The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no precise definition of the criteria used to assess independence, and, since 2012, the UIAA has been involved in a process to consider whether the list should be expanded to 20 mountains. All eight-thousanders are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia, and their summits are in the death zone.
From 1950 to 1964, all 14 eight-thousanders were summited in the summer (the first was Annapurna I in 1950, and the last was Shishapangma in 1964), and from 1980 to 2021, all 14 were summited in the winter (the first being Mount Everest in 1980, and the last being K2 in 2021). On a variety of statistical techniques, the deadliest eight-thousander is Annapurna I (one death – climber or climber support – for every three summiters), followed by K2 and Nanga Parbat (one death for every four to five summiters), and then Dhaulagiri and Kangchenjunga (one for every six to seven summiters).
The first person to summit all 14 eight-thousanders was the Italian climber Reinhold Messner in 1986, who did not use any supplementary oxygen. In 2010, Spaniard Edurne Pasaban became the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders, but with the aid of supplementary oxygen. In 2011, Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner became the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders without the aid of supplementary oxygen. In 2013, South Korean Kim Chang-ho climbed all 14 eight-thousanders in 7 years and 310 days, without the aid of supplementary oxygen. In 2019, British-Nepalese climber Nirmal Purja, climbed all 14 eight-thousanders in 6 months and 6 days, with supplementary oxygen. In July 2022, Sanu Sherpa became the first person to summit all 14 eight-thousanders twice, which he did over the period 2006 to 2022.
Issues with false summits (e.g. Cho Oyu, Annapurna I and Dhaulagiri), or separated dual summits (e.g. Shishapangma and Manaslu), have led to disputed claims of ascents. [1] In 2022, after several years of research, a team of experts reported that they could only confirm evidence that three climbers, Ed Viesturs, Veikka Gustafsson and Nirmal Purja, had actually stood on the true summit of all 14 eight-thousanders. [2]
The first recorded attempt on an eight-thousander was when Albert F. Mummery, Geoffrey Hastings and J. Norman Collie tried to climb Pakistan's Nanga Parbat in 1895. The attempt failed when Mummery and two Gurkhas, Ragobir Thapa and Goman Singh, were killed by an avalanche. [3]
The first recorded successful ascent of an eight-thousander was by the French Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, who reached the summit of Annapurna on 3 June 1950 during the 1950 French Annapurna expedition. [4] Due to its location in Tibet, Shishapangma was the last eight-thousander to be ascended, which was completed by a Chinese team led by Xu Jing in 1964 (western China's mountains were closed to foreign travel until 1978). [5]
The first winter ascent of an eight-thousander was by a Polish team led by Andrzej Zawada on Mount Everest, with Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki reaching the summit on 17 February 1980; [6] all-Polish teams would complete nine of the first fourteen winter ascents of eight-thousanders. [7] The final eight-thousander to be climbed in winter was K2, whose summit was ascended by a 10-person Nepalese team on 16 January 2021. [8]
