Gineth Soto has postponed her dream of becoming the first Costa Rican to best the highest point on the planet, Mount Everest, which would have been the second-to-last peak on her Seven Summits mission.

The 5-foot-tall, 34-year-old Soto managed last Wednesday to reach Camp 3, at 7,100 meters (23,621 feet), and was just two days away from the 8,850-meter (29,029-foot) summit, but the temperatures plummeted and she caught another bout of the famous “Khumbu cough,” the trekker said via a communiqué issued by her Costa Rican sponsor, Banco Nacional.

“I had recovered from the cough days before, but the weather worsened and when I got to 7,100 meters, the cough came back violently, because of the cold, and stopped me from continuing on,” Soto said.

Soto described Khumbu cough – named after a flank of the mountain – as a “dagger in the lungs, and every time you cough, it's like your ribs are digging into your stomach. It's a terrible pain.”

She continues, “I'd been warned of the danger of going higher. It was a very tough decision, very difficult. I thought of all of you, all the people in Costa Rica who've followed me and sent me messages of support, and I came to the conclusion that, in these conditions, the right decision was not to attempt the ascent. I promised my family that I'd come back alive. (I also) felt that going down Everest rescued, or in a stretcher, wasn't what I wanted for myself, for the bank as my sponsor, or for Costa Rica, because I was representing you all with great pride. I want all Costa Ricans to know that I gave it my all… If it weren't for my cough, I'm sure I would have made it.”

Soto has already upped five of the world's tallest mountains – Aconcagua (6,962 m/22,841 ft) in South America, Elbrus (5,642 m/18,510 ft) in Europe, Africa's Kilimanjaro (5,895 m/19,341 ft), Denali or Mount McKinley (6,194 m/20,322 ft) in North America and Australia's Kosciuszko (2,228 m/7,310 ft).

But Everest is known to better many who have tried to conquer it. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reached the top in 1953. Since then, a mere 2,500 people – about 150 of whom are women and only one Central American, Guatemalan Jaime Viñales – have ever managed to followed in their footsteps.

An average of one in 10 climbers dies on the mountain.

In her communiqué last week, Soto mentioned two Swiss trekkers who died during their descent and other climbers who were rescued just in time.

Fans are marveling at Soto's climbing down in one piece.

One admirer, aspiring trekker Mark Washburn had nothing but praise for Soto's effort, noting that many of the greatest mountaineers try repeatedly to reach the top of Everest.

“I've never met her before, but she's my hero,” Washburn told The Tico Times.

The Costa Rican trekker said she will certainly give it another shot, but on a new route, seeing as she was forced to climb the Nepali southern side when political unrest broke out in Tibet.

“I will try again,” she said. “I'm thinking about an ascent through Tibet, as I had originally planned. On that side the weather conditions are not so harsh and there's less risk of getting sick.”