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With her recent ascent to the summit of Annapurna, Basque climber Edurne Pasaban has trodden her thirteenth ''eight thousander''. Now her next feat is to climb the Sishapangma, the lowest of the 8000ers; should she manage to reach the top, she will become the first woman ever to have scaled to the peak of all fourteen of the world''s highest mountains.

It would appear her erstwhile rival in this race, Korean climber Oh Eun-Sun, has ceased to be so. At least, so say the Sherpas, responsible for confirming the authenticity of each ascent. According to them, a number of doubts still hang over the legitimacy of the climbs carried out by the Korean.

In an interview published in Spanish daily El Correo, Edurne Pasaban declared that there were "many doubts" over some of the expeditions undertaken by Oh Eun-Sun, particularly that made up Annapurna. According to the Basque, the Sherpas had assured her that the Korean had definitely still not made the ascent up Kangchenjunga and that they would personally take the responsibility to prove it.