Kristin Harila: Fearless Woman On Her Journey Towards 14 Peaks

Kristin Harila is a Norwegian mountaineer who has reflected courage, strength, and passion throughout her life journey. She is the fastest woman on the verge of completing the ascent of 14 peaks above 8000m on May 3, 2023.

She is determined to prove her goal of being the first person to complete the 14-peak summit in less than six months, beating Nimsdai Purja.

Kristin Harila: A Mountaineer’s Journey

A former professional skier who also worked as a women’s prison guard and an executive for a furniture company began her quest to set the record for the fastest completion of all 14 summits in 2015.

According to records, her first expedition was to Africa’s 5,895-meter-high Mount Kilimanjaro in 2015. She successfully climbed Dhaulagiri VII (7,246 meters) and Lobuche East (6,119 meters) in 2019. In 2020, she continued her journey and was successful in scaling Finnmarksvidda (5,370 meters), Co Adolfo Calle (4,270 meters), and Aconcagua (6,961 meters). In 2021, she completed the summits of Mount Everest (8848.86 meters), Lhotse (8516 meters), Island Peak (6189 meters), and Ama Dablam (6812 meters), located in Nepal.

In 2022, she set a goal of beating Nimsdai Purja by completing the 14 summits in less than six months. On April 28, 2022, she climbed Mt. Annapurna I, the tenth-highest mountain in the world, to kick off her journey. Kristin summited Mt. Manaslu on September 22, 2022, completing her 12th 8000er in less than five months.

She was almost there, proving that women can do anything, including beating men on the world’s highest peaks. However, because of the Coronavirus, China denied her visa application, and she could not complete two summits, Cho Oyu (8,818 meters) and Shishapangma (8,027 meters).

Read more:

• 24 Mountaineers Summited Nanga Parbat Without Oxygen
• Mingma Sherpa: First Nepali To Climb14 Peaks Above 8000m
• Nepali Mountaineer Gelje Sherpa

In 2022, she was able to conquer the following peaks:

Kristin Harila: She is unstoppable.

The 37-year-old climber will not stop until she reaches the summit of the 14-peak range in less than six months. In an interview, she claims that she can complete the task in half the time, beating the current record. And, given her recent accomplishments, she may be successful.

On April 24, 2023, she embarked on her thrilling journey from Shishapangma (8,027 m). She recently completed the 11th summit of Gasherbrum II (8,035 m) on July 15.

The table below displays the precise time she reached each of the 14 peaks’ 11 summits.

Now all she needs to do to meet her target is conquer these remaining peaks, i.e.,

Gasherbrum I (8068 m), Broad Peak (804 m), and K2 (8611 m/8250 ft) before October.

Journey to the base camp

She is shattering all records and opening doors for female mountaineers in a field once largely dominated by men. But getting this far was not easy.

It is not a cheap journey, so Kristin needed a sponsor. She spent months looking for sponsors to pay for her expedition, which she claimed cost around $500,000. By the time she was set to depart Norway and begin her expedition last spring, she had not yet acquired any. But she did not give up under such circumstances. Instead, she decided to sell her apartment, bestowing the entire profit on her passion. She quit her job, made preparations for her trip to Nepal, and left to fulfill her dream.

She did not secure her primary sponsor, Bremont, until she arrived in Nepal and was preparing to summit the Annapurna mountain. Bremont is sponsoring her through 2022 and is supporting her throughout her journey now.

 

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A post shared by Kristin Harila (@kristin.harila)

She is making history

She is setting one record after another. By ascending all 14 mountains above 8000 feet in just one year and five days following her successful ascent of Cho Oyu on May 3rd, 2023, Kristin Harila has broken the previous “True Summit Speed Record with Oxygen”.

She is the fastest woman to ascend Lhotse and Everest in less than eight hours, breaking her record on May 23, 2023. As of June 10, 2023, Kristin Harila and Nepali Sherpa climber Tenjen Sherpa had successfully scaled nine mountains higher than 8,000 meters in just 45 days.

In 2022, Kristin also received the European Adventurer of the Year award in Munich, Germany. At the event, she was referred to as someone on her way to becoming a mountain legend.

Kristin’s early childhood

Kristin was born on March 28, 1986, in Norway. Kristin Jonassen Harila grew up on a farm in Vadsø. She has been very athletic since her childhood. By 11, she was driving, and by 16, she was cross-country skiing. She placed 44th and 46th in two Norwegian Championships while skiing for her club, IL Polarstjernen. She got inspiration from her father, John Peter, who is a tough athlete and skier himself.

To pursue her dream, Kristin quit her senior management position at Skeidar in the spring of 2019. And in 2021, she accomplished a mountaineering feat that set a world record. Kristin is now the fastest woman to ascend all 14 peaks higher than 8,000 meters.

She is revolutionizing the mountain world

“If I’m going to change this sport, the best way I can do it is by showing that women are just as capable as men on these high mountains.” Kristin Harila.

She has been saying this since the start of her journey. The mountain world is still extremely misogynistic, and she plans on changing this. According to her, mountains are for everyone, and she wants to make that possible. Her journey to become the fastest person to complete the 14 summits is not just about setting a record; it is also about paving the way for other female enthusiasts in the field.

She shares her struggle to get any sponsorship because no one believed a woman could do it. Most outdoor brands only support male athletes and produce mountaineering clothing only for them, making it difficult for women in the field like Harila. So she has set out on this journey to prove all those misogynist people out there wrong.

She likes the idea of motivating women to climb mountains and do what they want. And with her extraordinary talent and special capacity to push herself outside of her comfort zone, she undoubtedly inspires many women every day.

The story from Annapurna, 8091m, June 5th ⛰️

Read the full story from the climb here: https://t.co/KKw9W6yiX8
Follow Kristin’s current climb of Manaslu: https://t.co/PUrhoECxqe#KristinHarila #Annapurna pic.twitter.com/bQcTse5Jx3

— Kristin Harila (@kristin_harila) June 9, 2023

She is winning the social media world as well.

Through social media, she inspires and empowers people to live their best lives, pursue their dreams, and always aim higher. She is regularly interacting with her followers by encouraging and advising them. She is even teaching them about trekking tips and mountaineering skills by posting videos and photos. She also organizes live sessions where she speaks about her journey.

She keeps her followers updated on her journey through such platforms. Her website has a feature that even shows her live location. This keeps people interested in the journey and motivates them to achieve their dreams like her.

Conclusion

We should learn a lot from people like Kristin. She has been a role model for millions of people. And the way she is not backing out of her goal makes her even more inspiring. She has gone through so many hurdles, and yet she smiles fearlessly, climbing through one peak after another.

Her journey was full of ups and downs. She has lost more than 20 pounds in the past year due to physical exhaustion and frequent episodes of food poisoning. She was struck in the leg by a falling boulder, severely injuring her. She also fell off the back of a truck during her hard expeditions. She survived ice storms and freezing summit pushes and nearly died from avalanches, but she never quit.

She has not only proved her strength and capacity but has also raised a serious issue of gender equality in the mountains. She has paved the way for many enthusiastic women in her field by proving women are equally capable as men.

She is a world-famous mountaineer and an inspiration to everyone thanks to her tenacity and unwavering spirit, which have made her one of the greats.