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Elizabeth Hawley, the woman who makes sure mountaineers are telling the truth about reaching the summit.

Once they've conquered a mountain, climbers come back down and tell us their story, but how do we know they really made it to the top?

Some take pictures or videos as proof they were there, but with increasing amounts of sponsorship money behind climbers, can such claims always be believed? And who is there to verify them and make sure we're told the truth?

The answer, at least in the Nepalese Himalaya, may surprise you.

For nearly fifty years one woman, Elizabeth Hawley, now in her eighties, has been keeping a record of all climbs in Nepal and making sure that what she's told is the truth.

For Outlook, the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Joanna Jolly went to meet her.

(pictured: Elizabeth Hawley deep in conversation with the Italian climber Reinhold Messner)