Oh Eun-Sun
Encyclopedia
Oh Eun-Sun is a South Korean female mountaineer
Mountaineer
-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...

. She is the first Korean woman to climb the Seven Summits
Seven Summits
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Summiting all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first postulated as such and achieved on April 30, 1985 by Richard Bass .-Definition:...

. On April 27, 2010, she reached the Annapurna
Annapurna
Annapurna is a section of the Himalayas in north-central Nepal that includes Annapurna I, thirteen additional peaks over and 16 more over ....

 summit -- the mountain with the highest fatality/death rate -- and claimed she had climbed all fourteen eight-thousander
Eight-thousander
The eight-thousanders are the fourteen independent mountains on Earth that are more than high above sea level. They are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia....

s, which would have made her the first woman to achieve this feat, but her claim to have ascended Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain of the world with an elevation of and located along the India-Nepal border in the Himalayas.Kangchenjunga is also the name of the section of the Himalayas and means "The Five Treasures of Snows", as it contains five peaks, four of them over...

 was disputed by multiple experts. One of her Sherpas, Dawa Wangchuk, later admitted that the group stopped about 150 meters below the Kangchenjunga summit because of high winds and poor visibility, and the Korean Alpine Federation ruled that she did not climb that peak. Edurne Pasaban
Edurne Pasaban
Edurne Pasaban Lizarribar is a Basque Spanish mountaineer, from the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country. On May 17, 2010, she became the 21st person and the first woman to climb all of the fourteen eight-thousander peaks in the World...

 is therefore considered the first woman that has climbed all fourteen peaks.

Race to complete all 14 eight-thousanders

On July 17, 1997, Oh summitted Gasherbrum II
Gasherbrum II
Gasherbrum II , also known as K4, is the 13th highest mountain on Earth, located on the border of Gilgit-Baltistan province, Pakistan and Xinjiang, China...

 without supplementary oxygen, completing her first climb to a summit of over 8,000 meters. Over the next several years, she attempted several eight-thousanders without success. In 2004, she climbed Mount Everest
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...

 with the aid of supplementary oxygen. In 2006, she added scaling Shisha Pangma to her list of accomplishments. At the time, two women, Edurne Pasabán
Edurne Pasaban
Edurne Pasaban Lizarribar is a Basque Spanish mountaineer, from the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country. On May 17, 2010, she became the 21st person and the first woman to climb all of the fourteen eight-thousander peaks in the World...

 and Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner is an Austrian mountaineer. In August 2011, she became the second woman to climb the fourteen eight-thousanders, and the first woman to do so without the use of supplementary oxygen....

, had completed nine different eight-thousanders to Oh's three. In 2007, she conquered Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu is the sixth highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu lies in the Himalayas and is 20 km west of Mount Everest, at the border between China and Nepal...

 and K2
K2
K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest...

, bringing her total 8000ers to five. Two other women achieved their 10th such climb that year. In 2008, Oh added four more 8000+ meter climbs, while the leaders in the chase for all 14 added only one each.

On May 6, 2009, Oh claimed to have summited Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain of the world with an elevation of and located along the India-Nepal border in the Himalayas.Kangchenjunga is also the name of the section of the Himalayas and means "The Five Treasures of Snows", as it contains five peaks, four of them over...

, the world's third-highest mountain (see below). In so doing, she became just the third woman to conquer the mountain and first from Korea. The accomplishment also made her the first woman to scale the world's five highest peaks. It was her 10th different 8000er. On August 3, 2009, Oh reached the summit of Gasherbrum I
Gasherbrum I
Gasherbrum I , also known as Hidden Peak or K5, is the 11th highest peak on Earth, located on the Pakistan-China border in Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan and Xinjiang region of China. Gasherbrum I is part of the Gasherbrum massif, located in the Karakoram region of the Himalaya...

 after a twelve hour climb from Camp 3. In so doing, she became the first woman to summit 13 different 8000 m mountains.

In April 2010, Oh made her second attempt at climbing Annapurna
Annapurna
Annapurna is a section of the Himalayas in north-central Nepal that includes Annapurna I, thirteen additional peaks over and 16 more over ....

, the last of the eight-thousanders. A previous attempt in October 2009 came up 500 meters short when a blizzard made further ascent impossible. As she approached the top, strong winds and snow delayed further ascent. On April 23, Oh reached camp C3, located at 6,400 m, but was forced to retreat the next day due to wind. She announced that she would delay her summit attempt. On April 26, Oh took 11 hours to climb from C2 (5,600m) to C4. On April 27, 2010, Oh left camp C4 located at 7,200 meters on Annapurna. Thirteen hours later, she reached the summit at 3:15pm local time, completing her quest. Upon reaching the peak, she planted a South Korean flag, waved to the camera which was broadcasting the climb live, and thanked her fellow Koreans for being with her throughout the whole expedition. She was accompanied by five other climbers. Congratulating Oh on her accomplishment, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak
Lee Myung-bak
Lee Myung-bak is the President of South Korea. Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the mayor of Seoul. He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother is Lee Sang-deuk, a South Korean politician. He attends the...

 said, "She showed us what challenge means". Oh completed her descent from Annapurna on May 3.

