Woman scales new heights in 'eight-thousander' peak challenge

An Austrian woman has become the first female climber to reach the summit of the 14 highest peaks in the Himalayas without bottled oxygen.

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, 40, completed the record when she reached the top of K2 on Tuesday. Only two other women have previously made the top of all 14 Himalayan summits, and both did so with the assistance of bottled oxygen. Her husband, Ralf Dujmovits, wrote on her website: "SUMMIT!!! At 6:18pm local time, Gerlinde reached the summit of K2... Gerlinde is over the moon."

Two years ago, Ms Kaltenbrunner was in a race to become the first woman to the top of all the "eight-thousander" mountains in the Himalayas but lost to South Korea's Oh Eun-Sun, who was followed by Spain's Edurne Pasaban. Doubts were later raised over whether Ms Oh really completed the set.