Only two climbers have completed more than one first ascent of an eight-thousander, Hermann Buhl (Nanga Parbat and Broad Peak) and Kurt Diemberger (Broad Peak and Dhaulagiri). Buhl's summit of Nanga Parbat in 1953 is notable as being the only solo first ascent of one of the eight-thousanders. The Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczka is noted for creating over ten new routes on various eight-thousander mountains. [7] Italian climber Simone Moro made the first winter ascent of four eight-thousander mountains (Shishapangma, Makalu, Gasherbrum II, and Nanga Parbat), [9] while two Polish climbers have each made three first winter ascents of an eight-thousander, Krzysztof Wielicki (Everest, Kangchenjunga, and Lhotse) and Jerzy Kukuczka (Dhaulagiri I, Kangchenjunga, and Annapurna I). [7]
On 16 October 1986, Italian Reinhold Messner became the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. In 1987, Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczka became the second person to accomplish this feat. [7] Messner summited each of the 14 peaks without the aid of bottled oxygen, a feat that was only repeated by the Swiss Erhard Loretan nine years later in 1995 (Kukuczka had used supplementary oxygen while summiting Everest and on no other eight-thousander [7] ). [11]
On 17 May 2010, Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban became the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders. [12] In August 2011, Austrian climber Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner became the first woman to climb the 14 eight-thousanders without the use of supplementary oxygen. [13] [14]
The first couple and team to summit all 14 eight-thousanders were the Italians Nives Meroi (who was the second woman to accomplish this feat without supplementary oxygen), and her husband Romano Benet on 11 May 2017. [15] [16] The couple climbed alpine style, without the use of supplementary oxygen or other support. [16] [17]
Nepali mountain guide Kami Rita, holds the record for the most ascents of an eight-thousander peak at 39, a feat he achieved on 7 May 2022 by summiting Everest for the 26th time (which was also a record for the most summits of Everest by a climber). [18]
On 20 May 2013, South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho set a new speed record of climbing all 14 eight-thousanders, without the use of supplementary oxygen, in 7 years and 310 days. On 29 October 2019, the British-Nepali climber Nirmal Purja set a speed record for climbing all 14 eight-thousanders, with the use of supplementary oxygen, in 6 months and 6 days. [19] [20] [21]
In July 2022, Sanu Sherpa became the first person to summit all 14 eight-thousanders twice. [22] He started with Cho Oyu in 2006, and completed the double by summiting Gasherbrum II in July 2022. [23]
The extreme altitude and the fact that the summits of all eight-thousanders lie in the Death Zone mean that climber mortality (or death rate), is particularly high. [24] Two metrics are quoted to establish a death rate (i.e. broad and narrow) that are used to rank the eight-thousanders in order of deadliest (note that they are also the world's overall deadliest mountains). [25] [26]
The summary tables from the HDB report for all mountains above 8,000 meters also imply that the death rate of climbers for the period 1990 to 2009 (e.g. modern expeditions), is roughly half that of the combined 1950 to 2009 period, i.e. climbing is becoming safer for the climbers attempting the summit. [28]
From 1950 to 1964, all 14 of the eight-thousanders were summited in the summer (the first was Annapurna I in 1950, and the last was Shishapangma in 1964), and from 1980 to 2021, all 14 were summited in the winter (the first being Everest in 1980, and the last being K2 in 2021).
