Oh Eun-sun

In April 2010, Oh made her second attempt at climbing Annapurna, the last of the eight-thousanders. A previous attempt in October 2009 came up 500 meters short when a blizzard made further ascent impossible. As she approached the top, strong winds and snow delayed further ascent. On April 23, Oh reached camp C3, located at 6,400 m, but was forced to retreat the next day due to wind. She announced that she would delay her summit attempt. On April 26, Oh took 11 hours to climb from C2 (5,600m) to C4. On April 27, 2010, Oh left camp C4 located at 7,200 meters on Annapurna. Thirteen hours later, she reached the summit at 3:15pm local time, completing her quest. Upon reaching the peak, she planted a South Korean flag, waved to the camera which was broadcasting the climb live, and thanked her fellow Koreans for being with her throughout the whole expedition. She was accompanied by five other climbers. Congratulating Oh on her accomplishment, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak said, "She showed us what challenge means". Oh completed her descent from Annapurna on May 3.

In April 2010, Oh's main rival, Edurne Pasaban from Spain, who was also aiming to become the first woman to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, weighed in on the controversy. Pasabán spoke with Oh and her team while descending Annapurna, Pasabán's thirteenth eight-thousander. After Pasabán spoke with Elizabeth Hawley upon descending, Hawley agreed to mark Oh's summit of Kangchenjunga as "disputed" in her Himalayan Database. On April 24, Hawley explained her decision, "The only picture that anyone has seen shows Miss Oh standing on bare rock. But Miss Pasabán (who was on the mountain at the same time) showed me a picture of her team on the summit, and they are standing on snow." She added that "of the three Sherpas that climbed with Miss Oh, two have said she did not reach the summit." The latter comment apparently stems from conversations Pasabán had with said Sherpas while on Annapurna. Although her data is unofficial, Hawley is considered the final arbiter on such disputes. Hawley still counts the climb as valid, but plans to do further investigation. Ferran Latorre, a Spanish climber, claimed that the green rope affixed to the mountain by Oh's team (visible in the picture) stopped 200 meters short of the summit. Eberhard Jurgalski of 8000ers.com, a website devoted to keeping mountaineering records, said, "It's all mixed up, you cannot say what is true and what's invented." On April 27, 2010, Nepal Mountaineering Association president Ang Tshering said, "We recognize [Oh's] achievement as the first woman climber to scale all the highest mountains in the world." 8000ers.com also credits Oh with having completed all fourteen eight-thousanders. The Nepalese government also stated that it believes Oh climbed Kangchenjunga.

On August 26, 2010 the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) judged that Oh "probably failed" to reach the top of Kangchenjunga. The KAF secretary general, Lee Eui-jae, said participants in the meeting all shared the view that Miss Oh's photographs on Kangchenjunga did not "seem to match the actual landscape" and that "Oh's previous explanations on the process of her ascent to Kangchenjunga are unreliable".

BBC News also reported on 27 August 2010 that "A member of the next team to reach the peak of Kangchenjunga, in May 2009, the Norwegian climber Jon Gangdal, says he found Ms Oh's Korean flag weighed down by stones, some 50m or 60m below the summit."

On May 6, 2009, Oh claimed to have summited Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain (see below). In so doing, she became just the third woman to conquer the mountain and first from Korea. The accomplishment also made her the first woman to scale the world's five highest peaks. It was her 10th different 8000er. On August 3, 2009, Oh reached the summit of Gasherbrum I after a twelve-hour climb from Camp 3.

Oh's 2009 summit of Kangchenjunga has been questioned, throwing her accomplishment into doubt. The dispute stems from a photograph said to have been taken by Oh at the summit which is too blurry to confirm exactly where she stood when she took it. The photo is the only visible evidence she has of her ascent. After doubts were first raised in Korea, Oh held a press conference in which she tearfully remarked that the blurriness "was unavoidable due to fog and a violent snowstorm." One of the Sherpas who accompanied her on the climb assured the media that he knew the layout of the mountain well from previous climbs and that Oh had indeed made the summit.

ExplorersWeb looked into the disputed summit in detail in 2009, before it made headlines, and concluded that the dispute was based largely on third parties confusing Go Mi-young's team, who was climbing at the same time, with Oh's, and a misunderstanding about the starting point of Oh's final push. The organization concluded that "doubts about Miss Oh's Kanchen summit were not backed by enough fact", but said it would happy to review any new evidence the involved parties had to offer. Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, also acknowledged Oh's achievement after meeting with her.

On May 3, 2009, Oh had an hour-long discussion with Elizabeth Hawley in Kathmandu, in which she asked Oh about the details of her Kangchenjunga climb. At the conclusion of the interview, Hawley asked Oh if she had really conquered all 14 eight-thousanders, to which Oh replied. "Yes, I did." Hawley reportedly replied "Congratulations", indicating the feat would continue to be acknowledged. "Oh will be credited for her climb to Kangchenjunga," she later told the press. "Her account was completely different from Pasabán's so I really don't know who is right," she added. Hawley's database will continue to list the climb as disputed unless Pasabán withdraws her complaint. Pasabán had previously said she would respect Hawley's decision either way. On May 23 Pasabán conceded that she was the second woman to climb world's 14 highest peaks, but still questioned whether Oh actually held the record.

Oh lists former rival Go Mi-young, who plummeted to her death in 2009 after completing 11 eight-thousanders, as a source of inspiration. She has described mountain climbing as a sort of "addiction, which is much stronger than any drug."

On July 17, 1997, Oh summitted Gasherbrum II without supplementary oxygen, completing her first climb to a summit of over 8,000 meters. Over the next several years, she attempted several eight-thousanders without success. In 2004, she climbed Mount Everest with the aid of supplementary oxygen. In 2006, she added scaling Shishapangma to her list of accomplishments. At the time, two women, Edurne Pasabán and Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, had completed nine different eight-thousanders to Oh's three. In 2007, she conquered Cho Oyu and K2, bringing her total 8000ers to five. Two other women achieved their 10th such climb that year. In 2008, Oh added four more 8000+ meter climbs, while the leaders in the chase for all 14 added only one each.

Oh Eun-sun (Korean: 오은선, Hanja: 吳銀善, born March 5, 1966) is a South Korean mountaineer. She was the first Korean woman to climb the Seven Summits. On April 27, 2010, she reached the summit of Annapurna; upon doing so, she claimed to have climbed all fourteen eight-thousanders, which would have made her the first woman to achieve this feat. However, her claim to have ascended Kangchenjunga was disputed by multiple experts. Oh later admitted that she had stopped a few meters before the summit of Kangchenjunga, and so the Korean Alpine Federation ruled that she had not summited. The mountaineering site ExplorersWeb considered that Edurne Pasaban is the first woman to have successfully climbed all fourteen peaks.