A Norwegian woman and her sherpa guide climbed Mount K2 in Pakistan on July 27 – their 14th highest mountain in just over three months – becoming the world’s fastest climbers to climb all peaks above 8,000 metre (26,246 feet) in the shortest time.
Kristin Harila, 37, and Nepal’s Tenjen (Lama) Sherpa, 35, scaled K2, which is the world’s second highest peak at 8,611 metres (28,251 feet) with eight other guides, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, said an official of their Nepali organising company, Seven Summit Treks (SST) in Kathmandu. They had scaled Shishapangma in Tibet region of China on April 26.
The climbers have beaten the earlier fastest climbing record of Nepal’s Nirmal Purja, who scaled all peaks in six months and one week in 2019. Both climbers have since scaled Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu, and Annapurna in Nepal before proceeding to Pakistan, where they climbed Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II and the Broad Peak before topping K2, completing all 14 in 92 days.
One of the sherpas, the 17-year-old Nima Rinjin Sherpa, also became the youngest to climb K2.
Kristin Harila is a former professional skier. Even though her team’s climb has been witnessed by other climbers, their achievement is yet to be confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records.
