Norwegian Climber Hopes to Become World's Fastest to All 14 Tallest Peaks

Norwegian climber Kristin Harila, 37, arrives after summiting Annapurna in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Norwegian climber Kristin Harila, 37, arrives after summiting Annapurna in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
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Norwegian Climber Hopes to Become World's Fastest to All 14 Tallest Peaks

Norwegian climber Kristin Harila, 37, arrives after summiting Annapurna in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Norwegian climber Kristin Harila, 37, arrives after summiting Annapurna in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A Norwegian woman climbed Mount Manaslu in Nepal on Saturday, her ninth highest mountain in 45 days, a hiking official said and was on track to become the fastest mountaineer to climb the world’s 14 tallest peaks in three months.
Kristin Harila, 37, scaled Manaslu, the world’s eighth highest at 8,163 metres (26,781 feet) in west Nepal with Tenjen (Lama) Sherpa and five other guides before dawn.
She climbed Shishapangma in Tibet region of China on April 26 and has completed Dhaulagiri, Kanchenjunga, Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu and Annapurna in Nepal since then.
She will now head off to Pakistan to climb Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, K2, and the Broad Peak, local sponsors said.
"She is now descending from the summit and will leave for Pakistan with Tenjen, who has been with her on all nine climbs," Tashi Lakpa Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks company, which is providing her logiscis, told Reuters.
Harila hopes to finish climbing all 14 peaks taller than 8,000 metres (26,246 feet) by sometime in July and if successful she would set the fastest climber record by beating Nirmal Purja from Nepal who completed all these peaks in six months and one week in 2019.
"That is the target and I think I can do it," she told Reuters in May in Kathmandu.
With Manaslu, her "quest for the 14 summits enters a new phase", a post in her website said.



Pope Calls Buzz Aldrin to Mark 1969 Moon Landing

20 July 2025, Italy, Castel Gandolfo: Pope Leo XIV visits the Vatican Observatory to mark the anniversary of the 1969 moon landing in the summer papal estate in Castel Gandolfo. Photo: -/IPA via ZUMA Press/dpa
20 July 2025, Italy, Castel Gandolfo: Pope Leo XIV visits the Vatican Observatory to mark the anniversary of the 1969 moon landing in the summer papal estate in Castel Gandolfo. Photo: -/IPA via ZUMA Press/dpa
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Pope Calls Buzz Aldrin to Mark 1969 Moon Landing

20 July 2025, Italy, Castel Gandolfo: Pope Leo XIV visits the Vatican Observatory to mark the anniversary of the 1969 moon landing in the summer papal estate in Castel Gandolfo. Photo: -/IPA via ZUMA Press/dpa
20 July 2025, Italy, Castel Gandolfo: Pope Leo XIV visits the Vatican Observatory to mark the anniversary of the 1969 moon landing in the summer papal estate in Castel Gandolfo. Photo: -/IPA via ZUMA Press/dpa

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday called astronaut Buzz Aldrin and visited the Vatican's astronomical observatory in Castel Gandolfo to mark the 56th anniversary of man's first moon landing.

"This evening, 56 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, I spoke with the astronaut Buzz Aldrin," the American pope wrote on X.

"Together we shared the memory of a historic feat, a testimony to human ingenuity, and we reflected on the mystery and greatness of Creation", he wrote.

After Neil Armstrong, who died in 2012, Aldrin was the second person to set foot on the Moon on the historic Apollo 11 mission that secured the United States' victory in the space race.

A devout Christian, Aldrin took communion on the lunar surface using a travel kit provided by his Presbyterian pastor.

According to AFP, the pope said he blessed the 95-year-old US astronaut and his family during the call.

Earlier Sunday, Leo visited the Vatican Observatory, which sits on a leafy hilltop near the papal summer home of Castel Gandolfo.

Vatican photographs showed the pope looking through a large telescope in the Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world, where planetary scientists mix the study of meteorites with theology.