Kangchenjunga

Edurne Pasabán's twelfth 'eight-thousander' came in 2009 with great suffering. The expedition to Kanchenjunga, at 8,586 meters, put the Spanish alpinist against the ropes, and she admitted that she had had "the most difficult moment of her life" on a complicated descent with the weather against her.

Before this, 14 hours of ascent wore down the strength of a team made up of Ferrán Latorre, Juanito Oiarzábal, Asier Izaguirre and Alex Chicón. Edurne returned to Spain with freezing, in a wheelchair and almost voiceless, but having neared her challenge still more.

Kanchenjunga (also written Kangchenjunga, Kangchen Dzö-nga, Khangchendzonga, Kanchenjanga, Kachendzonga, and Kangchanfanga) is the third highest mountain in the world, the highest in India and the second-highest in Nepal, in the district of Taplejung.

Kanchenjunga translates as "five treasures of snow", for the mountain has five peaks of over 8,000 meters above sea level.

Until 1852, it was believed that Kanchenjunga was the highest mountain in the world. The calculations made in 1849 by the British Great Trigonometric Survey gave Mount Everest as the highest and left Kanchenjunga in third place.

The first ascent of Kanchenjunga came on 25 May 1955. The British George Band and Joe Brown were the first to achieve it. In respect for the beliefs of the Sikkim, for whom the summit is sacred, they stopped their ascent a few meters before the summit, a custom respected by most later expeditions.

Wanda Rutkiewicz, a woman considered one of the best mountaineers of the 20th century, died on Kanchenjunga between 12 and 13 May 1992.

• 
  EVEREST (2001)
• 
  MAKALU (2002)
• 
  CHO-OYU (2002)
• 
  LHOTSE (2003)
• 
  GASHERBRUM II (2003)
• 
  GASHERBRUM I (2003)
• 
  K2 (2004)
• 
  NANGA PARBAT (2005)
• 
  BROAD PEAK (2007)
• 
  DHAULAGIRI (2008)
• 
  MANASLU (2008)
• 
  KANGCHENJUNGA (2009)
• 
  ANNAPURNA (2010)
• 
  SHISHA PANGMA (2010)
• EVEREST W/OUT O2 (2011)