The eight-thousanders are the 14 mountains recognised by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) as being more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) in height above sea level, and sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no precise definition of the criteria used to assess independence, and at times, the UIAA has considered whether the list should be expanded to 20 mountain peaks by including the major satellite peaks of eight-thousanders. All of the eight-thousanders are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia, and their summits lie in an altitude known as the death zone.
Alan Hinkes OBE is an English Himalayan high-altitude mountaineer from Northallerton in North Yorkshire. He is the first British mountaineer to claim all 14 Himalayan eight-thousanders, which he did on 30 May 2005.
Juan Eusebio Oiarzabal Urteaga, commonly known as Juanito Oiarzabal, is a noted Spanish Basque mountaineer. He has written four books on the subject. He was the 6th man to reach all 14 eight-thousander summits, and the third to do so without supplemental oxygen. He was the first person to climb the top three summits twice and the oldest climber to summit Kangchenjunga, at almost 53, until Carlos Fontan did so in 2014, at 75 years old. In 2004, he lost all his toes to frostbite after summiting K2.
Nives Meroi is an Italian mountaineer and a climbing writer. On 11 May 2017 she completed the ascent of all 14 eight-thousanders using the alpine style of climbing and without supplementary oxygen.
Andrew James Lock OAM is an Australian mountaineer. He became the first, and still remains the only, Australian to climb all 14 "eight-thousanders" on 2 October 2009, and is the 18th person to ever complete this feat. He climbed 13 of the 14 without bottled oxygen, only using it on Mount Everest, which he has summited three times. He retired from eight-thousander climbing in 2012.
Kinga Baranowska is a Polish mountaineer. She made ascents of nine eight-thousanders and is the first Polish woman to have climbed Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Kangchenjunga. She has also climbed the seven summits.
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner is an Austrian mountaineer. In August 2011, she became the second woman to climb the fourteen eight-thousanders and the first woman to do so without using supplemental oxygen or high-altitude porters. In 2012, she won the prestigious National Geographic Explorer of the Year Award.
Horia Colibășanu is a Romanian climber. He is the first Romanian to have climbed K2, Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, Annapurna, and Kangchenjunga. He climbed ten of the most difficult peaks in the world, above 8,000 m. In 2009 Horia received the “Spirit of Mountaineering” award for his role in the rescue operation of Iñaki Ochoa de Olza.
Alberto Iñurrategi Iriarte is a Basque Spanish mountaineer born in Aretxabaleta, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country. In the year 2002, he became the second Basque and Spaniard and the 10th person to climb the 14 eight-thousanders.
Ashish Mane is a professional climber from India. He has scaled Mount Everest (2012), Lhotse (2013), Makalu (2014), Manaslu (2017), and Kanchenjunga (2019). Ashish is the only climber from Maharashtra as of now, to ascend five of the fourteen eight-thousander peaks over 8,000 meters (26,250ft) above sea level. In 2016, he attempted to climb Dhaulagiri, but due to technical reasons he had to quit the expedition.
Nirmal Purja is a Nepal-born naturalised British mountaineer. Prior to taking on a career in mountaineering, he served in the British Army with the Brigade of Gurkhas followed by the Special Boat Service (SBS), the special forces unit of the Royal Navy. Purja is notable for having climbed all 14 eight-thousanders in a time of six months and six days with the aid of bottled oxygen. This was a record at the time of climbing, although it was broken in 2023 by Kristin Harila and Tenjen Sherpa, who summitted all 14 eight-thousanders in 92 days. Purja was the first person to reach the summits of Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu within 48 hours. In 2021, Purja, along with a team of nine other Nepalese climbers, completed the first winter ascent of K2.
Shehroze Kashif is a Pakistani mountaineer who became the youngest climber in the world to summit K2 on 27 July 2021. He became the youngest Pakistani to summit Mount Everest on 11 May 2021. After the successful summit of Mount Everest, Sports Board Punjab made him the youth ambassador of Punjab, Pakistan. He summited Broad Peak at the age of 17, after which he was called 'The Broad Boy'.
Adriana Brownlee is an English mountaineer, certified paragliding pilot, and adventure athlete. She is the youngest woman to have climbed the world’s second highest peak K2 on July 28, 2022 and youngest women to climb the higher 8,000ers on 28 July 2022.
Kristin Harila is a Norwegian-Northern Saami mountaineer and former cross-country skier. During 2022–2023, she set multiple speed records for the ascent of all 14 eight-thousanders, which are the peaks in the world that are over 8,000 metres in elevation.
Dawa Ongju Sherpa- Nepali: दावा ओङ्जु शेर्पा is a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer. He has climbed 13 of the 14 highest peaks in the world.
Sirbaz Khan is a Pakistani mountaineer. He is the first Pakistani to summit 13 of the eight-thousanders, which comprise the world's 14 highest peaks.
Tenjen Sherpa, also known as Tenjen Lama Sherpa, was a Nepalese mountaineer who climbed all 14 eight-thousander together with Kristin Harila in 92 days. He went missing after an avalanche hit on Shishapangma on 7 October 2023. He was declared dead by Chinese authorities on 8 October 2023.
Indian