Without saying it, Kristin Harila has established herself as a rival to Nirmal Purja. In 147 days last year, she climbed twelve of the fourteen highest peaks on the planet, with bottled oxygen. Kristin Harila is setting off on another expedition for five to six months. She wants to complete the two summits she is missing and do them twice, so that this year she will complete the fourteen 8000ers without bottled oxygen in less than six months. You read that right: she will climb sixteen 8000. We met her in Norway, where she was invited by the Arctic Ice Festival to unveil her big new project.
She has bright eyes, long and neat nails, dreadlocks put in a low ponytail. Dressed in a plaid shirt and fatigues, Kristin Harila is in a hurry. We understand her: she is planning to leave for Nepal in ten days’ time, and will be there as you read these lines. This 18th of February in Narvik, in this town on the Arctic Circle, invited by the Arctic Ice Festival, she is coming to tell us about her dazzling record attempt to climb the fourteen 8000 – and the next attempt.
Among the Norwegians present this evening are several members of her family, and they don’t know what the young woman is about to reveal. “My first goal is to do the 14 8000 double. I want to finish the two peaks I am missing, Shishapangma and Cho Oyu, at the