Rival Mountain Climbers Die During World Record Attempt
Climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter mountains is an impressive feat that only a handful of people have ever claimed the glory of achieving. An American woman has never summited all 14, so avid mountaineers Anna Gutu and Gina Marie Rzucidlo both made it their goal to take the title.
Sadly, both women both died while ascending their final peak: Mt. Shishapangma in Tibet, which stands tall at 26,335 feet. They were both climbing with their own sherpas and were separately engulfed in avalanches on Oct. 7 that killed all four expeditioners. Rzucidlo’s guide, Tenjen Sherpa, had set a record with Norwegian climber Kristin Harila earlier this year for climbing the world’s 14 tallest peaks in the fastest time.
Rzucidlo’s mother Susan Rzucidlo told The New York Times her daughter was racing against Gutu for the world record. She was just 80 meters from Shishapangma’s summit when the avalanche struck.
“Gina was just an amazing person. She just lived life to the fullest. She really wanted to accomplish this,” she said of her daughter, per The Telegraph. According to Rzucidlo’s mother, Chinese authorities declined to search for her daughter and her guide’s body, instead floating the possibility of looking for them in the spring when conditions are more favorable.
Rzucidlo’s sister Christy Lavallee was similarly in shock by what transpired, calling her sibling “a special human being.” “We’re all devastated. We fluctuate between feeling numb and just crying,” she said. “This is something she had been working on for a few years now. It’s heartbreaking because she was so, so close.”
Both Rzucidlo and Gutu documented their climbs on social media. Back in June, after Gutu summited Mt. Kanchenjunga, she celebrated her achievement as she inched closer to completing her goal. “We reached the summit and I became another step closer to my big dream,” she wrote.
These expeditions aren’t for the faint of heart, and even the most prepared mountaineers can run into unexpected—and sometimes fatal—obstacles like these.
