INQUIRER Sports

MADRID – Spain's Edurne Pasaban said Wednesday she has abandoned a bid to climb the Shisha Pangma mountain, throwing into doubt her attempt to become the first woman to scale all 14 of the world's peaks above 8,000 meters (26,240 feet).

She had planned to climb the 8,046-metre Shisha Pangma this year, her 13th 'eight-thousander', and then Annapurna in Nepal in the spring of 2010.

Her South Korean rival Oh Eun-Sun, who is now on the slopes of Annapurna, the final peak in her record attempt, is now the favorite to claim the title.

Pasaban, 36, said in a statement that she was forced to give up Shisha Pangma, situated in China's Tibet region, as it is "impossible to reach the summit with winds of 60 to 80 kmph" forecast for Thursday.

Her team had already suffered a setback on Sunday when some of their equipment was blown away from a camp.

Other competitors for the record are Austria's Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Nives Meroi of Italy.

But Kaltenbrunner failed in August in a bid to climb the 8,611-meter K2, the world's second highest peak situated on the Pakistan-China border, and she remains at 12 summits, while Meroi has conquered 11.

Italy's Reinhold Messner became the first man to climb all 14 summits in 1986. The 14 mountains are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges in Asia.