Mountain [29] | First ascent [29] | First winter ascent [29] | From 1950 to March 2012 [30] | Climber Death Rate [28] [31] [lower-alpha 2] | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Height [32] | Prom. [32] | Country | Date | Summiter(s) | Date | Summiter(s) | Total Ascents [lower-alpha 3] | Total Deaths [lower-alpha 1] | Deaths/ Ascents [lower-alpha 4] | |
Everest | 8,849 m (29,032 ft) [33] | 8,849 m (29,032 ft) | ![]() ![]() | 29 May 1953 | ![]() | 17 February 1980 | ![]() ![]() | 5656 | 223 | 3.9% | 1.52% |
K2 | 8,611 m (28,251 ft) | 4,020 m (13,190 ft) | ![]() ![]() | 31 July 1954 | ![]() ![]() | 16 January 2021 [8] | ![]() ![]() | 306 | 81 | 26.5% | – [lower-alpha 5] |
Kangchenjunga | 8,586 m (28,169 ft) | 3,922 m (12,867 ft) | ![]() ![]() | 25 May 1955 | ![]() ![]() on British expedition | 11 January 1986 | ![]() ![]() | 283 | 40 | 14.1% | 3.00% |
Lhotse | 8,516 m (27,940 ft) | 610 m (2,000 ft) | ![]() ![]() | 18 May 1956 | ![]() ![]() | 31 December 1988 | ![]() | 461 | 13 | 2.8% | 1.03% |
Makalu | 8,485 m (27,838 ft) | 2,378 m (7,802 ft) | ![]() ![]() | 15 May 1955 | ![]() ![]() on French expedition | 9 February 2009 | ![]() ![]() | 361 | 31 | 8.6% | 1.63% |
Cho Oyu | 8,188 m (26,864 ft) | 2,344 m (7,690 ft) | ![]() ![]() | 19 October 1954 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 12 February 1985 | ![]() ![]() | 3138 | 44 | 1.4% | 0.64% |
Dhaulagiri I | 8,167 m (26,795 ft) | 3,357 m (11,014 ft) | ![]() | 13 May 1960 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 21 January 1985 | ![]() ![]() | 448 | 69 | 15.4% | 2.94% |
Manaslu | 8,163 m (26,781 ft) | 3,092 m (10,144 ft) | ![]() | 9 May 1956 | ![]() ![]() | 12 January 1984 | ![]() ![]() | 661 | 65 | 9.8% | 2.77% |
Nanga Parbat | 8,125 m (26,657 ft) | 4,608 m (15,118 ft) | ![]() | 3 July 1953 | ![]() on German–Austrian expedition | 26 February 2016 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 335 | 68 | 20.3% | – [lower-alpha 5] |
Annapurna I | 8,091 m (26,545 ft) | 2,984 m (9,790 ft) | ![]() | 3 June 1950 | ![]() ![]() | 3 February 1987 | ![]() ![]() | 191 | 61 | 31.9% | 4.05% |
Gasherbrum I (Hidden Peak) | 8,080 m (26,510 ft) | 2,155 m (7,070 ft) | ![]() ![]() | 5 July 1958 | ![]() ![]() | 9 March 2012 | ![]() ![]() | 334 | 29 | 8.7% | – [lower-alpha 5] |
Broad Peak | 8,051 m (26,414 ft) | 1,701 m (5,581 ft) | ![]() ![]() | 9 June 1957 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 5 March 2013 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 404 | 21 | 5.2% | – [lower-alpha 5] |
Gasherbrum II | 8,034 m (26,358 ft) | 1,524 m (5,000 ft) | ![]() ![]() | 7 July 1956 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 2 February 2011 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 930 | 21 | 2.3% | – [lower-alpha 5] |
Shishapangma | 8,027 m (26,335 ft) | 2,897 m (9,505 ft) | ![]() | 2 May 1964 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 14 January 2005 | ![]() ![]() | 302 | 25 | 8.3% |
There is no single undisputed source for verified Himalayan ascents; however, Elizabeth Hawley's The Himalayan Database , [40] is considered as an important source for verified ascents for the Nepalese Himalayas. [41] [42] Online databases of Himalayan ascents pay close regard to The Himalayan Database, including the website AdventureStats.com, [43] and the Eberhard Jurgalski List. [1] [44] [45]
Various mountaineering journals, including the Alpine Journal and the American Alpine Journal , maintain extensive records and archives on expeditions to the eight-thousanders, but do not always opine on disputed ascents, and nor do they maintain registers of verified ascents. [1] [44]
The "No O2" column lists people who have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders without supplementary oxygen.