Accomplishment disputed

Oh's 2009 summit of Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain of the world with an elevation of and located along the India-Nepal border in the Himalayas.Kangchenjunga is also the name of the section of the Himalayas and means "The Five Treasures of Snows", as it contains five peaks, four of them over...

 has been questioned, throwing her accomplishment into doubt. The dispute stems from a photograph said to have been taken by Oh at the summit which is too blurry to confirm exactly where she stood when she took it. The photo is the only visible evidence she has of her ascent. After doubts were first raised in Korea, Oh held a press conference in which she tearfully remarked that the blurriness "was unavoidable due to fog and a violent snowstorm." One of the Sherpa
Sherpa people
The Sherpa are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, high in the Himalayas. Sherpas migrated from the Kham region in eastern Tibet to Nepal within the last 300–400 years.The initial mountainous migration from Tibet was a search for beyul...

s who accompanied her on the climb assured the media that he knew the layout of the mountain well from previous climbs and that Oh had indeed made the summit.

In April 2010, Oh's main rival, Edurne Pasaban
Edurne Pasaban
Edurne Pasaban Lizarribar is a Basque Spanish mountaineer, from the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country. On May 17, 2010, she became the 21st person and the first woman to climb all of the fourteen eight-thousander peaks in the World...

 from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, who was also aiming to become the first woman to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, weighed in on the controversy. Pasabán spoke with Oh and her team while descending Annapurna, Pasabán's thirteenth eight-thousander. After Pasabán spoke with Elizabeth Hawley
Elizabeth Hawley
"Miss Hawley" redirects here. For other people of the same name see Hawley.Elizabeth Hawley is an American former journalist and chronicler of Himalayan expeditions. She traveled to Nepal in September 1960 and never left.She was educated at the University of Michigan...

 upon descending, Hawley agreed to mark Oh's summit of Kangchenjunga as "disputed" in her Himalayan Database. On April 24, Hawley explained her decision, "The only picture that anyone has seen shows Miss Oh standing on bare rock. But Miss Pasabán (who was on the mountain at the same time) showed me a picture of her team on the summit, and they are standing on snow." She added that "of the three Sherpas that climbed with Miss Oh, two have said she did not reach the summit." The latter comment apparently stems from conversations Pasabán had with said Sherpas while on Annapurna. Although her data is unofficial, Hawley is considered the final arbiter on such disputes. Hawley still counts the climb as valid, but plans to do further investigation. Ferran Latorre, a Spanish climber, claimed that the green rope affixed to the mountain by Oh's team (visible in the picture) stopped 200 meters short of the summit. Eberhard Jurgalski of 8000ers.com, a website devoted to keeping mountaineering records, said, "It's all mixed up, you cannot say what is true and what's invented." On April 27, 2010, Nepal Mountaineering Association president Ang Tshering said, "We recognize [Oh's] achievement as the first woman climber to scale all the highest mountains in the world." 8000ers.com also credits Oh with having completed all fourteen eight-thousanders. The Nepalese government
Government of Nepal
The Government of Nepal, or Nepal Government, is the executive body and the Central government of Nepal. Prior to the abolition of Monarchy in Nepal, was officially known as His Majesty's Government....

 also stated that it believes Oh climbed Kangchenjunga.

ExplorersWeb looked into the disputed summit in detail in 2009, before it made headlines, and concluded that the dispute was based largely on third parties confusing Go Mi-Young
Go Mi-Young
Go Mi-Young, was a South Korean female mountaineer.Together with Kim Jae-Soo, she became one of the first climbers to summit three 8,000-meter peaks in a single season when they climbed Makalu, Kangchenjunga, and Dhaulagiri in six weeks.On July 12, 2009, after reaching the top of Nanga Parbat, she...

's team, who was climbing at the same time, with Oh's, and a misunderstanding about the starting point of Oh's final push. The organization concluded that "doubts about Miss Oh's Kanchen summit were not backed by enough fact", but said it would happy to review any new evidence the involved parties had to offer. Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol "whose astonishing feats on Everest and on peaks throughout the world have earned him the status of the greatest climber in history." He is renowned for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without...

