Eight-thousander

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.^[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 (Tibet's mountains were closed by China to foreigners 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-thousanders (Shishapangma, Makalu, Gasherbrum II, and Nanga Parbat),^[9] while three Polish climbers have each made three first winter ascents of an eight-thousander, Maciej Berbeka (Cho Oyu, Manaslu, and Broad Peak), Krzysztof Wielicki (Everest, Kangchenjunga, and Lhotse) and Jerzy Kukuczka (Dhaulagiri I, Kangchenjunga, and Annapurna I).^[7]

All 14

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 [it] 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 38, a feat he achieved on 23 May 2023 by summiting Everest for the 28th 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]

On 27 July 2023, Kristin Harila and Tenjen Lama Sherpa completed the ascent of the true geographic summits of all of the 14 eight-thousanders in 92 days, setting a new world speed record for the completion of the eight-thousanders.^[24][25]

Deadliest

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 high.^[31] 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).^[30][32]

• Broad death rate: The first metric is the ratio of successful climbers summiting to total deaths^[c] on the mountain over a given period.^[30] The Guinness Book of World Records uses this metric to name Annapurna I as the deadliest eight-thousander, and the world's deadliest mountain with roughly one person dying for every three people who successfully summit, i.e. a ratio of circa 30%.^[33] Using consistent data from 1950 to 2012, mountaineering statistician Eberhard Jurgalski (see table) used this metric to show Annapurna is the deadliest mountain (31.9%), followed by K2 (26.5%), Nanga Parbat (20.3%), Dhaulagiri (15.4%) and Kangchenjunga (14.1%).^[30] Other statistical sources including MountainIQ, used a mix of data periods from 1900 to Spring 2021 but had similar results showing Annapurna still being the deadliest mountain (27.2%), followed by K2 (22.8%), Nanga Parbat (20.75%), Kangchenjunga (15%), and Dhaulagiri (13.5%).^[32][31] Cho Oyu as the safest at 1.4%.^[30][32]
• Narrow death rate: The drawback of the first metric is that it includes the deaths of any support climbers or climbing sherpas that went above base camp in assisting the climb; therefore, rather than being the probability that a climber will die attempting to summit an eight-thousander, it is more akin to the total human cost in getting a climber to the summit.^[28] In the Himalayan Database (HDB) tables, the climber (or member) "Death Rate" is the ratio of deaths above base camp, of all climbers who were hoping to summit and who went above base camp (calculated for 1950 to 2009), and is closer to a true probability of death (see table below).^[28] The data is only for the Nepalese Himalaya and therefore does not include K2 or Nanga Parbat.^[28] HDB estimates the probability of death for a climber attempting the summit of an eight-thousander is still highest for Annapurna I (4%), followed by Kangchenjunga (3%) and Dhaulagiri (3%); the safest is still Cho Oyu at 0.6%.^[28]

The tables from the HDB for eight thousanders also show 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).

First ascent and first winter ascent for each of the 14 eight-thousanders^[26][27]

