The deaths in the avalanche and the ensuing dispute led to this year's Everest climbing season being abandoned.
Ms Wang initially returned to Kathmandu but later returned to Everest in secret with five Sherpas who had never climbed the mountain before.
Her achievement was officially recognised by Nepal's tourism minister yesterday (Monday) shortly before she flew to Alaska to climb Mount McKinley and complete the world record.
But her achievement has left leading mountaineers angry over its secrecy and her use of a helicopter to bypass the Khumbu Icefall, one of the most perilous stretches on the slopes, and begin her climb at 21,000ft - just 8,000ft below the summit.
A memorial service for the 16 Nepalese Sherpa guides killed in avalanche on Mount Everest. Photo / AP
Senior climbers publicly disassociated themselves from her decision amid fears that it could further provoke striking Sherpas, while others said the use of the helicopter had brought the challenge of scaling Everest to a "new low". Tamding Sherpa, a leader of her original expedition team, said he had never heard of helicopters being used for an official ascent. "It looks like it's cheating," he said.
Dambar Parajuli, president of Nepal's Expedition Operators Association, said helicopter-assisted climbs had not been officially recognised before. "If they recognise her climb when she used a helicopter to Camp Two, then they will have to allow this for others in the future," he said. "Climbing Everest has to be from the Base Camp, through the iceflow."
One senior British climber, who asked not to be named, said he believed the use of the helicopter marked a "new low" in the growing commercialisation of Everest by officials and expedition companies seeking to make it easier for climbers to get to the top.
He conceded that the use of five inexperienced Sherpas to climb without established ropes and tracks may have made it more difficult. "Normally you have hundreds of climbers keeping the tracks open to the summit," he said. "Does it count? What of the 99 per cent of Everest ascents that have used Sherpa power to haul clients up fixed lines, up a beaten track, sucking on pottered bottles of oxygen? Is that not cheating?"
Climbers descend Khumbu Icefall. Photo / AP
In posts on Weibo, the Chinese social networking site, Ms Wang chronicled her initial sadness at the deaths of the 16 Sherpas in the April 18 avalanche, but later voiced her frustration at having to abandon her dream.
On April 25, she wrote: "Oh my God! I've finished 7 of my 9 highest poles climbing plan this year. Only Everest and Mount Mckinley. If I can stick to the plan and finish it, it means the world record will be broken. If not the plan is failed and failed not because of my ability. Headache!"
Two days later she returned with her team to Kathmandu but on May 4 she posted a quote attributed to Churchill that a "pessimist sees hardship in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every hardship".
Watch: Nepalese grieve for Everest tragedy
The following day she left Kathmandu but did not post again until May 26 when she revealed she had in fact returned to Everest and climbed to the summit. "After going through innumerable trials and hardships, I finally climbed Everest from the south slope again at 18:30, May 23. Now to Mckinley, the last stop of the nine poles of earth."
A spokesman for Nepal's tourism ministry said there was nothing suspicious about Ms Wang's ascent and that other successful and recognised expeditions had used helicopters to Camp Two.
After reaching the summit, Ms Wang told National Geographic that she had sympathy for the Sherpas but her record-attempt had been "extensively planned".
"I thought climbing all seven summits in six months would be easy to do ... but it's not so easy now," she said.
