Edurne Pasaban the first European and second woman in the world to complete the 14x8000ers.

Shisha Pangma summit debrief and pics: Edurne Pasaban ultimate 8000er.

Posted: May 18, 2010 01:00 pm EST
(ExWeb/Madrid) “I just can’t assume the fact that I am done,” Edurne Pasaban told ExplorersWeb over Sat-phone earlier today from BC. “Sure, I am happy to be safely back in BC after summiting a 8000+ meter peak – just like after any other climb! I’m trying to get a different feeling this time, but everything looks just the same… Oh boy, I think it’ll take some time for the feat to settle down in my mind! Surely, once back home…”

At 1:50pm Nepal Time today Edurne and the rest of Al Filo de lo Imposible team members entered Shisha Pangma BC, thus crossing the finish line of a 12 years-long project. In her fifth attempt on Shisha and precisely one month after summiting Annapurna, Spanish Edurne Pasaban (36) has become the first European and second woman in the world to complete the 14x8000ers.

“Hey it’s not that I am not happy! I am actually elated. But, I think “14x8000ers” and lots of people come to my mind. My parents, friends, climbing mates, supporters – crowds to be grateful to. I am looking around and watching the expedition Doc checking the sherpas, the camera crew sending over images, my mates… There’s much people involved in this – yeah, I summited the peaks, but otherwise I am just a part of a large team project.”

Summit day in Iñaki’s footprints

“Summit day was great – everything went just smoothly” Pasaban recalls. “We had planned to set off at 4 am, but wind was blowing hard at the time, so we decided to wait until dawn. It worked: as sun rose, wind dropped. Then we left C3.”

“Mingma, Asier and I took the lead and broke trail along the traverse below the summit ridge,” said Edurne. “We followed Iñaki route, but not losing altitude as he was forced to do back in 2006 – conditions were so good that we just traversed in a slightly ascending direction, until we reached the couloir Iñaki had used to gain the summit ridge.”

“Conditions at the couloir were, at first, perfect: hard snow. On top we met some more fresh snow, but not for long anyway. The couloir leads to a small saddle – right where the British route from the south side ends. I looked at my watch and I couldn´t believe my eyes: It was 9.00am! I had been worried because that was the first time I had set off on a summit day after dawn; then I realized we had plenty of time.”

“It was also great that we had chosen to climb Iñaki route: the summit ridge was unclimbable: sharp, dangerous with fragile snow slabs, and extremely long! The meters we walked on the edge from the saddle to the summit and back were the scariest in the entire climb.”

Home-sick

Descent was also fast and uneventful. Pasaban team retrieved their gear from C3 and pitched the tents again in C2 (they had no previously set higher camps) still in daylight. Today they took their time and returned in great weather conditions.

“The yaks are coming tomorrow, we will return to Nyalam Thursday, and hopefully hit back KTM on Friday,” Edurne said. “We’re on our 75th day of expedition; it’s getting too long! I am fine, since my parents have come to greet me in Kathmandu and so I am looking forward to meeting them – but my mates are missing their families quite a lot.”

All teams back in BC

Besides Edurne, summiteers were: Pasaban mates Nacho Orviz, Asier Itaguirre, Alex Chicon (Txicon), Mingma Sherpa and Pasang Sherpa; Italians Mario Panzeri and Michele Compagnoni (Alberto eventually turned back); Spanish J, Ramon Madariaga, Isabel garcía, Roberto Rodrigo and Jaume Gibernau, plus a 69 years old Japanese climber, on O2 and together with two sherpas. It is unconfirmed whether the Italian and Madariaga teams were accompanied by sherpas as well.

Al Filo team members were first to reach BC today, according to the expedition doctor Pablo Diaz-Munio, while other teams showed up later in the day. “As they arrived, I checked some climbers with health problems: One shows sympthoms of HAPE, two sustain very sore throaths, other two are seriously dehydrated and another climber feared to be frostbitten (it doesn´t seems so) – nothing too serious, thanks God,” Pablo stated.

A keen mountaineer since she was a child in the Spanish Basque Country, Edurne Pasaban (Tolosa, 1973) soon gained experience in the Alps and Andes’ ranges before her jump into the Himalayan scene: Her first 8000er was Everest, summited in 2001.

Five more huge peaks among the so-called 14 8000ers added up in the following two years: Makalu, Cho Oyu, Lhotse and the Gasherbrums.

In 2004, Edurne joined Spanish TV’s “Al Filo de lo Imposible” (On the Edge of the Impossible) documentary series for an attempt on K2. She succeeded, but at a high toll: frostbites suffered on descent in extreme conditions cost her two toes.

Nevertheless, she also won over Nanga Parbat in 2005 and Broad Peak in 2007.

It was when she counted nine out of 14 summit under her belt, that she entirely focused on completing the “14×8000 Challenge”, together with team-mates Asier Izaguirre, Alez Chicon, Ferran Latorre, and Ignacio Delgado as manager. Thus Manaslu and Dhaulagiri followed in 2008, and Kangchenjunga in 2009. This current year, Edurne jumped on a double-header bet, comprising the highly dangerous Annapurna and Shisha Pangma (which she had already attempted four times!), teaming up with the usual mates plus nacho orviz, who substituded Ferran Latorre (injured on a partial ski descent on Anna).

The gambling paid off and May17th at 11.30am Nepal Time, she became 14x8000er summiteer.

* Website spanish climber: Edurne Pasaban

Climbers who have reached the summit of all 14 eight-thousanders

Field 0₂ lists people who have peaked all 14 without bottled oxygen.

Order accomplished	All without O2 (order)	Name	Period	born	at age	Nationality
1	1	Reinhold Messner	1970-1986	1944	42	Italian
2		Jerzy Kukuczka	1979-1987	1948	39	Polish
3	2	Erhard Loretan	1982-1995	1959	36	Swiss
4		Carlos Carsolio	1985-1996	1962	33	Mexican
5		Krzysztof Wielicki	1980-1996	1950	46	Polish
6	3	Juanito Oiarzabal	1985-1999	1956	43	Spanish
7		Sergio Martini	1983-2000	1949	51	Italian
8		Young Seok Park	1993-2001	1963	38	Korean
9		Hong Gil Um	1988-2001	1960[6]	40	Korean
10	4	Alberto Iñurrategi	1991-2002[7]	1968	33	Spanish
11		Wang Yong Han	1994-2003	1966	37	Korean
12	5[8]	Ed Viesturs	1989-2005	1959	46	American
13	6[9][10][11]	Silvio Mondinelli	1993-2007	1958	49	Italian
14	7[12]	Ivan Vallejo	1997-2008	1959	49	Ecuador
15	8 [13]	Denis Urubko	2000-2009	1973	35	Kazakhstan
16		Ralf Dujmovits	1990-2009	1961[14]	47	German
17	9	Veikka Gustafsson	1993-2009	1968	41	Finnish
18	[16]	Andrew Lock	1993-2009	1961	48	Australia
19	10	João Garcia	1993-2010	1967	43	Portuguese
20		Piotr Pustelnik	1990-2010	1951	59	Polish
21	[21]	Oh Eun-Sun	1997-2010	1966	44	Korean
22		Edurne Pasaban	2001-2010	1973	36	Spanish

*See:

– Edurne Pasaban

** Previous story :

– Veikka Gustafsson completes the 14×8000ers list!

– Andrew Lock completes the 14×8000ers list!

– Oh Eun-Sun summits Annapurna – becomes the first woman 14x8000er summiteer!

– Piotr Pustelnik summits Annapurna – bags the 14x8000ers!

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