MOUNTAINEERING INFORMATION ARTICLES

Edurne Pasaban: The K2 Snow Girl

Born 1973 in Tolosa, the Basque province of Spain, Edurne Pasaban is distinguished mostly as the only woman summiteer of K2 that is alive today. She is now acclaimed as the leading female high-altitude mountaineer in her time, after exceeding the accomplishments of female pioneer Wanda Rutkiewicz when she summitted eleven of the fourteen eight-thousanders in only a matter of eight years.

She first set off to conquer the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest in 2001. A year after her feat in Everest she moved on to conquer two more eight-thousanders, Makalu and Cho Oyu. In 2003, she moved about to summit Lhotse, Gasherbrum II then Gasherbrum I. It was in 2004 that she set off to conquer the Savage Mountain, K2. Halfway through her quest to conquer all eight-thousanders she set her goal in summitting Nanga Parbat the following year after K2, in 2005. Two years later, on July 12, 2007, Pasaban accidentally summitted Broad Peak or K3 on the border of China and Pakistan, together with Austrian mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. On the first of May in 2008, Pasaban reached her 10th eight-thousander, when she summitted Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest mountain part of the Himalayan subrange in Nepal. Pasaban continued on in her quest to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, with her ascent to the Nepalese Himalayas to Manaslu, the highest mountain in the world after Dhaulagiri.

The only female who remains alive after summitting K2, Pasaban’s fellow female summiteers Rutkiewicz and Mauduit had perished from their climbs after K2, while Barard, Hargreaves and Tullis died in their descent from the Savage Mountain.

Pasaban is yet to conquer Annapurna I, Shisha Pangma and Kangchenjunga, in order to complete her attempt to climb all eight-thousanders in the world. If she accomplishes this, she will be the first woman ever to climb all fourteen of the highest peaks in the world.

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