Order | Order (No O2) | Name | Period climbing eight-thousanders | Born | Age | Nationality |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Reinhold Messner | 1970–1986 | 1944 | 42 | ![]() |
2 | Jerzy Kukuczka | 1979–1987 | 1948 | 39 | ![]() | |
3 | 2 | Erhard Loretan | 1982–1995 | 1959 | 36 | ![]() |
4 | [47] | Carlos Carsolio | 1985–1996 | 1962 | 33 | ![]() |
5 | Krzysztof Wielicki | 1980–1996 | 1950 | 46 | ![]() | |
6 | 3 | Juanito Oiarzabal | 1985–1999 | 1956 | 43 | ![]() |
7 | Sergio Martini | 1983–2000 | 1949 | 51 | ![]() | |
8 | Park Young-seok | 1993–2001 | 1963 | 38 | ![]() | |
9 | Um Hong-gil | 1988–2001 | 1960 [48] | 40 | ![]() | |
10 | 4 | Alberto Iñurrategi | 1991–2002 [49] | 1968 | 33 | ![]() |
11 | Han Wang-yong | 1994–2003 | 1966 | 37 | ![]() | |
12 | 5 [50] | Ed Viesturs | 1989–2005 | 1959 | 46 | ![]() |
13 | 6 [51] [52] [53] | Silvio Mondinelli | 1993–2007 | 1958 | 49 | ![]() |
14 | 7 [54] | Ivan Vallejo | 1997–2008 | 1959 | 49 | ![]() |
15 | 8 [55] | Denis Urubko | 2000–2009 | 1973 | 35 | ![]() |
16 | Ralf Dujmovits | 1990–2009 | 1961 [56] | 47 | ![]() | |
17 [57] | 9 [58] | Veikka Gustafsson | 1993–2009 | 1968 | 41 | ![]() |
18 [59] | Andrew Lock | 1993–2009 | 1961 [60] | 48 | ![]() | |
19 | 10 | João Garcia | 1993–2010 | 1967 | 43 | ![]() |
20 [61] | Piotr Pustelnik | 1990–2010 | 1951 | 58 | ![]() | |
21 [62] | Edurne Pasaban | 2001–2010 | 1973 | 36 | ![]() | |
22 [63] | Abele Blanc | 1992–2011 [64] [65] | 1954 | 56 | ![]() | |
23 | Mingma Sherpa | 2000–2011 [64] | 1978 | 33 | ![]() | |
24 | 11 | Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner | 1998–2011 [64] | 1970 | 40 | ![]() |
25 | Vassily Pivtsov | 2001–2011 [64] | 1975 | 36 | ![]() | |
26 | 12 | Maxut Zhumayev | 2001–2011 [64] | 1977 | 34 | ![]() |
27 | Kim Jae-soo | 2000–2011 [64] | 1961 | 50 | ![]() | |
28 [66] | 13 | Mario Panzeri | 1988–2012 | 1964 | 48 | ![]() |
29 [67] | Hirotaka Takeuchi | 1995–2012 [67] | 1971 | 41 | ![]() | |
30 | Chhang Dawa Sherpa | 2001–2013 [64] | 1982 | 30 | ![]() | |
31 | 14 | Kim Chang-ho | 2005–2013 [64] | 1970 | 43 | ![]() |
32 | Jorge Egocheaga | 2002–2014 [68] | 1968 | 45 | ![]() | |
33 | 15 | Radek Jaroš | 1998–2014 [64] | 1964 | 50 | ![]() |
34/35 [69] | 16/17 [69] | Nives Meroi | 1998–2017 [70] [71] | 1961 | 55 | ![]() |
34/35 [69] | 16/17 [69] | Romano Benet | 1998–2017 [70] [71] [72] | 1962 | 55 | ![]() ![]() |
36 | Peter Hámor | 1998–2017 [73] [74] [75] | 1964 | 52 | ![]() | |
37 | 18 | Azim Gheychisaz | 2008–2017 [76] | 1981 | 37 | ![]() |
38 | Ferran Latorre | 1999–2017 [77] | 1970 | 46 | ![]() | |
39 | 19 | Òscar Cadiach | 1984–2017 [78] | 1952 | 64 | ![]() |
40 | Kim Mi-gon | 2000–2018 [79] [80] | 1973 | 45 | ![]() | |
41 | Sanu Sherpa | 2006–2019 [81] | 1975 | 44 | ![]() | |
42 | Nirmal Purja | 2014–2019 [21] [82] [lower-alpha 6] | 1983 | 36 | ![]() | |
43 | Mingma Gyabu Sherpa | 2010–2019 [83] [84] | 1989 | 30 | ![]() | |
44 | Kim Hong-bin | 2006–2021 [85] [86] [87] | 1964 | 57 | ![]() | |
45 | Nima Gyalzen Sherpa | 2004–2022 [88] [89] | 1985 | 37 | ![]() | |
46 | Dong Hong Juan | 2015–2023 [90] | ![]() | |||
47 | Kristin Harila | 2021–2023 [91] [92] | 1986 | 37 | ![]() |
Claims have been made for summiting all 14 peaks for which not enough evidence was provided to verify the ascent; the disputed ascent in each claim is shown in parentheses in the table below. In most cases, the Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley is considered a definitive source regarding the facts of the dispute. Her The Himalayan Database is the source for other online Himalayan ascent databases (e.g. AdventureStats.com). [41] [42] The Eberhard Jurgalski List is also another important source for independent verification of claims to have summited all 14 eight-thousanders. [1] [44]
Name and details | Period climbing eight-thousanders | Born | Age | Nationality |
---|---|---|---|---|
Fausto De Stefani (Lhotse 1997) [93] His partner Sergio Martini reclimbed Lhotse in 2000 to verify his 14, see above. | 1983–1998 | 1952 | 46 | ![]() |
Alan Hinkes (Cho Oyu 1990) [94] [95] Hinkes rejected Hawley's decision to "unrecognise" his ascent, see "Cho Oyu dispute". | 1987–2005 | 1954 | 53 | ![]() |
