Mountain climbing has always fascinated some, and for a few they possess the passion and desire to conquer the World's highest summits, despite the incredible danger each one holds.Â
Mount Everest, since 1921, has claimed the lives of over 330 people, with around 200 of them still there to this day. But that's just Everest - K2, shorter but notoriously more difficult, takes around 25% of all climbers who attempt scale her.Â
There are fourteen mountains on Earth that are called The 'Eight Thousanders' - all above 8,000m - and just twenty people have climbed them all. All of whom are men.Â
But then Basque-born Edurne Pasaban became the 21st.Â
She took to mountaineering at the age of 14 with a local group. At the age of 15 she was scaling the Alps, at 16 the Andes, and the Himalayas at 18. It had always been in her blood. She had considered being an Engineer - something her father did - but mountaineering was her own thing, something she could do for herself. At first he considered it to be nothing more than a hobby, but that very quickly changed.Â
This remarkable feat began, with all mountains, Everest at the age of 28, and culminated nine years later, almost to the exact day in 2010, with Mount Shishapangma in Tibet (which, oddly, is the shortest of the Eight Thousanders).Â
There was, however, a four month long dispute after completing her 14th, where it was claimed that the Korean, Oh Eun-sun, had beaten her to it. Such is the dedication of climbers, a vigorous investigation was launched finally giving Pasaban the World Record as the first woman to complete this near impossible feat. It later transpired that Oh had failed with her attempt of scaling Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas.Â
Her dedication and desire has left her with physical scars - she lost two toes on one climb - and it wasn't until she had completed her 9th, that she knew that all fourteen were within her reach.Â
That dedication lifted her literally and metaphorically on top of the World. She is now a producer making documentaries on climbing; her latest, Chhaupadi, sees her enter the region of Tibet where having a daughter is still considered a disgraceful event. She and four young people from that area attempt to scale the sacred Mount Saipal.Â
