Eight-thousander

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The eight-thousanders are the 14 independent mountains on Earth that are more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) high above sea level. All eight-thousanders are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia. Their summits are in the death zone.

Video Eight-thousander

History of climbing

The first recorded attempt on an eight-thousander was when Albert F. Mummery and J. Norman Collie tried to climb Pakistan's Nanga Parbat in 1895. The attempt was unsuccessful when Mummery and two Gurkhas, Ragobir 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 on the 1950 French Annapurna expedition reached the summit of Annapurna on 3 June 1950. The first winter ascent of an eight-thousander was done by Polish team led by Andrzej Zawada on Mount Everest. Two climbers Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki reached the summit on 17 February 1980.

The first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders was the Italian Reinhold Messner, who completed this feat on 16 October 1986. In 1987, Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczka became the second person to accomplish this feat. Kukuczka is also the man who established the most (9) new routes on the main eight-thousanders. Messner summitted each of the 14 peaks without the aid of supplemental oxygen. This feat was not repeated until nine years later by the Swiss Erhard Loretan in 1995. Phurba Tashi of Nepal has completed the most climbs of the eight-thousanders, with 30 ascents between 1998 and 2011. Juanito Oiarzabal has completed the second most, with a total of 25 ascents between 1985 and 2011. The Italian Simone Moro is the only mountaineer to have made the first winter ascent of four of the eight-thousanders, Jerzy Kukuczka made four winter ascents as well, but one of them was a repetition (K2 has never been summited in the winter).

The first woman who summited all 14 eight-thousanders with no disputed climbing was the Spanish Edurne Pasaban, in 2010. In August 2011, Austrian climber Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner became the first woman to climb the 14 eight-thousanders without the use of supplementary oxygen.

The first couple and team who summited all 14 eight-thousanders together were the Italians Nives Meroi (second woman without supplementary oxygen), and her husband Romano Benet in 2017. They climbed in alpine style, without the use of supplementary oxygen.

The country with the highest number of climbers that have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders is Italy with seven climbers, followed by Spain with six climbers and South Korea with five climbers. Kazakhstan and Poland have three climbers each that completed the "Crown of the Himalaya".

To relieve capacity pressure, and further develop climbing tourism, the Nepalese authorities lobbied the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, (or UIAA), in 2012-2013 to expand the list of 14 eight-thousanders to 19 by re-classifying 5 summits (2 on Lhotse and 3 on Kanchenjunga), as standalone eight-thousanders. The UIAA set up a project group to investigate (called the AGURA Project), however, these proposed 5 new peaks would not meet the UIAA criteria for at least 135 metres of elevation between standalone peaks. There has been no conclusion as of 2018.

Maps Eight-thousander

List of all 14 eight-thousanders

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Climbers of all 14 eight-thousanders

There is no single undisputed source for verified Himalayan ascents, however Elizabeth Hawley's "Himalayan Database", comes close.
Online ascent databases pay close regard to the "Himalayan Database", including AdventureStats.com, and the Eberhard Jurgalski list.
Various mountaineering journals (including the Alpine Journal and the American Alpine Journal), maintain extensive records and archives but do not always opine on ascents.

Climbers with verified ascents

Field O₂ lists people who have climbed all 14 without any bottled, or supplementary, oxygen.

Climbers with disputed ascents

Claims in which not enough evidence was provided to verify the ascents of all 14 peaks. The disputed ascent in each claim is shown in parentheses. In most cases, the influential Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, is an important source regarding the fact-base of the dispute. Her well-regarded "Himalayan Database" is the source for other online Himalayan ascent databases (e.g. AdventureStats.com).

Cho Oyu is a recurrent problem peak as it is a small hump circa 30 mins into the summit plateau, and the main proxy - "Did you see Everest" - requires clear weather. Shishapangma is another problem peak because of its dual summits, which despite being close in height, are up to two hours climbing time apart. Elizabeth Hawley famously got Ed Viesturs to re-climb the main summit of Shishapangma.