Mountain[26]				First ascent[26]		First winter ascent[26]
Name	Height[34]	Prom.[34]	Country	Date	Summiter(s)	Date	Summiter(s)
Everest	8,849 m (29,032 ft)[35]	8,849 m (29,032 ft)	Nepal China	29 May 1953	Edmund Hillary Tenzing Norgay on British expedition	17 February 1980	Krzysztof Wielicki Leszek Cichy
K2	8,611 m (28,251 ft)	4,020 m (13,190 ft)	Pakistan China[36]	31 July 1954	Achille Compagnoni Lino Lacedelli on Italian expedition	16 January 2021[8]	Nirmal Purja[40] Gelje Sherpa Mingma David Sherpa Mingma Gyalje Sherpa Sona Sherpa Mingma Tenzi Sherpa Pem Chhiri Sherpa Dawa Temba Sherpa Kili Pemba Sherpa Dawa Tenjing Sherpa
Kangchenjunga	8,586 m (28,169 ft)	3,922 m (12,867 ft)	Nepal India[41]	25 May 1955	George Band Joe Brown on British expedition	11 January 1986	Krzysztof Wielicki Jerzy Kukuczka
Lhotse	8,516 m (27,940 ft)	610 m (2,000 ft)	Nepal China	18 May 1956	Fritz Luchsinger Ernst Reiss	31 December 1988	Krzysztof Wielicki
Makalu	8,485 m (27,838 ft)	2,378 m (7,802 ft)	Nepal China	15 May 1955	Jean Couzy Lionel Terray on French expedition	9 February 2009	Simone Moro Denis Urubko
Cho Oyu	8,188 m (26,864 ft)	2,344 m (7,690 ft)	Nepal China	19 October 1954	Joseph Joechler Pasang Dawa Lama Herbert Tichy	12 February 1985	Maciej Berbeka Maciej Pawlikowski
Dhaulagiri I	8,167 m (26,795 ft)	3,357 m (11,014 ft)	Nepal	13 May 1960	Kurt Diemberger Peter Diener Nawang Dorje Nima Dorje Ernst Forrer Albin Schelbert	21 January 1985	Andrzej Czok Jerzy Kukuczka
Manaslu	8,163 m (26,781 ft)	3,092 m (10,144 ft)	Nepal	9 May 1956	Toshio Imanishi Gyalzen Norbu	12 January 1984	Maciej Berbeka Ryszard Gajewski
Nanga Parbat	8,125 m (26,657 ft)	4,608 m (15,118 ft)	Pakistan	3 July 1953	Hermann Buhl on German–Austrian expedition	26 February 2016	Muhammad Ali Sadpara Simone Moro Alex Txikon
Annapurna I	8,091 m (26,545 ft)	2,984 m (9,790 ft)	Nepal	3 June 1950	Maurice Herzog Louis Lachenal on French expedition	3 February 1987	Jerzy Kukuczka Artur Hajzer
Gasherbrum I (Hidden Peak)	8,080 m (26,510 ft)	2,155 m (7,070 ft)	Pakistan China	5 July 1958	Andrew Kauffman Pete Schoening	9 March 2012	Adam Bielecki Janusz Gołąb
Broad Peak	8,051 m (26,414 ft)	1,701 m (5,581 ft)	Pakistan China	9 June 1957	Fritz Wintersteller Marcus Schmuck Kurt Diemberger Hermann Buhl	5 March 2013	Maciej Berbeka Adam Bielecki Tomasz Kowalski Artur Małek
Gasherbrum II	8,034 m (26,358 ft)	1,524 m (5,000 ft)	Pakistan China	7 July 1956	Fritz Moravec Josef Larch Hans Willenpart	2 February 2011	Simone Moro Denis Urubko Cory Richards
Shishapangma	8,027 m (26,335 ft)	2,897 m (9,505 ft)	China	2 May 1964	Xu Jing Chang Chun-yen Wang Fuzhou Chen San Cheng Tien-liang Wu Tsung-yue Sodnam Doji Migmar Trashi Doji Yonten	14 January 2005	Piotr Morawski Simone Moro

First to climb all 14 eight-thousanders

Reinhold Messner, first to climb all 14, and without oxygen

Edurne Pasaban, the first woman to climb all 14 after Oh Eun-sun's claim was disputed

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, the first woman to climb all 14 without oxygen

There is no single undisputed source or arbitrator for verified ascents of Himalayan eight-thousander peaks.

Various mountaineering journals, including the Alpine Journal and the American Alpine Journal, also 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 or lists of verified ascents of the eight-thousanders.^[1][42]

Elizabeth Hawley's The Himalayan Database,^[43] is considered as an important source for verified ascents for the Nepalese Himalayas.^[44][45] Online databases of Himalayan ascents pay close regard to The Himalayan Database, including the website AdventureStats.com,^[46] and the Eberhard Jurgalski List.^[1][42][47]

Verified ascents

The "No O₂" column lists people who have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders without supplementary oxygen.

