The Norwegian mountaineer has set a new goal to scale all 14 highest peaks within 3 months

KATHMANDU, Nepal — A Norwegian who wants to become the fastest climber of the world’s 14 highest mountains said Tuesday that he can reach his goal in half the time he originally planned.

Kristin Harila, who returned to Nepal’s capital from the mountains on Tuesday, said she was setting a new goal of scaling the peaks within three months, having already climbed eight of them in 40 days.

He is trying to break the 2019 record set by a male climber who did it in just over six months.

Harila, 37, has yet to climb Mount Manaslu in Nepal, which he hopes to do in the next few days, then the five remaining peaks in Pakistan, including K2, the world’s second-highest peak. He also reached K2 last year.

“I believe we can do it if we do Manaslu now and we can do the five in Pakistan in three months. So yes, three months is possible if we do Manaslu now,” he said.

“We’re very happy that we’ve got eight and we’re all safe and well,” he said.

He began by scaling Mount Shishapangma in April, then followed up with other peaks in China and Nepal, including Mount Everest. The most recent was Mount Annapurna on June 5.

Annapurna was climbed at the end of the spring season, when most teams had already left the mountains.

“It was very beautiful, but it is very difficult to climb Annapurna alone. No one was around, it was different. When there are a lot of people, it’s a lot easier,” he said.

Harila began his experiment in April 2022 with the goal of completing it by September. But he only managed to reach 12 peaks because Chinese authorities restricted access to foreign climbers during the coronavirus outbreak.

The current record is held by Nirmal Purja, a Nepali-born British national who climbed the 14 highest peaks in 189 days in 2019, breaking the previous record of more than seven years set by a South Korean climber. Purja’s climbs were later made into a popular Netflix documentary, 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible.