A South Korean mountaineer hailed as the first woman to climb the world's 14 highest peaks has been stripped of her title, after a mountaineering body claimed evidence she had completed the challenge was "unreliable".

Oh Eun-Sun, 44, "probably failed" to reach the top of the world's third highest mountain Kanchenjunga, according to the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) on Thursday.

The record should now pass to Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban, 37, who scaled the last of the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters barely three weeks after Miss Oh claimed to have completed the list.

Full story.

I guess that if she had the flag in "summit photo" and then later claimed to have lost it on the way up, that would pretty much prove she lied.

If she has no flag with her in the "summit photo" then it may indicate that she was merely mistaken about where she was in the bad weather referred to by the sherpa.

If you lied about something like that, it'd be a helluva thing to know about yourself.

Here's another article that goes on to explain.

Ms. Pasaban cites Oh’s sherpas as well as Oh’s mountaintop photograph that shows her standing on rock, whereas Ms. Pasaban’s mountaintop photo is filled with snow.

Here's the photo. Looks to me like she is holding a flag...



More...

The First to....

BFD!

But, when the first one of these does it, now that will truly be something...

The Chief wrote:The First to....

BFD!

We agree on that Chief!

I suppose she could claim she was carrying two flags, a Korean one and a Black Yak one. But why would you drag the Korean flag out of yer jacket short of the summit but still have your sponsor's flag about your person when you got up there?

I might have missed something here, though. I can't see where it is claimed which flag was found short of the summit. If it was the "Black Yak" flag, well that's pretty much it.

It's a shame in so many ways. I wish I had it in me to get within a handful of metres of the top of Kangchenjunga, so, in my book she's done an amazing thing which I envy. So sad to diminish it by getting carried away with list bagging (if that's what happened)

Oh yeah, and fish were swimming around the Himalayan summits long before mankind dragged himself out of the primordial swamp and sat down to watch TV.

Perhaps she dropped the flag on the way down instead of up. At least that would have been a better story to tell (assuming she made it up).

You'd think the sherpas would know with certainty whether they were on top or not. Wasn't there anyone on the team who had climbed it before?

I guess no one knows for sure whether she made it or not but the evidence looks pretty daming to me. When a mountaineering council comprised of people who have climbed it before say there are no rocks on the summit, and she is standing next to a pile of rocks in her summit shot, then it seems pretty clear she did not make it all the way. On top of that, she refused to meet with them. If I were in her shoes and sure I had made the summit, I'd want to go look those people in the eye and tell them so.

The Chief wrote:The First to....

BFD!

But, when the first one of these does it, now that will truly be something...

When is it not a big deal to climb all of the 8000m peaks? That is a great accomplishment. I doubt your climbing accomplishments compare to either of these 2 women. Anyone who has climbed all of the 8000m peaks definitely deserves some respect. And the first woman to do it has indeed done something very special.

Alpinist wrote:When is it not a big deal to climb all of the 8000m peaks? That is a great accomplishment. I doubt your climbing accomplishments compare to either of these 2 women. Anyone who has climbed all of the 8000m peaks definitely deserves some respect. And the first woman to do it has indeed done something very special.

Like I said, BFD! Neither of those women have ever climbed a a Grade V A5 Route. Thus, in my book, BFD!

Until they do so, they ain't shit.

Jest of my point, so fking what if they are the FIRST women to climb all 8K meter hills on this planet.

It is all relative to ones ambitions and aspirations in this game.

The Chief wrote:It is all relative to ones ambitions and aspirations in this game.

True. And clearly these women aspired to do something you have no interest in doing.

We get it.

redneck wrote:

The Chief wrote:It is all relative to ones ambitions and aspirations in this game.

True. And clearly these women aspired to do something you have no interest in doing.

We get it.

So what.... it makes them no better nor worse than either you nor I just cuz they are the "First" let alone doing it.

Like I said, BFD!

"We're half asleep in a Fake Empire!"



BTW: "We"? Ya got a friend bunny rabbit in your pocket??

redneck wrote:

The Chief wrote:It is all relative to ones ambitions and aspirations in this game.

True. And clearly these women aspired to do something you have no interest in doing.

We get it.

Yeah but what I don't get is why the Chief has to shit on other people's accomplishments. What's the point of that? Or is he just trolling for a response?

Whatever...

Dingus Milktoast wrote:

Alpinist wrote:A South Korean mountaineer hailed as the first woman to climb the world's 14 highest peaks has been stripped of her title, after a mountaineering body claimed evidence she had completed the challenge was "unreliable".

Oh Eun-Sun, 44, "probably failed" to reach the top of the world's third highest mountain Kanchenjunga, according to the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) on Thursday.

The record should now pass to Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban, 37, who scaled the last of the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters barely three weeks after Miss Oh claimed to have completed the list.

Full story.

I'm curious - what TITLE?

Its laughable to think some self-declared regulatory committee has any say at all in who climbed what....

DMT

I'm sure both women want to go down in history as being the first woman to climb all of the 8000m peaks. It looks like the KAF has some influence.

"The ascent has been listed as "disputed" in the authoritative Himalayan Database, a complete record of all the expeditions in the mountain range."

dadndave wrote:I suppose she could claim she was carrying two flags, a Korean one and a Black Yak one. But why would you drag the Korean flag out of yer jacket short of the summit but still have your sponsor's flag about your person when you got up there?

I might have missed something here, though. I can't see where it is claimed which flag was found short of the summit. If it was the "Black Yak" flag, well that's pretty much it.

It's a shame in so many ways. I wish I had it in me to get within a handful of metres of the top of Kangchenjunga, so, in my book she's done an amazing thing which I envy. So sad to diminish it by getting carried away with list bagging (if that's what happened)

Oh yeah, and fish were swimming around the Himalayan summits long before mankind dragged himself out of the primordial swamp and sat down to watch TV.

By then there was no Himalya, nor any summits, so that any claim by fish is highly doubtful!

Alpinist wrote:Yeah but what I don't get is why the Chief has to shit on other people's accomplishments. What's the point of that? Or is he just trolling for a response?

Whatever...

Listen, I've had an AWESOME summer full of great climbs, many of which I've recorded here on SP in climber's logs. None of the peaks I've summitted this summer are much over 7000' and only one of them was an actual technical climb -- and that one weighed in at a monstrous 5.4ish. Would it devastate me if someone belittled my accomplishment? Hell no. I'm much too pleased with my return to health, with the fact that I can now climb not just a flight of stairs without wheezing and sweating but entire mountains (Baring!! w00t!!!), and with the fact that I'm living up to a promise I made to myself to not be a fat, diabetic, desk jockey anymore.

When one brings one's accomplishments out into public view -- especially when that view is the global newsmedia -- one stands to account for a lot of scrutiny, and varying amounts of that scrutiny is fair or pleasant. The global climbing community, as anyone who posts on SP's forums know with crystal clarity, is almost unbelievably demanding. Depending on how you Venn yourself, "demanding" is easily interchangeable with "shitty." Americans shit on French accomplishments. Men shit on women's accomplishments. Trads shit on sporties' accomplishments. Everyone shits on boulderers' accomplishments (but, like the mad monkeys they are, they throw the shit right back).

Did this lady actually summit? Who knows. But the very split second her accomplishment came into question, it became the climbing community's sacred right to start tearing her down. No one who climbs at that level can claim ignorance of this.

Is it right? Is it fair? No, of course it isn't.

You'll notice I avoid wading into the dangerous waters of who gets more torn-down than whom, because, again, this is a subjective matter based on which demographic you choose as your own.

I read way more than I post here because entering the fray so rarely seems worth it ("Women in climbing," anyone?). But every now and again, there's a frickin' gem of a response that needs me to say "hey, that was really great, thanks." If you graph out who posts on the forums against total membership, you'll find that a disproportionally small number of members make the VAST majority of posts. Much of it is spray, but, every now and again, there's gold, and it can't be found anywhere but buried in the lunatic rantings of rabid SP poster.

Alpinist, you know this. You post here enough to not be able to say something like "I had no idea The Chief was so full of bile and vitriol." Of course he is. He's the Chief. But for all the chest-beating and huffing and puffing he does, there is frickin' gold buried in that crazy brain, and through quiet observation of the forums, it can be teased out and we're all richer for it.

Most of the time, I don't respond to threads like this one because of my severe brevity impairment (a disability I've lived with since I learned to speak) and an allergy to TLDR. But the rest of the time it's because I have nothing constructive to add, and pissing back at someone who's being intentionally shitty doesn't do anything except whip up a frenzy of unneeded anger at no one. As an unintended consequence of this new form of social interaction, many people these days use forums to work out personal issues that in previous generations would have remained buried or that would have required professional help. The Chief has been quite forward about some of the help he's receiving, and many here have supported him. To that end, while it's not my style, I have to at the very least agree with his intent in trying to work to become a better, more whole human being through his interactions here.

Is The Chief being a dick in this case? Yeah, clearly, but whatever. It'll never get back to Ms. Maybe-she-did-maybe-she-didn't. Don't let it bring you down. Go outside today, breathe some non-recycled air, revel in Nature's wonder, behold the majesty of our beautiful world, letting insignificant things like this fall away from you.

Plus, I mean really, The Chief climbs aid, and, as everyone knows, aid climbers are f#ckin' nuts, man.