Eight-thousander

The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than 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 consistently 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 Italian Reinhold Messner in 1986, who did not use supplementary oxygen. In 2010, Spaniard Edurne Pasaban became the first woman to summit all 14 without the aid of supplementary oxygen. In 2013, South Korean Kim Chang-ho climbed all 14 in 7 years and 310 days, without the aid of supplementary oxygen. In 2019, British-Nepalese climber Nirmal Purja, climbed all 14 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. In 2022, after several years of research, a team of experts reported that only three climbers, Ed Viesturs, Veikka Gustafsson and Nirmal Purja, had actually stood on the true summit of all 14 eight-thousanders.

Climbing history

First ascents

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.

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. 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).

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; all-Polish teams would complete nine of the first fourteen winter ascents of eight-thousanders. 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.

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. Italian climber Simone Moro made the first winter ascent of four eight-thousander mountains (Shishapangma, Makalu, Gasherbrum II, and Nanga Parbat), 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).

All 14

The first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders was Italian Reinhold Messner, on 16 October 1986. In 1987 Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczka became the second person to accomplish this feat. Messner summited each of the 14 peaks without the aid of bottled oxygen, a feat that was only repeated nine years later by the Swiss Erhard Loretan in 1995 (Kukuczka had only used supplementary oxygen on Everest).

In 2010, Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban

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