Climbing
The Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila together with Tenjin “Lama” Sherpa, reached the peak of legendary K2 at the Chinese/Pakistani border today, Thursday, July 27, 2023. The pair had conquered Broad Peak on Sunday, July 23, 2023. They had set out in May this year to beat her world record of climbing all 14 true peaks above 8,000m in under six months.
Harila had completed the world record on May 8, 2023, in one year and five days but decided immediately to set out and beat her record again. Harila’s goal had been to do the 14 peaks in under six months, which had been Nirmal Purja’s original record.
Nirmal (also known as Nims or Nimsdai) initially held the world record for climbing the 14 8,00+ peaks, with a time of six months and six days. However, later, it was established that he had not reached the ‘true summit’ of two of the 14 peaks and was forced to re-climb them in 2021, which blew out his record to more than two years. For that reason, Harila’s time of one year and five months became the new official world record.
Harila was determined to beat Nims’ initial world record of six months and six days and now accomplished this goal in 3 months and 1 day, or in total, 92 days.
Kristin’s dad, a sportsman himself, said: “I am both proud and moved. But I am also worried for her, and I will be very happy once she comes down and comes home. I don’t think those of us outside of the climbing community fully understand the breadth of what she has accomplished. And I couldn’t be more proud of her.”
Lama has been Kristin’s trusted guide and companion on this extraordinary journey. He has been an esteemed Sherpa since he was 16 years old. He works for Seven Summit Treks and provided invaluable expertise on this project. Lama is from Makalu and has a wife, Pema Yangi Sherpa, and two teenage boys, Lhakpa Sangae Sherpa and Lhakpa Nurbu Sherpa, in Kathmandu.
