“If I intend to change this sport, the best way I can do it is to prove that women are just as capable as men on high mountains,” said female athlete Kristin Harila.
There are 14 mountains on Earth that rise higher than 8,000 meters (26,000 feet). In 2019, Nirmal Purja set a record by skillfully climbing all of these mountains in just 6 months and 6 days. Now, a Norwegian woman named Kristin Harila and her guide, Tenjin Sherpa, have shattered that record, conquering all 14 peaks in just 3 months and 1 day.
Kristin Harila was a professional skier before she took up climbing. Her passion for the sport ignited in 2015 when she took a trip to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
According to Allthatsinteresting, she and Tenjin completed their mission on July 27, when they reached the summit of K2 in Pakistan, after 92 days of executing their plan.
Harila, 37, is a former professional skier who realized her love for climbing after conquering the summit of Kilimanjaro in 2015. However, it took several years before she decided to tackle more challenging peaks.
She told The New York Times that she conceived the idea of conquering the 14 highest peaks in the world while isolated in a hotel room at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was stuck in this room and couldn’t stop thinking about the 8,000-meter peaks on our planet,” she said. “I thought: I am 35 years old, and I really want to climb them all. If I want to do it, I need to do it quickly.”
Harila set out to attempt to climb all 14 peaks in 2022. She completed the first 12 peaks but was unable to access China due to travel restrictions, preventing her from summiting the mountain located in Tibet.
Kristin Harila and Tenjin Sherpa broke the speed record by climbing all 14 peaks higher than 8,000 meters (26,000 feet). During their record-setting journey, Harila had to climb 12 of the mountains twice, including K2, due to delays in obtaining visas from China to summit Shishapangma in Tibet and Cho Oyu, which is typically climbed from the Chinese side.
Eventually, when they reached the last two mountains in April 2023, she decided to climb the previous 12 peaks again to try to break Purja’s record. Therefore, when she and Tenjin reached the summit of Cho Oyu on May 3, they turned back and returned to Makalu I in Nepal, standing on that peak just 10 days later. Five days after that, they summited Kangchenjunga.
On May 23, Harila and Tenjin summited Everest, the highest mountain in the world. From there, they moved to conquer the remaining peaks in their plan, all 14 of which are located in the Karakoram and Himalaya ranges in Tibet, Nepal, and Pakistan.
Conquering the 14 peaks higher than 8,000 meters is a relatively new goal in the climbing world. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the first person to summit all 14 peaks was Reinhold Messner, who took 16 years, from 1970 to 1986, to climb them without supplemental oxygen.
Since then, 53 people have claimed to have summited all 14 peaks higher than 8,000 meters on Earth, although only four of them—all men—are officially recognized, according to The New York Times. As of now, Harila and Tenjin have officially been added to the list of those who have conquered all 14 peaks higher than 8,000 meters.
Of course, Harila and Tenjin’s achievements have not been without controversy. Critics argue that Harila’s use of helicopters to transport supplies and equipment from one camp to another constitutes unfair practice.
In reality, the average climber takes up to two months and tens of thousands of dollars to reach one of the 14 peaks higher than 8,000 meters. It is unclear how much Harila spent to achieve her goal, but reports suggest that her attempt to climb all 14 mountains in 2022 cost $500,000.
Kristin Harila and Tenjin Sherpa achieved their goal at K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth. The previous record was held by British-Nepalese explorer Nirmal Purja, who set it in 2019 with a time of 6 months and 6 days.
However, Harila and Tenjin Sherpa, who have been working on the mountains since they were teenagers, still faced challenges during their conquest. Notable among these were avalanches, altitude sickness, and losing their route over the past three months. According to Harila, K2—the second-highest mountain in the world after Everest—is the hardest mountain to conquer. Standing at 8,611 meters, it has “very tough conditions” and “deep snow”, but ultimately Harila and Tenjin triumphed.
Harila’s father said, “I couldn’t be prouder of her.”
Pakistan is home to 5 of the 14 “super peaks” of the world, and climbing all of these peaks is considered a milestone for any climber. Besides being much harder to climb than Everest and requiring technical skills, K2 is also notorious for its unpredictable weather conditions, and to date, only 425 people have conquered its summit since 1954 – including about 20 women.
