Saturday, August 28, 2010

Oh Eunsun "probably failed" in bid to reach fourteen highest peaks over 8000 meters

That, says the BBC, is according to the Korea Alpine Federation:
Fresh doubt has been cast on the record of a Korean climber, who was hailed in April as the first woman to climb the world's 14 highest peaks.

Oh Eun-sun "probably failed" to reach the top of the world's third-highest peak, Kangchenjunga, the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) judged on Thursday.

Top Himalayan record keeper Elizabeth Hawley is investigating the KAF ruling.

If she decides to list the 2009 ascent as "unrecognised", the record will pass to Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban.

Ms Oh climbed Annapurna, the last of her 14 mountains above 8,000m, on 27 April. Ms Pasaban completed the list by scaling Shisha Pangma just under three weeks later, on 17 May.

Ms Oh responded to the Korean Alpine Federation's verdict - issued at a meeting of seven local climbers who have scaled the 8,586m mountain - by describing it as "a unilateral opinion".
I had earlier written about Oh Eunsun and suggested that her bid was being heavily scrutinized perhaps as a kind of "Hwang effect," but now as a Korean entity calls her achievement into question (à la MBC and Dr Hwang) it is looking even more and more like Hwang 2.0.

I wonder if anybody should be following the money.

At any rate, here's a neato graphic from the BBC about the fourteen peaks I will probably never ever get to the top of.



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