, the first person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, also acknowledged Oh's achievement after meeting with her.
Response

On April 26, Oh's sponsor responded on her behalf while she was climbing Annapurna. According to a press release by Black Yak, there were several teams on the mountain at the time and none of them doubted Oh's summit then. At the time, Pasabán herself wrote "Korean Oh Eun Sun just reached the top in spite of the wind." The release goes on to say the Kangchenjunga summit is not visible by telescope even during good weather, so it was not surprising no one can visually verify Oh's summit. It states that Oh was last seen at 8,400 m 3 hours and 40 minutes before the claimed summit time. Veteran climbers have said that that is a realistic time frame. Finally, according to the release, the final 200 meters of the mountain are "comparatively gentle, so fixed rope is not a necessary option". Others, including Pasabán, have scaled that portion of the mountain without the use of fixed rope. For her part, Pasabán remarked, "I am confused. Had I known this so-called race was going to be such a mess, I would have thought twice before getting involved."

After descending from Annapurna, Oh addressed the allegations on May 3. "I am really sad that it has come to this," she said. Oh claimed that Korea's KBS Television had video and picture evidence of her summit that had not yet been made public. Rejecting Pasabán's claims, Oh added, "I believe that according to Pasabán, some Sherpas told her that I hadn't climbed Kangchenjunga. But no names of the Sherpas have been mentioned. Why?" On May 4, Pasabán specified the names of seven Sherpas involved. She declined to give these names earlier as some of these Sherpas were still working for Oh. Oh has no plans to re-climb Kangchenjunga.
Acknowledgement by Hawley

On May 3, 2009, Oh had an hour-long discussion with Elizabeth Hawley in Kathmandu, in which she asked Oh about the details of her Kangchenjunga climb. At the conclusion of the interview, Hawley asked Oh if she had really conquered all 14 eight-thousanders, to which Oh replied. "Yes, I did." Hawley reportedly replied "Congratulations", indicating the feat would continue to be acknowledged. "Oh will be credited for her climb to Kangchenjunga," she later told the press. "Her account was completely different from Pasabán's so I really don't know who is right," she added. Hawley's database will continue to list the climb as disputed unless Pasabán withdraws her complaint. Pasabán had previously said she would respect Hawley's decision either way. On May 23 Pasabán conceded that she was the second woman to climb world's 14 highest peaks, but still questioned whether Oh actually held the record.

Hawley stated "I think it's likely that Miss Oh's climb is going to be disputed for the rest of her life" and that evidence was "piling up" against her.

Korean Alpine Federation statement

On August 26, 2010 the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) judged that Oh "probably failed" to reach the top of Kangchenjunga. The KAF secretary general, Lee Eui-Jae, said participants in the meeting all shared the view that Miss Oh's photographs on Kangchenjunga did not "seem to match the actual landscape" and that "Oh's previous explanations on the process of her ascent to Kangchenjunga are unreliable".

Oh responded to the verdict by describing it as "a unilateral opinion" and adding that all participants in the meeting - seven Korean climbers who had scaled Kangchenjunga previously - "were climbers who had doubts about my achievement from the beginning, so their conclusion must have been already set".

Hawley declared, "it would seem her only choice now is to go back and climb it again with lots of clear photos".

Next team to reach the peak

BBC News also reported on 27 August 2010 that "A member of the next team to reach the peak of Kangchenjunga, in May 2009, the Norwegian climber Jon Gangdal, says he found Ms Oh's Korean flag weighed down by stones, some 50m or 60m below the summit."

Climbing strategy and inspiration

Oh has used helicopters to travel between base camps, and employed teams to prepare for her ascents in advance. She is under the sponsorship of Black Yak, a South Korean outdoor product maker. She has been nicknamed "Iron Woman" and "Squirrel" for her climbing accomplishments. Oh was criticized for failing to come to the aid of ailing Spanish climber Tolo Calafat, who died on Annapurna while waiting for help. Oh responded that she was unaware that Calafat was sick until after she had descended and was no longer able to help. "We reached the summit around 3 p.m. and the Spanish climber got there an hour later. By the time we got back down to Camp 4 we were all exhausted," Oh said, adding that she "really wanted" to help but was "not in a state to climb [the seven hours back] up the slopes and rescue him." Experienced climbers say rescues at high altitudes are almost impossible and can put more lives in danger.

Oh lists former rival Go Mi-Young
Go Mi-Young
Go Mi-Young, was a South Korean female mountaineer.Together with Kim Jae-Soo, she became one of the first climbers to summit three 8,000-meter peaks in a single season when they climbed Makalu, Kangchenjunga, and Dhaulagiri in six weeks.On July 12, 2009, after reaching the top of Nanga Parbat, she...

, who plummeted to her death in 2009 after completing 11 eight-thousanders, as a source of inspiration. She has described mountain climbing as a sort of "addiction, which is much stronger than any drug."

