Update: October 5, 2018, Spanish news website Desnivel reports that Luo Jing did NOT reach Shishapangma’s main summit. Catalan climber Xavi Metal was there and reports that a large number of teams (at least 37 people) summited Shishapangma’s Central peak (8,008m), but no one went beyond to the tallest point. According to Metal, only he and Chileans Martín Gildmeister and Rafael Matte used no supplementary oxygen, while the Chinese team climbed with bottled O2 and 16 Sherpas.
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Luo Jing, 42, has become the first Chinese woman and the fourth female overall to climb all 14 eight thousanders. According to the Chinese media, Luo summited Shishapangma’s main summit (8,027m) last Saturday, completing a challenge which she started just seven years ago.
Serial-summiteer
Details or summit pictures are yet to be released, but if confirmed, Luo’s would be the fastest 14×8000’er quest ever. She has ticked off an average of two peaks a year, from her first success (on Manaslu) in 2011, to a traumatic experience on Kangchenjunga in 2013. After sieging Kangchenjunga for nearly two months, Luo was the only woman among a group of 15 climbers to summit. Then 5 of her team mates perished on the descent. She considered quitting high-altitude climbing, but somehow recovered and climbed Dhaulagiri in 2014. She recorded no summits in 2015, the year the massive earthquakes hit Nepal, but bagged Everest the following spring.
As reported, Luo achieved first Chinese female ascents on a number of 8000’ers, including Makalu (2012), Kangchenjunga, K2 (2014) and Nanga Parbat (2016).
Luo Jing had attempted Shishipangma this past spring, but weather stymied her just short of the top. She returned this fall and reached the top at around 8:30am on September 29. This has been a busy year for Luo Jing. In 2018, she chain-summited three 8000m peaks: Lhotse, Broad Peak and Shisha.
Luo Jing of China, the newest member in the 14×8000’ers female summiteers club. Photo: ChinaMinutes
“To reach the mountain peak is not the ultimate goal; what I am really excited about is to expand my possibilities,” Luo said yesterday back home in Changsha, Hunan Province, yesterday. “I am a single mother and I want to influence other women, mothers particularly,” she explained. “I want to make them believe that they can do more if they open their mind.”
Luo Jing was born in Hengyang in 1975. She became attracted to outdoor sports in 2002 and climbing in 2007. Four years later, she summited her first 8000’er.