List of climbers who have summited all 14 eight-thousanders^[48]

Order	Order (No O2)	Name	Period climbing eight-thousanders	Born	Age	Nationality
1	1	Reinhold Messner	1970–1986	1944	42	Italian
2		Jerzy Kukuczka	1979–1987	1948	39	Polish
3	2	Erhard Loretan	1982–1995	1959	36	Swiss
4	[49]	Carlos Carsolio	1985–1996	1962	33	Mexican
5		Krzysztof Wielicki	1980–1996	1950	46	Polish
6	3	Juanito Oiarzabal	1985–1999	1956	43	Spanish
7		Sergio Martini	1983–2000	1949	51	Italian
8		Park Young-seok	1993–2001	1963	38	Korean
9		Um Hong-gil	1988–2001	1960[50]	40	Korean
10	4	Alberto Iñurrategi	1991–2002[51]	1968	33	Spanish
11		Han Wang-yong	1994–2003	1966	37	Korean
12	5[52]	Ed Viesturs	1989–2005	1959	46	American
13	6[53][54][55]	Silvio Mondinelli	1993–2007	1958	49	Italian
14	7[56]	Iván Vallejo	1997–2008	1959	49	Ecuadorian
15	8[57]	Denis Urubko	2000–2009	1973	35	Kazakhstani
16		Ralf Dujmovits	1990–2009	1961[58]	47	German
17[59]	9[60]	Veikka Gustafsson	1993–2009	1968	41	Finnish
18[61]		Andrew Lock	1993–2009	1961[62]	48	Australian
19	10	João Garcia	1993–2010	1967	43	Portuguese
20[63]		Piotr Pustelnik	1990–2010	1951	58	Polish
21[64]		Edurne Pasaban	2001–2010	1973	36	Spanish
22[65]		Abele Blanc	1992–2011[66][67]	1954	56	Italian
23		Mingma Sherpa	2000–2011[66]	1978	33	Nepali
24	11	Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner	1998–2011[66]	1970	40	Austrian
25		Vassily Pivtsov [de]	2001–2011[66]	1975	36	Kazakhstani
26	12	Maxut Zhumayev	2001–2011[66]	1977	34	Kazakhstani
27		Kim Jae-soo [de]	2000–2011[66]	1961	50	Korean
28[68]	13	Mario Panzeri	1988–2012	1964	48	Italian
29[69]		Hirotaka Takeuchi	1995–2012[69]	1971	41	Japanese
30		Chhang Dawa Sherpa	2001–2013[66]	1982	30	Nepali
31	14	Kim Chang-ho	2005–2013[66]	1970	43	Korean
32		Jorge Egocheaga [eu]	2002–2014[70]	1968	45	Spanish
33	15	Radek Jaroš	1998–2014[66]	1964	50	Czech
34/35[71]	16/17[71]	Nives Meroi	1998–2017[72][73]	1961	55	Italian
34/35[71]	16/17[71]	Romano Benet [it]	1998–2017[72][73][74]	1962	55	Italian / Slovenian
36		Peter Hámor [sk]	1998–2017[75][76][77]	1964	52	Slovak
37	18	Azim Gheychisaz	2008–2017[78]	1981	37	Iranian
38		Ferran Latorre	1999–2017[79]	1970	46	Spanish
39	19	Òscar Cadiach	1984–2017[80]	1952	64	Spanish
40		Kim Mi-gon	2000–2018[81][82]	1973	45	Korean
41		Sanu Sherpa	2006–2019[83]	1975	44	Nepali
42		Nirmal Purja	2014–2019[21][84][f]	1983	36	British[37][38][39]
43		Mingma Gyabu Sherpa	2010–2019[85][86]	1989	30	Nepali
44		Kim Hong-bin	2006–2021[87][88][89]	1964	57	Korean
45		Nima Gyalzen Sherpa	2004–2022[90][91]	1985	37	Nepali
46		Dong Hong Juan	2015–2023[92][93]	1981	42	Chinese
47		Kristin Harila	2021–2023[94][95]	1986	37	Norwegian
48		Sophie Lavaud	2012–2023[96][97][98][99]	1968	55	Swiss / French / Canadian
49		Tunç Fındık	2001–2023[98][99]	1972	51	Turkish
50		Tenjen Lama Sherpa	2016–2023[24][25][100]		35[101]	Nepali
51		Gelje Sherpa	2017–2023[102][103][104]	1992[102]	30	Nepali
52		Chris Warner	1999–2023[105]	1965	58	American

