Edurne Pasaban

Edurne Pasaban Lizarribar (born August 1, 1973) is a Basque Spanish mountaineer. On May 17, 2010, she became the first woman to climb all 14 of the eight-thousanders – and the 21st person to do so. Her first 8,000 peak had been achieved 9 years earlier, on May 23, 2001, when she reached the summit of Mount Everest. She has also completed the seven summits.

Life and career

Pasaban was born in Tolosa in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain.

Climbing

She summited her ninth eight-thousander, Broad Peak, on July 12, 2007, together with the Austrian climber Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. On May 1, 2008, Pasaban summited Dhaulagiri, as did Kaltenbrunner the same day again. Both downplayed the aspect of a race between them for the first woman to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. On May 18, 2009, Pasaban climbed Kangchenjunga with, among others, Juanito Oiarzabal and the Polish climber Kinga Baranowska. With that she exceeded Kaltenbrunner and Nives Meroi and she became the first woman to climb twelve eight-thousanders. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner equaled her two days later when summited Lhotse. Nives Meroi, an Italian climber, then tried to reach the summit of Kangchenjunga, but was forced to abandon the climb when her husband and fellow climber, Romano Benet, began suffering health problems during the ascent.

On April 17, 2010, she added Annapurna to her record, and proceeded directly thereafter to climb Shishapangma, where she completed her quest on May 17.