MADRID - South Korean mountaineer Go Mi-sun, who died last week during the descent from Nanga Parbat in the western Himalayas, is the first fatal victim in the race to become the first woman to climb the world's 14 highest mountains, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The race, in which she was seen as one of the most likely candidates to reach the goal along with Spain's Edurne Pasaban, Italy's Nives Meroi and Austia's Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, stepped up this year.

Sports daily Marca said Wednesday that the 41-year-old's death could have been the result of a "crazy adventure" whereby "intensive climbing methods" were used to try to become the first woman to climb all 14 of Earth's 8,000-metre peaks.

Since 2006 she had already climbed 11 of the 14 peaks and expected to climb the remaining three this year.

The Korean climber reportedly plunged into a ravine as she made the descent from Pakistan's 8,126-metre Nanga Parbat.

Pasaban, who began her bid to make history in 2001, has already climbed 12 of the 14 peaks. The 35-year-old plans to climb Shisha Pangma in September and Annapurna in early 2010.

Kaltenbrunner is curently making her way up K2. After that she will just Everest, the world's highest mountain, to climb.

An Italian, Reinhold Messner, became the first man to climb all 14 summits in 1986.

The 14 summits are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia.