Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila has become the fastest female to climb all 14 mountains above 8,000m, which she completed in 1 year and 5 days. She scaled Shishapangma on April 26 and Cho Oyu on May 3. Had she received permits to climb these two peaks in Tibet last year, she would have become the fastest person to climb all 14 peaks beating Nirmala Purja Nimsdai’s record of 6 months and 6 days. Chinese authorities did not allow climbing permits to her or any other climbers as the country citing the coronavirus pandemic.
Kristin, along with her two climbing companions Dawa Ongju Sherpa and Pasdawa Sherpa, had summited 12 eight-thousanders in Nepal and Pakistan within 148 days last year. As they did not get the visa and permit, they had to pause their project of breaking Nimsdai’s record.
While Kristin set the fastest female 14 peak summiteer record last week by climbing the two mountains from Tibet side, her former companions Dawa Ongju and Pasdawa are left behind. Both of them had aspirations to complete all 14 eight-thousanders although they are no longer guiding Kristin this year. The duo had initially received visa for China only to be canceled two days after its issuance.
“It would have been easy for us to accept this situation had our application been altogether rejected. But we had already gotten the visa which got canceled after two days, which makes us so suspicious and seeking answers,” said Pasdawa Sherpa.
When we reached out to the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu regarding the issue, they stated that “Dawa Ongju Sherpa and Pasdawa Sherpa decided to withdraw the application by themselves while going through approval process.”
“Why would we ever withdraw our application for the visa, which we are after for two years?” said Dawa Ongju Sherpa, adding, “We have never been to the embassy or applied for withdrawal. This time we were processing through another expedition agency, Climbalaya Treks & Expedition, as rope fixing team. They told us that Chinese embassy wanted our passport back. We gave the agency our passport on April 5, which we got back on April 12.”
Climbalaya, however, declined to comment.
After speculations about Kristin’s role in the duo’s visa cancellation surfaced due to Dawa Ongju’s Facebook status, Kristin denied her involvement in canceling their visa in an Instagram post after her Shishapangma summit. “The fact that I got it and not them is, unfortunately, beyond my control. I really wanted them to join me. It was with a heavy heart I realized that I had to leave without them,” read her post.
Pasdawa responded to her post from Everest Base camp. “It breaks my heart to hear all the lies that she is spreading. I don’t know what is the reason behind that. I only wish her all the luck for her goal,” read his Instagram post.
“The agency or somebody must have acted on our behalf. I can’t say why they did it, but they succeeded in stopping two of their own from getting this record,” said Dawa Ongju.
However, the duo are still determined about their 14 peak mission. “We are climbers. We help others to succeed, although this time politics came into play to prevent us from our own success. But we will try next year,” he said.
This year, four foreign climbers and four Nepali climbers got climbing permits and visas for Shishapangma and Cho Oyu from Nepal. Gelje Sherpa, who has summited 13 eight-thousanders, was also denied Chinese visa. He now has only Cho Oyu left for him to enter the 14-peak club.
