Korean Climbers Score 8,000-Meter Hat Trick in Nepal

Everest News reports that South Korean alpinists Go Mi-sun and Kim Jae-soo became the first climbers to ever get an 8,000-meter-peak hat trick by summitting three of the big boys in a single season. Quite an achievement since it’s pretty tough for even the best mountaineers to score one in a season, especially given the vargaries of weather and danger.

The pair first climbed Makalu, reaching the summit on April 30, bagged Kangchenguna’s summit on May 19, then raced up Dhaulagiri. They stood atop it in the late afternoon of June 9. Everest News reports that Go Mi-sun, also a superb rock climber (I photographed her at the X-Games one summer), said in an email: “Dhaulagiri was the toughest of all my ten eight-thousand-meter climbs. We climbed for 25 hours non-stop from camp III to summit and back due to tough weather conditions with ice shower constantly hitting our faces.”

While Kim Jae-soo has climbed 11 of the world’s highest mountains, Go Mi-sun has knocked off her ten summits in a mere two-and-half years. This puts her in the top five women in the world vying to become the first female alpinist to reach the summits of all 14 8,000-meter peaks. Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbruner and Italian Nives Morei each have climbed 12 of the peaks.

The dark horse Kim Mi-sun appears, however, to have the inside edge on the other women. Right now she is en route to Pakistan and on to the lofty Karakoram range where she plans to nab Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, and Nanga Parbet this summer, leaving only Annapurna on her list…which she plans to climb later this year if she’s fortunate enough to bag the Karakoram three.

I wish her luck and safe climbing on this dangerous climbing endeavor, as well as a safe and speedy passage through the war zone in Pakistan.

Photograph above: Go Mi-sun is on track to finish the 8,000-meter peaks by the end of 2009. Photograph courtesy Benrasse/Montagne