KAF rejects Ms Oh’s Kangchenjunga climb

The Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) has ruled that Oh Eh Sun ‘probably failed’ to climb the world’s 3rd highest mountain Kangchenjunga, casting further doubt at her claim that she is the first woman to scale the world’s 8000 metre peaks.

The Telegraph reported that a panel of seven mountaineers from the Korean Alpine Federation gave their verdict after examining a body of evidence including photographs taken of Miss Oh supposedly on the top of the 8586m mountain in May 2009.

Oh completed her tour of the 14 summits in April 2010, when she climbed Annapurna, only weeks before Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban climbed Shisha Pangma, her final 8000 metre summit.

Pasaban initially passed doubt over Oh’s Kangchenjunga’s summit photograph with Mz Hawley, the authority on Himalayan climbing records while Miss Oh was ascending Annapurna.

Now the KAF argues that there is no convincing photograph of Ms Oh on the summit, and have questioned whether she could have finished the last 200m or so of the climb in the time available to her.

"All of the participants shared the view that the landscape shown in Oh's two alleged photoshots throughout the entire ascent doesn't seem to match the actual landscape," explained KAF secretary general Lee Eui-Jae.

"They also agreed that Oh's previous explanations on the process of her ascent to Kanchenjunga are unreliable," he said.

The decision supports Ms Oh’s Sherpa allegations who claimed that the team had been affected by bad weather conditions.

Doubts started after the next team to climb Kanchenjunga reported finding Miss Oh's Korean flag under some stones some 50m to 60m below the summit. She later explained that she had lost it on the way up.

Miss Oh shrugged off the Alpine Federation's verdict by describing it as "a unilateral opinion".

The ascent has been listed as "disputed" in Mz Hawley’s Himalayan Database. Hawley noted it may have been a genuine mistake rather than deliberate cheating on the part of Ms Oh.

"I'm sure she's not lying. She just believed her guide and had great confidence in him," Miss Hawley said.

Pasaban has submitted 14 photos as proof of her climbs to the database, all of which have been accepted.

Source article: First woman to climb world's highest peaks stripped of title by Fiona Govan (The Telegraph)

Image: Oh Eun-Sun standing near the base camp of the Himalayan peak of Annapurna in Nepal Photo: GETTY