South Korean media hailed one of the country’s climbers yesterday after she claimed to have become the first woman to scale the world’s 14 highest peaks, ignoring controversy surrounding her bid.
All major newspapers ran a front-page photo of Oh Eun-sun holding a national flag at the snow-covered summit of the 8,091m Annapurna in Nepal.
Oh’s claim to be the first female climber to have conquered all the world’s mountains higher than 8,000m is under scrutiny, however.
Last week her ascent last year of Mount Kanchenjunga on the Nepal-Tibet border was thrown into doubt when a leading authority on Himalayan mountaineering said fellow climbers had expressed skepticism about the climb.
In South Korea, there were no such reservations.
“Your successful ascent [of all 8,000m peaks] was a process of human victory that underscores the meaning of challenge,” President Lee Myung-Bak told Oh in a congratulatory message late on Tuesday.
“You are really admirable,” Lee said, adding the successful ascent brought the spirit of challenge back not only to alpinists but to all South Koreans.
The best-selling Chosun Ilbo newspaper said Oh’s feat “proudly shows the spirit of Korean climbers and Korean women’s courage, patience and strength.”
Mountaineering expert Elizabeth Hawley said in Kathmandu that Oh’s ascent of Kanchenjunga would be considered “disputed.” She said fellow mountaineers, including Oh’s chief rival for the record, Edurne Pasaban, had questioned whether she actually made it to the top.
“I’ll be waiting to meet her when she gets back to hear her version of what she has to say about Kanchenjunga,” Hawley said on Tuesday after hearing of Oh’s ascent of Annapurna.
The picture provided by Oh shows her standing on a bare rock, surrounded by snow, but those taken by Pasaban’s team shows them standing only on snow.
“The confirmation came this year while at the base camp at Annapurna when I met with the Sherpas who climbed with her and they confirmed that they did not reach the peak of Annapurna,” Pasaban said. “When she returns to Kathmandu she will have to prove it, she will be questioned and we will see what happens.”
Oh has previously dismissed the doubts as groundless.
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