Vladislav Terzyul (Shishapangma (West) 2000, Broad Peak 1995 [96] [97] ) [98] [99] As he did not claim the main summit of Shishapangma, this status is unlikely to change. | 1993–2004 (deceased) | 1953 | 49 | ![]() |
Oh Eun-sun (Kangchenjunga 2009) [100] [101] [102] As the potential first female climber of all 14, this dispute was followed internationally. [101] | 1997–2010 | 1966 | 44 | ![]() |
Carlos Pauner (Shishapangma 2012) [103] Pauner acknowledged his uncertainty as it was dark; said he might reclimb. [104] | 2001–2013 | 1963 | 50 | ![]() |
Zhang Liang (Shishapangma 2018) [105] [106] [107] Suspected the 2018 Chinese Shishapangma expedition stopped at central summit. | 2000–2018 | 1964 | 54 | ![]() |
A recurrent problem with verification is the confirmation that the climber reached the true peak of the eight-thousander. Eight-thousanders present unique problems in this regard as they are so infrequently summited, their summits have not yet been exhaustively surveyed, and summiting climbers are often suffering the extreme altitude and weather effects of being in the death zone. [1] [44]
Cho Oyu for example, is a recurrent problem eight-thousander as its true peak is a small hump about a thirty minutes walk into the large flat summit plateau that lies in the death zone. The true peak is often obscured in very poor weather, and this led to the disputed ascent (per the table above) of British climber, Alan Hinkes (who has refused to re-climb the peak). [108] [109] Shishapangma is another problem peak because of its dual summits, which despite being close in height, are up to two hours climbing time apart and require the crossing of an exposed and dangerous snow ridge. [1] [110] When Hawley judged that Ed Viesturs had not reached the true summit of Shishapangma (which she deduced from his summit photos and interviews), he then re-climbed the mountain to definitively establish his ascent. [111] [1]
In a May 2021 interview with the New York Times, Jurgalski pointed out further issues with false summits on Annapurna I (a long ridge with multiple summits), Dhaulagiri (misleading false summit metal pole), and Manaslu (additional sharp and dangerous ridge to the true summit, like Shishapangma), noting that of the existing 44 accepted claims (as per the table earlier), at least 7 had serious question marks (these were in addition to the table of disputed ascents), and even noting that "It is possible that no one has ever been on the true summit of all 14 of the 8,000-meter peaks". [1] In June 2021, Australian climber Damien Gildea wrote an article in the American Alpine Journal on the work that Jurgalski and a team of international experts were doing in this area, including publishing detailed surveys of the problem summits using data from the German Aerospace Center. [44]
In July 2022, Jurgalski posted conclusions of the team's research (the wider team being of Rodolphe Popier and Tobias Pantel of The Himalayan Database, and Damien Gildea, Federico Bernardi, Bob Schelfhout Aubertijn, and Thaneswar Guragai). According to their analysis, only three climbers, Ed Viesturs, Veikka Gustafsson and Nirmal Purja have stood on the true summit of all 14 eight-thousanders, and no female climber had yet done so. [2] Viesturs is also the first to have done so without the use of oxygen. [2] Jurgalski allowed for the fact that they had deliberately not stood on the true summit of Kangchenjunga out of religious respect. [2] The team has not formally published their work, and according to Popier, they had not decided about "the best respectful form to present it". [2]
In 2012, to relieve capacity pressure and overcrowding on the world's highest mountain, greater restrictions were placed on expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest. [112] To address the growing capacity constraints, Nepal lobbied the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (or UIAA) to reclassify five subsidiary summits (two on Lhotse and three on Kanchenjunga), as standalone eight-thousanders, while Pakistan lobbied for a sixth subsidiary summit (on Broad Peak) as a standalone eight-thousander. [113] See table below for list of all subsidiary summits of eight-thousander mountains.
