First woman to climb all 8,000-m mountains (legacy)

On 17 May 2010, Edurne Pasaban Lizarribar (Spain) became the first woman to climb all 14 of the mountains over 8,000 m (26,246 ft). She began her conquest of the "8,000ers" by reaching the top of Everest on 23 May 2001 and completed the challenge by summitting Shisha Pangma in Tibet, the lowest of the 14 peaks. Pasaban finally won the race between various female mountaineers aiming for this title, namely Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner (Austria) and Nives Meroi (Italy).

Pasaban's historic "first" draws a line under the controversy surrounding this record, as Korea's Oh Eun-Sun had her claim on the title rejected, following revelations that her summit of Kanchenjunga was not completed owing to bad weather. Miss Oh finally admitted that she had stopped short of the peak, paving the way for Pasaban's claim to the being the first female to successfully summit all 14 peaks.