Well, the race is over.  S. Korea's Ms Oh Eun-Sun topped out on Annapurna this week, becoming the first woman in history to climb all of the worlds 14 8,000 meter peaks.  Her closest rival in the "race" is a Spanish woman who has expressed doubts about Ms Oh's climb of Kangchenjunga.  Too bad such a great moment is spoiled by controversy.  Yeah, she may have some insufficient proof of summiting but whatever, it's only climbing.  It should be a great moment for Oh, she completed her project and she is stoked.  Now the ethics nazis chime in and discount the validity of her send, that is just a bummer.  Some will hear about Oh and say "thats cool, she's hard", others will ask questions about the style she climbed and chip away at the radness of it.  Climbing is a selfish and pointless activity, we do it for ourselves and to reach a goal and have people discount it is a bummer. Seems some folks have a skewed perspective on reasons for climbing and they project their type-A competitive judgments on the "achievements" of others.  There never seems to be a lack of critics chiming in from the peanut gallery.  Strong work Eun-Sun Oh, you sent it, I'm super stoked for you.

links to articles:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/freddie-wilkinson/korean-climber-facing-a-m_b_555600.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8646995.stm

To date no woman has climbed all 14 8000 meter peaks.  This weekend we may see a Korean woman, Oh, become the first.  

If she summits Annapurna, she'll have completed them, although there is some dispute on weather or not she topped out on a couple of the mountains.  Here is a story from the BBC.

 A Korean climber may this weekend become the first woman to scale the world's 14 highest peaks. It's one of the most formidable feats in mountaineering - but doubts have been creeping in about her right to claim the glory.

A year ago three European women were leading the race to conquer all 14 mountains in the world above 8,000m high - Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner of Austria, Nives Meroi of Italy and Edurne Pasaban of Spain.

But over four months in 2009 two rival South Korean climbers scaled an astonishing four peaks each, catapulting one of them, Oh Eun-Sun, to the top of the league table.

She is now on the slopes of her final mountain of the 14, Annapurna, with a Korean TV crew, which is planning a two-hour live broadcast on Sunday, when it estimates she will reach the summit.

Nothing can be taken for granted. But if she succeeds it will be a bitter blow to Edurne Pasaban, her nearest rival in the race, who ascended Annapurna herself on Saturday and is about to leave for Tibet to tackle the last peak on her list, Shisha Pangma.

For the full story by Stephen Mulvey, click here

I think many of the larger peaks have been climbed already but it is good to see restrictions being loosened and access to the Siachen zone becoming possible.

104 new mountain peaks have been removed from the restricted list, and opened up to climbers for the first time. Most fall in the Leh and Ladakh regions, along India's border with both China and Pakistan. Because of their close proximity to the disputed Kashmir region, only ten previous mountaineering expeditions, primarily made up of Indian climbers, have made their way into the region. This means that the vast majority of those mountains have not yet been climbed. Climbers looking to claim a first ascent will find plenty of altitude to challenge them. Many of the peaks top out above 22,000 feet, including Saser Kangri I, II, and III, which stand 24,327 feet, 24,649 feet, and 24,590 feet respectively.

http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-47561120100409

http://www.indmount.org/virginpeakseastkarakoram.html

Here is a glimpse of next years K2 backside series.