Mountaineer Sophie Lavaud on Monday became the first French person to have reached the summit of all 14 of the world’s peaks over 8,000 metres.
The 55-year-old, who climbs with oxygen, achieved the feat after ascending Nanga Parbat, nicknamed "killer mountain", in the Pakistan Himalayas.
“Our entire expedition team managed to climb Mount Nanga Parbat, which rises to 8,126 metres,” operator Chhang Dawa Sherpa, which was in charge of the ascent, announced on social media.
It is understood the group of some 20 experienced mountaineers reached the summit at 9.15am local time after 12 hours of climbing in difficult conditions.
"The more I climb these big mountains, the more I realize that we are nothing in the face of the immensity of the Himalayas," Lavaud told AFP a few days before her Nanga Parbat ascent.
11-year journey
Lavaud’s achievement comes more than 11 years after she climbed her first peak Cho Oyu, on the border between Tibet, China and Nepal, in 2012 – followed by Everest, the world’s highest mountain at 8,848 metres in 2014.
She grew up in Argentière in the French Alps (Haute-Savoie) region and also holds Swiss and Canadian nationalities.
Last spring she successfully climbed Shishapangma, at 8,027 metres, in Tibet. “I only have one mountain left to climb to complete the project that I started 11 years ago,” she said at the time.
Lavaud joins the very exclusive club of a few dozen mountaineers – including a handful of women – who have climbed the world’s so-called “eight thousanders”.
French mountaineers Benoît Chamoux, Jean-Christophe Lafaille and even Chantal Mauduit have failed in their attempt at the challenge.
