14 peaks in 92 days
Early Mountaineering (2015-2021)
In 2015 Harila won a trip to climb Kilimanjaro (5 895m). This marks the start of her climbing career. In 2019 Harila quit her job to climb mountains full time. [11]
In May 2021, Harila became the fastest woman to climb Mount Everest and Lhotse in under twelve hours. [12]
First World Record Attempt (2022)
In April 2022 Harila started her first attempt to set a new world record for fastest climbing the 14 highest mountains in the world. The previous record belongs to Nirmal Purja who ascended all the world's 14 8000m peaks in 6 months and 6 days. [13]
28 April 2022 Harila summited Annapurna I, becoming the first Norwegian woman to reach the top. Mount Everest and Lhotse were her third and fourth mountain in the attempt. She beat her own record on the same day, moving between the two tops in 8 hours and 35 minutes. [14]
She came close to beating Purja's record time for climbing all 14 8000m peaks with only two peaks missing. However, Chinese authorities refused her permits to climb Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, due to covid-19 restrictions. [15] Harila's first attempt to beat the previous world record ended on 28th of October 2022.
World record (2023)
On 27 July 2023, Harila and her climbing partner Tenjen Sherpa, established a new record summiting all 14 8000m in just 92 days. [7] [16] [1] [17] [2] In the process, Kristin and Tenjen broke multiple records, including 26 8000m summits in one year and three months and also the fastest Mount Everest and Lhotse summits by a female, in eight hours. [5] [6]
They used helicopters to move between base camps and added supplemental oxygen. [15] In the 2023 project, she planned to scale the mountains without supplemental oxygen, although ultimately she did use oxygen cylinders due to safety concerns. [7] [16]
Controversies
Following her ascent of K2, which completed a record-breaking climb of all 14 true geographic peaks in just 92 days, controversy erupted over the death of a Pakistani high-altitude porter, 27-year-old Muhammad Hassan [18] in a dangerous passage at K2 known as the Bottleneck. [19] Hassan was assigned to a rope fixing team working in the Bottleneck, at an altitude of about 8,200 m (26,900 ft), [20] though he was not wearing a down suit or carrying supplemental oxygen. [21] [22] According to Harila, her team found Hassan tangled in his rope after falling from the pass around 2:15am. Harila's team worked for 90 minutes to pull Hassan back onto the path, after which Harila left to assist her team who were caught in an avalanche further up. Harila's cameraman stayed with the injured porter and shared his oxygen for another hour before his own supply ran low and he was forced to rejoin the team. [18] [23] [24] [25] A video published in the days after Harila's ascent showed unidentified climbers walking over Hassan in bright daylight as he lay on the ledge, [26] leading critics to accuse Harila of leaving Hassan to die in pursuit of her world record. [23] Harila denied the allegations as she passed through bottleneck in the night and the footage physically couldn't be of her, and as she tried to help as best she could. An official with the Gilgit-Baltistan local government observed that no rescue was possible due to poor weather conditions. [27]
Authorities in Gilgit-Baltistan subsequently launched an investigation into Hassan's death. [24] [18] The investigation was completed in September 2023, which led to Lela Peak Expeditions, Hassan's employer, being banned from managing teams in Gilgit-Baltistan for the next two years. The ban came as a result of not providing a porter with adequate equipment, hiring an inexperienced porter to go up the mountain, and not insuring him. [28] In the report they also state that "no team or individual was found culpable for the death of Mr. Muhammad Hassan." [29]
The Lama Sherpa Foundation
7 October 2023, just 2 months after setting the world record with Kristin Harila, Tenjen passed away in an avalanche on Shishepangma guiding American mountainclimber Gina Marie Rzucidlo. [30]
In memory of Tenjen, and to continue working for the causes he was passionate about, Harila founded The Lama Sherpa Foundation. The foundation aims to bring awareness and resources to sherpas, porters, guides, cooks and other workers in the Himalayas that work on mountaineering expeditions. [31]
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