In 2012, the UIAA initiated the ARUGA Project, with an aim to see if these six new 8,000 m (26,247 ft)-plus peaks could feasibly achieve international recognition. [113] The proposed six new eight-thousander peaks have a topographic prominence above 60 m (197 ft), but none would meet the wider UIAA prominence threshold of 600 m (1,969 ft) (the lowest prominence of the existing 14 eight-thousanders is Lhotse, at 610 metres (2,001 ft)). [114] [115] Critics noted that of the six proposed, only Broad Peak Central, with a prominence of 181 metres (594 ft), would even meet the 150 metres (492 ft) prominence threshold to be a British Isles Marilyn. [114] The appeal noted the UIAA's 1994 reclassification of Alpine four-thousander peaks used a prominence threshold of 30 m (98 ft), [lower-alpha 7] amongst other criteria; the logic being that if 30 m (98 ft) worked for 4,000 m (13,123 ft) summits, then 60 m (197 ft) is proportional for 8,000 m (26,247 ft) summits. [116]
As of November 2018 [update] , there has been no conclusion by the UIAA and the proposals appear to have been set aside.
Proposed new eight-thousander | Height (m) | Prominence (m) | Dominance (Prom / Height) [118] | Dominance classification [118] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Broad Peak Central | 8011 | 181 | 2,26 | B2 |
Kangchenjunga W-Peak (Yalung Kang) | 8505 | 135 | 1,59 | C1 |
Kangchenjunga S-Peak | 8476 | 116 | 1,37 | C2 |
Kangchenjunga C-Peak | 8473 | 63 | 0,74 | C2 |
Lhotse C-Peak I (Lhotse Middle) | 8410 | 65 | 0,77 | C2 |
Lhotse Shar | 8382 | 72 | 0,86 | C2 |
K 2 SW-Peak | 8580 | 30 | 0,35 | D1 |
Lhotse C-Peak II | 8372 | 37 | 0,44 | D1 |
Everest W-Peak | 8296 | 30 | 0,36 | D1 |
Yalung Kang Shoulder | 8200 | 40 | 0,49 | D1 |
Kangchenjunga SE-Peak | 8150 | 30 | 0,37 | D1 |
K 2 P. 8134 (SW-Ridge) | 8134 | 35 | 0,43 | D1 |
Annapurna C-Peak | 8013 | 49 | 0,61 | D1 |
Nanga Parbat S-Peak | 8042 | 30 | 0,37 | D1 |
Annapurna E-Peak | 7986 | 65 | 0,81 | C2 |
Shisha Pangma C-Peak | 8008 | 30 | 0,37 | D1 |
Everest NE-Shoulder | 8423 | 19 | 0,23 | D2 |
Everest NE-Pinnacle III | 8383 | 13 | 0,16 | D2 |
Lhotse N-Pinnacle III | 8327 | 10 | 0,12 | D2 |
Lhotse N-Pinnacle II | 8307 | 12 | 0,14 | D2 |
Lhotse N-Pinnacle I | 8290 | 10 | 0,12 | D2 |
Everest NE-Pinnacle II | 8282 | 25 | 0,30 | D2 |
Annapurna is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain in the world at 8,091 metres (26,545 ft) above sea level and is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its ascent.