Disputed ascents

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).^[44][45] The Eberhard Jurgalski List is also another important source for independent verification of claims to have summited all 14 eight-thousanders.^[1][42]

Name and details	Period climbing eight-thousanders	Born	Age	Nationality
Fausto De Stefani [it] (Lhotse 1997)[106] His partner Sergio Martini reclimbed Lhotse in 2000 to verify his 14, see above.	1983–1998	1952	46	Italian
Alan Hinkes (Cho Oyu 1990)[107][108] Hinkes rejected Hawley's decision to "unrecognise" his ascent, see "Cho Oyu dispute".	1987–2005	1954	53	British
Vladislav Terzyul (Shishapangma (West) 2000, Broad Peak 1995[109][110])[111][112] As he did not claim the main summit of Shishapangma, this status is unlikely to change.	1993–2004 (deceased)	1953	49	Ukrainian
Oh Eun-sun (Kangchenjunga 2009)[113][114][115] As the potential first female climber of all 14, this dispute was followed internationally.[114]	1997–2010	1966	44	Korean
Carlos Pauner [es] (Shishapangma 2012)[116] Pauner acknowledged his uncertainty as it was dark; said he might reclimb.[117]	2001–2013	1963	50	Spanish
Zhang Liang (Shishapangma 2018)[118][119][120] Suspected the 2018 Chinese Shishapangma expedition stopped at central summit.	2000–2018	1964	54	Chinese

Verification issues

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][42]

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).^[121][122] 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][123] 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.^[124][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.^[42]

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.^[125] 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.^[126] 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.^[126] 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)).^[127][128] 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.^[127] The appeal noted the UIAA's 1994 reclassification of Alpine four-thousander peaks used a prominence threshold of 30 m (98 ft),^[g] 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.^[129]

As of April 2024^[update], there has been no conclusion by the UIAA and the proposals appear to have been set aside.

• 
  No. 1 – Mount Everest
• 
  No. 2 – K2
• 
  No. 3 – Kangchenjunga
• 
  No. 4 – Lhotse
• 
  No. 5 – Makalu
• 
  No. 6 – Cho Oyu
• 
  No. 7 – Dhaulagiri
• 
  No. 8 – Manaslu
• 
  No. 9 – Nanga Parbat
• 
  No. 10 – Annapurna
• 
  No. 11 – Gasherbrum I
• 
  No. 12 – Broad Peak
• 
  No. 13 – Gasherbrum II
• 
  No. 14 – Shishapangma

• List of deaths on eight-thousanders
• List of Mount Everest summiters by number of times to the summit
• List of ski descents of eight-thousanders
• Three Poles Challenge, the North Pole, the South Pole, and Mount Everest
• Explorers Grand Slam, the North Pole, the South Pole, and the Seven Summits
• Volcanic Seven Summits, the highest volcanos on each continent
• Fourteener, peak with at least 14,000 ft. elevation
• List of mountains by elevation

• 8000ers.com, a site dedicated to statistics on 8000m peaks and climbs
• PeakBagger.com World 8000-meter Peaks, a database of global peaks
• The Himalayan Database, statistics on Nepalese Himalayan (but not Pakistan Himalaya) climbs from 1905 to 2018
• Graphical Interface for The Himalayan Database
• AdventureStats.com (High Altitude Mountaineering), a site dedicated to recording adventure statistics
• NASA Earth Observatory: The Eight-Thousanders
• Eight Thousanders Tracking Expeditons On Line from Alpinismonline Magazine