Edurne Pasaban is a Spanish mountaineer. She is considered the first woman to have conquered the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters, a feat achieved to date by only a few dozen climbers.
Passion for mountaineering
Edurne Pasaban was born on August 1, 1973 in Tolosa, northern Spain. At the age of 14, she started mountaineering with the Tolosa mountain club and began to do some ascents in the Pyrenees.
In 1989, at the age of 16, she left for the Alps where she climbed Mont Blanc (4810 meters), the Matterhorn (4478) and Mont Rose (4634 meters). At the age of 17, in the Andes, she overcomes the Chimborazo, a volcano in Ecuador culminating at 6,268 meters. Between 94 and 96, she climbed many other peaks in the Andes. In 1998, she attempted the ascent of Everest for the first time but had to give up.
The ascent of Everest
On May 23, 2001, Edurne Pasaban achieved his first 8000 meters by climbing Everest (8848 meters), with the occasional help of artificial oxygen. It will take him nine years to conquer the thirteen other peaks over 8,000 meters, ending on May 17, 2010 with the ascent of Shishapangma (8,013 meters).
Edurne is then recognized as the first woman to achieve 14 summits over 8,000 meters. In April 2010, South Korean Oh Eun-sun claimed the feat, but her ascent of Kangchenjunga is disputed due to lack of evidence of her summit. On August 23, 2011, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner became the first woman to achieve this without the assistance of artificial oxygen.