Personal life

Before taking up climbing, Oh studied engineering at the University of Suwon
University of Suwon
The University of Suwon is a university in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It was founded by the Kowoon Foundation in 1977 and its current president is Dr...

 in Gyeonggi Province. After completing the 14 eight-thousanders, she said she would take a break from climbing for three to four years. "The last few years have been too tiring, now I am going to rest," she said. She plans to attend graduate school and do charity work during her break.

Mountaineering accomplishments

Eight-thousanders
  • Gasherbrum II
    Gasherbrum II
    Gasherbrum II , also known as K4, is the 13th highest mountain on Earth, located on the border of Gilgit-Baltistan province, Pakistan and Xinjiang, China...

     - July 17, 1997
  • Everest
    Mount Everest
    Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...

     (with supplementary oxygen) - May 20, 2004
  • Shisha Pangma - October 3, 2006
  • Cho Oyu
    Cho Oyu
    Cho Oyu is the sixth highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu lies in the Himalayas and is 20 km west of Mount Everest, at the border between China and Nepal...

     - May 8, 2007
  • K2 (with supplementary oxygen) - July 20, 2007
  • Makalu
    Makalu
    Makalu is the fifth highest mountain in the world at and is located southeast of Mount Everest, on the border between Nepal and China...

     - May 13, 2008
  • Lhotse
    Lhotse
    Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain on Earth and is connected to Everest via the South Col. In addition to the main summit at 8,516 metres above sea level, Lhotse Middle is and Lhotse Shar is...

     - May 26, 2008
  • Broad Peak
    Broad Peak
    Broad Peak , is the 12th highest mountain on Earth, with an elevation of 8,051 meters . The literal translation of "Broad Peak" to Faichan Kangri is not accepted among the Balti people.- Geography :...

     - July 31, 2008
  • Manaslu
    Manaslu
    Manaslu , also known as Kutang) is the eighth highest mountain in the world, and is located in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in the west-central part of Nepal. Its name, which means "Mountain of the Spirit", comes from the Sanskrit word Manasa, meaning "intellect" or "soul"...

     - October 12, 2008
  • Kangchenjunga
    Kangchenjunga
    Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain of the world with an elevation of and located along the India-Nepal border in the Himalayas.Kangchenjunga is also the name of the section of the Himalayas and means "The Five Treasures of Snows", as it contains five peaks, four of them over...

     (disputed) - May 6, 2009
  • Dhaulagiri
    Dhaulagiri
    Dhaulagiri is Earth's seventh highest mountain at ; one of fourteen over eight thousand metres. Dhaulagiri was first climbed May 13, 1960 by a Swiss/Austrian expedition....

     - May 21, 2009
  • Nanga Parbat
    Nanga Parbat
    Nanga Parbat is the ninth highest mountain on Earth, the second highest mountain in Pakistan and among the eight-thousanders with a summit elevation of 8,126 meters...

     - July 10, 2009
  • Gasherbrum I
    Gasherbrum I
    Gasherbrum I , also known as Hidden Peak or K5, is the 11th highest peak on Earth, located on the Pakistan-China border in Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan and Xinjiang region of China. Gasherbrum I is part of the Gasherbrum massif, located in the Karakoram region of the Himalaya...

     - October 3, 2009
  • Annapurna
    Annapurna
    Annapurna is a section of the Himalayas in north-central Nepal that includes Annapurna I, thirteen additional peaks over and 16 more over ....

     - April 27, 2010


Seven Summits
  • 2002 Elbrus
    Mount Elbrus
    Mount Elbrus is an inactive volcano located in the western Caucasus mountain range, in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, Russia, near the border of Georgia. Mt. Elbrus's peak is the highest in the Caucasus, in Russia...

  • 2003 McKinley
    Mount McKinley
    Mount McKinley or Denali in Alaska, United States is the highest mountain peak in North America and the United States, with a summit elevation of above sea level. It is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.- Geology and features :Mount McKinley is a granitic pluton...

  • 2004 Aconcagua
    Aconcagua
    Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas at . It is located in the Andes mountain range, in the Argentine province of Mendoza and it lies west by north of its capital, the city of Mendoza. The summit is also located about 5 kilometres from San Juan Province and 15 kilometres from the...

  • 2004 Kilimanjaro
    Mount Kilimanjaro
    Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is a dormant volcano in Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania and the highest mountain in Africa at above sea level .-Geology:...

  • 2004 Vinson Massif
    Vinson Massif
    Vinson Massif is the highest mountain of Antarctica, lying in the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains, which stand above the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located about from the South Pole and is about long and wide. At the highest point is Mount...

  • 2004 Kosciuszko
    Mount Kosciuszko
    Mount Kosciuszko is a mountain located in the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko National Park. With a height of 2,228 metres above sea level, it is the highest mountain in Australia...

  • 2004 Everest
    Mount Everest
    Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...


External links

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