending Nanga Parbat after reaching the summit during dangerous weather conditions.

Eight-thousanders climbed