Oh Eun-sun Faces Another Uphill Battle

By Park Si-soo

Staff Reporter

In search of the truth or jealousy of a champion?

Oh Eun-sun has finally conquered the world's 14 highest peaks but faces another uphill battle: clearing doubts over her scaling of one of the 14 mountains.

The moment after Oh became the world's first woman to achieve the feat after scaling the 8,091-meter Annapurna Tuesday, her Spanish rival and some European media outlets began to question her achievement.

They argue the 44-year-old Korean's claim to have reached the top of the 8,586-meter Kanchenjunga on the Nepal-Tibet border in May 2009 is "not true" with related photos and testimony as evidence.

Oh's supporters deny the suspicion, calling the allegation "groundless."

With the accusations showing no sign of letting up, Elizabeth Hawley, an 86-year-old American mountaineering journalist, is expected to help settle the allegations. The American has lived in Nepal since 1963, compiling climbing statistics and making a sort of final ruling on disputed records.

"I'll be waiting to meet her when she gets back to hear her version of what she has to say about Kanchenjunga," Hawley told AFP Tuesday after hearing of Oh's ascent of Annapurna.

The Korean's Spanish rival Edurne Pasaban said she would respect Hawley's ruling on the issue.

Oh, is currently on her way back to a lower camp at 5,100 meters, where scores of reporters from around the world are eagerly awaiting her appearance, according to Park Eun-joo, a spokeswoman for Black Yak, a sportswear maker in Seoul that is sponsoring Oh's historic expedition. "Her arrival is expected Thursday," Park said.

In fact, the dispute over her conquering Kanchenjunga has lingered for months. To contain mushrooming doubt sparked by some peers at home and abroad, Oh held a rare media briefing in Seoul last December.

"All suspicions are completely wrong," Oh said, fighting against tears at that time. "I really conquered the mountain. I do not climb mountains to set new records, but for my own pleasure and self-satisfaction."

Among Korean climbers in support of the suspicion were veteran male climber Huh Young-ho and Kim Jae-soo. They were not immediately available for comments.

The following are five disputed points raised by the BBC:

1. The summit photographs

A photo that Oh claimed was taken at the top of Kanchenjunga is so blurry that it's unrecognizable where exactly it was taken. Hawley said in an interview the photograph is "clearly" not taken at the summit, because "summit pictures of other people on the same mountain in the same season show them standing in the snow," while Oh was standing on a bare rock.

2. The Sherpas

One of the Sherpas who accompanied Oh on the ascent of Kanchenjunga assured journalists at a press conference in Korea in 2009 that Oh had reached the top ― he told Hawley's assistant the same thing. However, Pasaban says Oh's other Sherpas have told her this is not correct.

3. The rope

The summit photograph shows a green rope stretching over Oh's left boot. Spanish climber Ferran Latorre, who climbed to the summit of Kangchenjunga with Pasaban 12 days after Oh, has suggested that this is a rope fixed to the mountain by her Sherpas. He says this fixed rope went no higher than 8,350m, and concludes that the photograph was taken some 200 meters or so below the 8,586m summit. Oh's aides responded that the rope in the picture is a 5mm rope used for attaching accessories ― in this case, probably an ice axe ― rather than used for climbing.

4. The flag

Oh was carrying a Korean flag to the summit. It was found by the next climbers to scale Kanchenjunga ― Norwegian climber Jon Gangdal, and his Swedish climbing partner ― weighted down by four stones, about 50-60 meters below the summit. Oh's aides say Oh mislaid the flag during the climb. The fact that it was found above 8,350 meters is "clear counter evidence" that helps to rebut the suggestion she stopped 200 meters below the summit, they say.

5. The timing

Oh's progress was being monitored from the base camp using a telescopic lens until about 2 p.m. in the afternoon of May 6, 2009, when bad weather obscured the view. Critics have suggested that she must have made "unbelievably rapid" progress in the remaining three hours and 40 minutes it took her to reach the summit. Oh's aides estimate she was at a height of about 8,300-8,400 meters when she disappeared from view ― in other words from 286 meters to 186 meters below the summit. Experts with knowledge of Kanchenjunga say a climber using bottled oxygen would have been able to cover this distance reasonably easily in three to four hours ― but it would have been, at the least, a brisk pace for anyone climbing without bottled oxygen.

오은선 힘든 싸움

산악인 오은선(44) 대장의 여성 첫 히말라야 8000m 14좌 완등 기록에 제동이 걸렸다. 여성 첫 히말라야 8,000m 14좌 완등 경쟁을 벌인 스페인 산악인 에두르네 파사반(36)이 오 대장의 캉첸중가(8603m) 등정 성공에 27일(이하 현지시간) 또 의문을 제기한 것이다.

파사반은 티베트 시샤팡마에서 공영 라디오를 통해 지난해 오 대장의 등정 직후 자신도 캉첸중가에 올랐으나 오 대장의 사진에는 자신이 촬영한 사진과는 달리 눈 덮이지 않은 돌이 보여 의문을 갖기 시작했다고 말했다. 파사반은 오 대장이 카트만두에 돌아와 캉첸중가 등정을 증명해야만 하고, 이와 관련된 질문을 받는 것을 지켜볼 것이라고 밝혔다.