Adriana Brownlee sets another record as she scales K2 with Gelje Sherpa
British climber Adriana Brownlee summits K2 becoming the youngest female mountaineer to summit 10 peaks above 8000m in the world.
British climber Adriana Brownlee on Thursday stood atop Mount K2 (8,611m) along with her climbing companion renowned Nepali climbing guide Gelje Sherpa, becoming the youngest female mountaineer to climb 10 eight-thousand-meter peaks of the world.
As for Gelje, who has already climbed 13 out of the 14 peaks above 8000m, it was his second summit of K2.
“We reached the summit at 6.25 am local time,” Gelje told Everest Chronicle over a video call from the top of K2. “We will be heading to Gasherbrum next”, he said.
This is the seventh 8,000er for both of them this season. They summited Nanga Parbat (8,125m), on July 2 and Broad Peak (8,051m) on July 20 in Pakistan.
This spring, they had summited Annapurna (8,091m), Kanchenjunga (8,586m), Lhotse (8,516m) and Makalu (8,485m) in Nepal.
21-year-old Adriana wants to become the youngest mountaineer in the world to summit all 14 peaks above 8,000.
Gasherbrum I (8,080m) and II (8,034m) in Pakistan, Cho Oyu (8,188m) in Nepal and Shishapangma (8,027m) are the remaining mountains for her to achieve the title.
Cho Oyu is the only peak left for Gejle to summit to join the 14 peaks club of elite mountaineers. There are 44 mountaineer who summited all 14 peaks above 8,000m.
Questions are raised about the summit of Manaslu and Shishapangma after Mingma G last year reached the real summit of Manaslu. Most of the climbers only used to reach the fore summit of Manaslu. Similarly, Shishapangma’s real summit is also extremely difficult to reach.
Mingma Gyabu Sherpa is the youngest person to summit all 14 peaks above 8,000m, who achieved the feat at the age of 30. Adriana will be 23 when she climbs all 14 peaks.
Gelje has an even more ambitious target: to become the youngest mountaineer to make double ascent of all 14 peaks above 8,000m. So far, he has made double ascent of eight 8,000ers.
Now this record-setting duo will go on to attempt Gasherbrum.
Lone Ukrainian climber Antonina Samoilova also made it to the summit of K2. Earlier, she summited Mount Everest (8,848.86m) on May. According to the Seven Summit Treks, Polish climber Dorota Lidia also made it to the summit. Earlier, she summited Annapurna (8,091m), Kangchenjunga (8,586m), Lhotse (8,516m) and Makalu (8,484m) in Spring, and Nanga Parbat, and Broad Peak this summer. Nepali climbers Nima Dorchi and Sona Sherpa also summited the savage mountain.