Cho Oyu is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at 8,188 metres (26,864 ft) above sea level. Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the Khumbu sub-section of the Mahalangur Himalaya 20 km west of Mount Everest. The mountain stands on the China Tibet–Nepal Province No. 1 border.
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 sixth man to reach all 14 eight-thousander summits, and the third one to reach them without supplementary oxygen. He was the first person to conquer the top three summits twice and was the oldest climber to summit Kangchenjunga, at almost 53, until Carlos Soria Fontan did so in 2014, at 75 years old. In 2004, he lost all his toes to frostbite after summiting K2.
Edurne Pasaban Lizarribar is a Basque Spanish mountaineer. On May 17, 2010, she became the first woman to climb all of the fourteen eight-thousander peaks in the World –and the 21st person to do so. Her first 8,000 peak had been achieved 9 years earlier, on May 23, 2001, when she climbed to the summit of Mount Everest.
Benoît Chamoux was a French Alpinist, who claimed to have summited 13 of the Eight-thousanders in the Himalayas.
Nives Meroi is an Italian mountaineer and a climbing writer. On 11 May 2017 she completed the ascent to the summits of all 14 eight-thousanders using the alpine style of climbing and without supplementary oxygen.
Andrew James Lock OAM is an Australian high-altitude 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 using bottled oxygen, only using it on Mount Everest, which he has summited three times. He retired from eight-thousander climbing in 2012.
Iván Vallejo Ricaurte is a high-altitude mountaineer from Ecuador. On 1 May 2008, he became the 14th person to reach the summit of all 14 mountains above 8,000 meters, and the 7th without use of supplemental oxygen. He is the first, and still the only, Southern Hemisphere climber to complete all 14 eight-thousanders, without supplemental oxygen.
Oh Eun-sun is a South Korean mountaineer. She was the first Korean woman to climb the Seven Summits. On April 27, 2010, she reached the summit of Annapurna; upon doing so, she claimed to have climbed all fourteen eight-thousanders, which would have made her the first woman to achieve this feat. However, her claim to have ascended Kangchenjunga was disputed by multiple experts. Oh later admitted that she had stopped a few hundred meters before the summit of Kangchenjunga, and so the Korean Alpine Federation ruled that she had not summited. The mountaineering site ExplorersWeb considered Edurne Pasaban as the first woman to have successfully climbed all fourteen peaks.
Alberto Iñurrategi Iriarte is a Basque Spanish mountaineer born in Aretxabaleta, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country (Spain). In the year 2002, he became the second Spaniard and Basque and the 10th person to climb the 14 eight-thousanders.
Ralf Dujmovits is a German mountaineer. In May 2009 he became the 16th person, and the first German, to climb the 14 eight-thousanders.
Azim Gheychisaz is an Iranian mountain climber and the summiter of all 14 Eight-thousanders. Marble Wall peak in Kazakhstan was his first professional climbing in 2000. He is a member of Iranian national mountaineering team. By 2017, he has successfully ascended all 14 peaks over 8,000 m, becoming the first Iranian to do so and joining the 8000 club.
Nirmal Purja is a Nepal - born naturalised British mountaineer and a holder of multiple mountaineering world records. 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 record time of six months and six days with the aid of bottled oxygen. He was also the first to reach the summits of Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu within 48 hours. In 2021, Purja, along with a team of nine other Nepalese mountaineers, completed the first-ever winter ascent of K2.
Sanu Sherpa is a Nepalese mountaineer from, Makalu, Sankhuwasabha. On 21 July 2022, he became the first person to climb all of the 14 highest peaks in the world, known as the eight-thousanders, twice-over. He made his first ascent of all the 14 eight-thousanders between 2006 and 2019, becoming the 42nd person to do so in history. Before starting climbing as a porter, Sanu was previously a herdsman in Sankhuwasabha District in his early life.
