South Korean media hailed one of the country's climbers on April 28 after she claimed to have become the first woman to scale the world's 14 highest peaks, ignoring controversy surrounding her bid. The Associated Press reported that Oh Eun-sun arrived at the final steep stretch of the summit 13 hours after leaving the last base camp. At the top, she pulled out a South Korean flag, waved, and wept before raising her arms and shouting, “Victory!”
當南韓一位女登山家自稱，已成為第一位登上全球14座最高峰的女性時，儘管這項聲明充滿爭議，南韓媒體4月28日仍齊聲為她歡呼。據美聯社報導，吳銀善離開最後基地營之後，花了13個小時才登上最後這段陡峭的峰頂。攻頂後她拿出南韓國旗揮舞，並振臂高呼：「勝利！」
All major newspapers ran a front page photo of Oh Eun-Sun holding a national flag at the snow-covered summit of the 8,091 m. Annapurna in Nepal （picture）. Oh's claim to be the first female climber to have conquered all the world's mountains over 8,000 m. is under scrutiny, however. Last week her 2009 ascent of Mount Kanchenjunga on the Nepal-Tibet border was thrown into doubt when a leading authority on Himalayan mountaineering said fellow climbers had expressed scepticism about the climb.
各大報都在頭版顯著刊登吳銀善在尼泊爾白雪覆蓋、海拔8091公尺高的安納普納峰頂手持國旗的照片（見圖，美聯社）。吳銀善聲稱，她是第一位征服全球所有8000公尺以上高峰的女登山家，但這已遭到嚴格的檢視。她在2009年攻上尼泊爾和西藏邊境干城章嘉峰的紀錄，上周遭人質疑，一位攀登喜馬拉雅山的權威人士表示，山友懷疑她去年是否真的攻頂成功。
In South Korea, there were no such reservations. “Your successful ascent （of all the eight-thousanders） was a process of human victory that underscores the meaning of challenge,” President Lee Myung-Bak told Oh in a congratulatory message. “You are really admirable,” Lee said, adding the successful ascent brought the spirit of challenge back not only to alpinists but to all South Koreans. The best-selling Chosun Ilbo said Oh's feat “proudly shows the spirit of Korean climbers and Korean women's courage, patience and strength”. Its headline read in part: “Iron lady 154 cm. tall becomes a ‘giant’ over 8,000 m.” Other papers carried pages of similar coverage, with little or no mention of the dispute about the 44-year-old's record.
韓國人則完全沒有這類疑慮。「你成功攻頂（所有8000公尺高峰），是人類挑戰極限過程的一大勝利。」南韓總統李明博在致吳銀善的賀電中說：「妳的表現令人欽佩。」他並說，攻頂成功激發登山家乃至於所有韓國人的挑戰精神。銷路最大的《朝鮮日報》則報導，吳銀善的壯舉「驕傲地向世人展示韓國登山者的精神和朝鮮婦女的勇氣、耐心和力量」。部分標題則說：「身高154公分的鐵娘子，儼然變成8000公尺高的『巨人』。」其他報紙的報導大同小異，但幾乎完全略而未提這位44歲女性登山紀錄所引發的爭議。
Mountaineering expert Elizabeth Hawley said in Kathmandu that Oh's ascent of Kanchenjunga last year would be considered “disputed”. She said fellow mountaineers, including Oh's chief rival for the record Edurne Pasaban, had questioned whether she actually made it to the top. “I'll be waiting to meet her when she gets back to hear her version of what she has to say about Kanchenjunga,” Hawley said.
登山專家伊麗莎白．霍利在加德滿都說，吳銀善去年攻上干城章嘉峰的紀錄將被視為「有爭議」。其他登山專家，包括競奪這項紀錄的頭號對手帕莎班曾質疑，她是否真的攻頂成功。「她回來後，我將跟她見面，聽聽她自己對干城章嘉峰的說法。」霍利說。
Pasaban, 36, conquered Annapurna earlier this month, becoming the first Spanish woman ever to do so and leaving her with just one more mountain to scale. Pasaban is on her way to Tibet, where she will attempt to climb Shisha Pangma -- the smallest of the 14 peaks at 8,027 m. Pasaban said she still doubts that Oh reached the top of Kanchenjunga. “It is a doubt which we already had last year, because when she climbed Kanchenjunga we were already there and we climbed it after her. Our doubts emerged when she presented some photos, and other climbers shared them,” she said.
36歲的帕莎班本月稍早征服了安納普納峰，成為西班牙第一位攻頂成功的女性，現在她只要再登上一個山峰，就能征服全球14座最高峰。帕莎班目前正動身前往西藏，她將嘗試攀登海拔8027公尺高的希夏邦馬峰，這也是14座高峰中最矮小的一座。帕莎班說，她還是懷疑，吳銀善攻上干城章嘉峰頂。「我們去年就提出質疑，因為當她登上干城章嘉峰頂時，我們已先到了，但我們比她晚啟程。她秀出幾張照片為證，我們表示疑慮，其他登山者也有同感。」她說。
The picture provided by Oh shows her standing on a bare rock but those taken by Pasaban's team shows them standing on snow. “The confirmation came this year while at the base camp at Annapurna when I met with the Sherpas who climbed with her and they confirmed that they did not reach the peak of Annapurna,” said Pasaban. “When she returns to Kathmandu she will have to prove it, she will be questioned and we will see what happens.”
There is something odd about the shots, say other climbers who have been there. Standard proof that a climber has “summated” is a typically a photograph that shows the climber at the top, surrounded by neighboring peaks. Oh's official pictures, released by her sponsor company, show her standing on snow and in fog so thick that no other peaks are visible. And Oh's Korean flag was found about 200 feet below the summit, with four rocks holding it down.
吳銀善提供的照片顯示，她站在一個光禿禿的岩石上，但帕莎班團隊拍的照片卻顯示，他們站在雪地中。「今年我在安納普納峰基地營碰到陪她登山的雪巴人時更加確認，這些雪巴人證實他們並未登上安納普納峰頂。」帕莎班說：「等她回加德滿都後，她必須證明這點，她會接受質詢，到時我們將看看會有什麼結果。」其他曾去過那裡的登山者說，這些照片的確有些疑點。一般證明「登頂」成功的照片會顯示登山者站在峰頂，周圍可見鄰近的山峰。但贊助吳銀善的公司所發布的官方照片顯示，她站的地方雪和霧太厚，根本看不見其他山峰。何況吳銀善的國旗插在距峰頂200英尺處，用4個岩石固定住。
Oh has previously dismissed the doubts as groundless. “I can say that I have stood at the summit of Mount Kanchenjunga,” she told a press conference in Seoul late last year. “It was bad weather. Three sherpas told me that I reached the top and one of them took the picture.” Oh has since said the photos had to be shot from just below the summit because of potentially deadly weather. Just 18 people have previously made it to the top of the 14 eight-thousanders, which are all in Asia's Himalaya and Karakoram ranges, since Italian climber Reinhold Messner became the first person to do achieve the feat in 1986.
吳銀善之前曾駁斥這些疑點毫無根據。「我可以說，我曾站在干城章嘉峰峰頂。」她去年底在首爾記者會上說：「當天天氣很糟，三個雪巴人告訴我，我已登頂成功，其中一人還拍照存證。」吳銀善說，因為潛在的致命天氣，這些照片只好從峰頂下往上拍。之前只有18個人曾攻上全球14座8000公尺以上的最高峰，這些山峰全都在亞洲喜馬拉雅山和喀喇崑崙山脈。義大利的梅斯納1986年成為有史以來第一位完成此一壯舉的登山家。