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, 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.
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 do so 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 14 of the eight-thousanders 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 reached the summit of Mount Everest.
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 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 climber. She made ascents of nine eight-thousanders and is the first Polish woman to have climbed Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Kangchenjunga. She currently lives in Warsaw.
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 the use of supplementary 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 reach the summits of 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 (Spain). In the year 2002, he became the second Spaniard and Basque and the 10th person to climb the 14 eight-thousanders.
Denis Urubko is a Russian-Polish climber. In 2009, as a citizen of Kazakhstan he became the 15th person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders and the 8th person to achieve the feat without using supplemental oxygen. He had Soviet citizenship, but after the dissolution of the Soviet Union he became a citizen of Kazakhstan, but renounced the citizenship in 2012. In 2013, he received Russian citizenship and on 12 February 2015 he received Polish citizenship.
Azim Gheychisaz is an Iranian mountaineer and summiter of all 14 Eight-thousanders without any supplimantry oxygen. 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.
Ashish Mane is a professional mountaineer 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.
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 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.
Tenjen Sherpa, also known as Tenjen Lama Sherpa, was a Nepalese mountaineer, who climbed all 14 eight-thousanders 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