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Norwegian Climber Retires after Becoming Fastest to Climb World's Highest 14 Peaks in 92 Days

Norwegian climber Kristin Harila (C) and Nepali guide Tenjin Sherpa (C, right) arrive at the Tribhuvan International airport in Kathmandu on August 5, 2023, after they set the record for the fastest summit of all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter mountains. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)
Norwegian climber Kristin Harila (C) and Nepali guide Tenjin Sherpa (C, right) arrive at the Tribhuvan International airport in Kathmandu on August 5, 2023, after they set the record for the fastest summit of all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter mountains. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)
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Norwegian Climber Retires after Becoming Fastest to Climb World's Highest 14 Peaks in 92 Days

Norwegian climber Kristin Harila (C) and Nepali guide Tenjin Sherpa (C, right) arrive at the Tribhuvan International airport in Kathmandu on August 5, 2023, after they set the record for the fastest summit of all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter mountains. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)
Norwegian climber Kristin Harila (C) and Nepali guide Tenjin Sherpa (C, right) arrive at the Tribhuvan International airport in Kathmandu on August 5, 2023, after they set the record for the fastest summit of all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter mountains. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)

A Norwegian who just became the fastest climber to scale all the world’s 14 highest mountains announced she was retiring from climbing high peaks on Saturday upon her return to Nepal.
Kristin Harila along with her Sherpa guide Tenjin were given a hero's welcome at the Kathmandu airport where hundreds including mountaineers, government officials and well-wishers gathered to welcome them back with cheers and flower garlands.
Harila and Tenjin scaled Mount K2 in Pakistan last week, thus concluding the climb of the 14th peak — that is more than 8000 meters — high in 92 days, shattering the previous record of 189 days.
“I don’t think I will try any eight-thousand meters for a while." Harila said. "I have done 28 eight-thousand meters in total so I think I have done my part.”
The 37-year-old climber began the mission of setting a new record in April by scaling Mount Shishapangma followed by other peaks in China as well as Nepal, including Mount Everest. She then moved on to Pakistan to complete her list of climbs.
This year was her second attempt to set the record of becoming the fastest climber of the 14 peaks.
Harila had initially begun her world record attempt in April 2022 with the aim of completing it by September. But she only managed 12 peaks after Chinese authorities restricted foreign travel to the country because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I am going to do running in the mountains and have already signed up for a race,” she said of her immediate plans.
Harila said Mount K2, the last one on her list was the most difficult one to tackle. K2 is the second-highest peak in the world.
Harila said that weather conditions usually dictate how difficult a climb can be and this year they faced “very hard conditions on K2” because of “ very deep snow.”
The last record for the fastest climb of the 14 peaks was held by Nirmal Purja, a Nepal-born British citizen who scaled them in 189 days in 2019, beating the previous record of more than seven years set by a South Korean climber. Purja’s climbs were later adapted into a popular Netflix documentary, “14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible.”

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NASA Downplays Role in Development of Titan Submersible that Imploded

(FILES) This undated image courtesy of OceanGate Expeditions, shows their Titan submersible beginning a descent. (Photo by Handout / OceanGate Expeditions / AFP)
(FILES) This undated image courtesy of OceanGate Expeditions, shows their Titan submersible beginning a descent. (Photo by Handout / OceanGate Expeditions / AFP)
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NASA Downplays Role in Development of Titan Submersible that Imploded

(FILES) This undated image courtesy of OceanGate Expeditions, shows their Titan submersible beginning a descent. (Photo by Handout / OceanGate Expeditions / AFP)
(FILES) This undated image courtesy of OceanGate Expeditions, shows their Titan submersible beginning a descent. (Photo by Handout / OceanGate Expeditions / AFP)

OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush said the carbon fiber hull used in an experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic was developed with help of NASA and aerospace manufacturers, but a NASA official testified Thursday that the space agency actually had little involvement at all.
OceanGate and NASA partnered in 2020 with NASA planning to play a role in building and testing the carbon fiber hull. But the COVID-19 pandemic prevented NASA from fulfilling its role, other than providing some consulting on an early mockup, not the ultimate carbon fiber hull that was used for people, said Justin Jackson, a materials engineer for NASA.
“We provided remote consultations throughout the build of their one third scale article, but we did not do any manufacturing or testing of their cylinders,” The Associated Press quoted Jackson as saying.
At one point, Jackson said NASA declined to allow its name to be invoked in a news release by OceanGate. “The language they were using was getting too close to us endorsing, so our folks had some heartburn with the endorsement level of it,” he told a Coast Guard panel that’s investigating the tragedy.
Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023. The design of the company's Titan submersible has been the source of scrutiny since the disaster.
The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company.
In addition to Jackson, Thursday's testimony was to include Mark Negley of Boeing Co.; John Winters of Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound; and Lt. Cmdr. Jonathan Duffett of the Coast Guard Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance.
Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”
Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include more witnesses.
The co-founder of the company told the Coast Guard panel Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans. Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster.
“This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” Sohnlein said.
Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.
OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.