A Norwegian woman and her Nepali Sherpa guide have completed the fastest climb of the world’s 14 highest mountains. Kristin Harila, aged 37, and her guide Tenjen Sherpa, aged 35, reached the top of the final mountain, K2, last Thursday.
All the tops the two reached are above 8,000 meters, said Karrar Haidri, the secretary at the Pakistan Alpine Club. They did it in 92 days. The former record-holder, Nirmal Purja, a Nepali-born British citizen, climbed the 14 peaks (顶峰) in 189 days in 2019. Most mountain climbers spend years trying to climb the world’s greatest peaks.
Both climbers topped Shishapangma in the Xizang area of China on April 26. They have since climbed Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu, and Annapurna in Nepal before going to Pakistan, where they climbed Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II and the Broad Peak before topping K2. The company Seven Summit Treks(SST)provided support for the climbers’ efforts.
Garrett Madison of the U. S.-based Madison Mountaineering company is also on K2, leading a different group. He said the climbers used a window of good weather to go to the top of the mountain. “They have done it a short while ago,” Madison told the media, adding that the Norwegian woman was “extremely strong mentally and physically.”
Harila first planned to break the record and climb all 14 top peaks in 2022. However, China confined foreign climbers because of the safety requirement, so Harila was unable to climb two of the 14 peaks.
K2 has one of the most dangerous records for mountaineers, with most deaths happening on the return down. Any wrong move can cause a snowslide (雪崩), and kill. Only a few hundred climbers have successfully reached its top.
And one more climber made that list and set another record on Thursday, reported SST director Tashi Lakpa Sherpa. Seventeen-year-old Nima became the youngest person to climb K2, Tashi said.
【小题1】Which is the key to setting the mountain climbing record for Harila and Sherpa?| A．The way they chose to climb mountains. | B．The number of mountains they climbed. |
| C．The time they spent in climbing mountains. | D．The heights of the mountains they climbed. |
| A．Stopped. | B．Encouraged. | C．Guided. | D．Preferred. |
| A．It may cause life-risks to its climbers. | B．It is locked down for some months a year. |
| C．It is the highest among the 14 mountains. | D．It is the most popular among climbers. |
| A．They climbed the mountains together. | B．They are the new world record makers. |
| C．They climbed fourteen high mountains. | D．They used good weather to climb K2 successfully. |