14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible is a 2021 documentary film directed by Torquil Jones, and produced by Noah Media Group, Little Monster Films and Torquil Jones with Nirmal Purja, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Vasarhelyi as executive producers. The film follows Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja and his team as they attempt to climb all 14 eight thousander peaks within a record time of under 7 months.
Kristin Harila is a Norwegian mountaineer and former cross-country skier.
A Nepali mountaineer and former British Marine has climbed the world's tallest 14 peaks in six months - beating an earlier record of almost eight years.
On October 29th, Nirmal Purja Magar announced via Instagram that he had summited China's Shishapangma. This marked the fourteenth 8,000-meter peak he had climbed in seven months and the completion of an extraordinary project to speed climb the world's tallest mountains in rapid succession.
Included are only fatalities from, at or above BC or caused from there. Fatalities on approach or return marches are not listed.
Table D-3: Deaths for peaks with more than 750 members above base camp from 1950–2009
For every three thrill-seekers that make it safely up and down Annapurna I, one dies trying, according to data from Eberhard Jurgalski of website 8000ers.com, collected in his forthcoming book "On Top of the World: The New Millennium", co-authored by Richard Sale.
...the American climber became one of only five men in the world to accomplish the quest entirely without supplementary oxygen.
Last year, Silvio 'Gnaro' Mondinelli broke the haunted 13 when he summited the last peak on his list of 14, 8000ers – becoming only the 6th mountaineer in the world to have bagged them all without supplementary oxygen.
13/07 interview with Silvio Mondinelli after the summit of his 14th 8000m peak without supplementary oxygen.
Implied in text: ...Following Italian Silvio "Gnaro" Mondinelli last year and American Ed Viesturs in 2005, Ivan also became only the seventh mountaineer in the world to have done them all without supplementary oxygen.
...Ivan also became only the seventh mountaineer in the world to have done them all without supplementary oxygen.
But a South Korean climber, who followed in their footprints on the crusted snow three days later [in 1997] in clearer weather, did not consider that they actually gained the top. While [Sergio] Martini and [Fausto] De Stefani indicated they were perhaps only a few meters below it, Park Young-Seok claimed that their footprints stopped well before the top, perhaps 30 meters below a small fore-summit and 150 vertical meters below the highest summit. Now in 2000 [Sergio] Martini was back again, and this time he definitely summited Lhotse.
But his claim to have now climbed all 8000ers is open to question. In April 1990 he and others reached the summit plateau of Cho Oyu. It was misty so they could not see well; nine years later Hinkes said he had "wandered around for a while" in the summit area but could see very little and eventually descended to join the others, one of whom said they had not reached the top.
Nepal
The most prominent one, Broad Peak Central is just 196m high and the least prominent, Lhotse Middle, is a meagre 60m. To put this in context, the highest mountain in Malta is 253m, while the Eiffel Tower stands a whopping 300m.
Topographic criterium: for each summit, the level difference between it and the highest adjacent pass or notch should be at least 30 m (98 ft) (calculated as average of the summits at the limit of acceptability). An additional criterium can be the horizontal distance between a summit and the base of another adjacent 4000er.
There are several different subsidiary peaks! Here are the geographical facts, from the one "relative independent Main-Peak" (EU category B) over the important subsidiary peaks (C) to the major notable points (D1) Especially the last category is just guessed by contours or from photographs.
Accordingly, the author introduced altitude classes (AC) and a proportional prominence, which he named orometrical dominance (D). D is calculated easily but fittingly: (P/Alt) x 100. Thus, it indicates the percentage of independence for every elevation, no matter what the altitude, prominence or mountain type it is. From a scientific point of view, altitude could be seen as the thesis, prominence as the antithesis, whereas dominance would be the synthesis.