On the afternoon of July 26, after 16 hours of pushing upward, Maya Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita and Dawa Yangzum Sherpa made history and became the first Nepalese women to summit the infamously dangerous and unpredictable K2, a 28,251-foot (8,611-meter) peak which straddles the Pakistan-China border and on average, kills one of every four people who brave its slopes.
What’s more, of the 376 people who have reached the top, only 18 have been women. No surprise that Pasang has racked up many other mountaineering accomplishments—she was the first woman to climb Nangpai Gosum (7,321 meters) and has successfully summited Everest from the north side, Yala Peak (5,520 meters), and Ama Dablam (6,856 meters). We caught up with Pasang, who works as a mountaineering instructor in Nepal and a guide in the U.S. (and occasionally at her family’s restaurant Tibet’s in Lousiville) to get an inside look into their expedition.
Kathmandu
