The eight-thousanders are the 14 independent[1] mountains on Earth that are more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) high above sea level. They are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia.
The first recorded attempt on an eight-thousander took place on the expedition by Albert F. Mummery, and J. Norman Collie to Nanga Parbat in the territory of Kashmir (in present day Pakistan Administered Kashmir) in 1895; this attempt failed as Mummery and two Gurkhas, Ragobir and Goman Singh, were killed by an avalanche.
The first recorded successful ascent of an eight-thousander was by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, who reached the summit of Annapurna on June 3, 1950.
The first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders was Reinhold Messner. He completed this task on October 16, 1986. A year later, in 1987, Jerzy Kukuczka became the second climber to accomplish this feat. As of 2011[update], a total of 26 people have summitted all 14 peaks undisputed. This is an extremely hazardous feat; at least four people have died while in pursuit of this goal. Phurba Tashi of Nepal has completed the most climbs of the eight-thousanders, with 26 ascents between 1998 and 2011.[2] Juanito Oiarzabal has completed the second most, with a total of 25 times from 1985 to 2011.[3]
The countries with the highest number of climbers that have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders are Italy and South Korea, with 4 climbers each, and Kazakhstan, Poland and Spain with 3 climbers each. The first woman who claimed to have summited all 14 eight-thousanders was Oh Eun-Sun of South Korea, stating she completed the set by summiting Annapurna on April 27, 2010.[4] Doubts about this claim have been raised by several parties and an inquiry by the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) declared her summit claim for Kangchenjunga 2009 "unlikely". Their doubts add to those previously brought forward by rival Edurne Pasaban, which moved Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley in the spring of 2010 to tag the summit as “disputed.".[5] Later in 2010, Edurne Pasaban was declared the first woman to climb all 14 eight-thousanders.[6]
| Peak | Height | Location | First ascent | First ascensionist(s) | First ascent in winter | First ascensionist(s) in winter | Ascents | Deaths | Death rate | Death rate before 1990* |
Death rate since 1990* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everest | 8848 m (29,029 ft) | China/Nepal | 29 May 1953 | Edmund Hillary Tenzing Norgay |
17 Feb 1980 |
Krzysztof Wielicki Leszek Cichy |
3684 | 210 | 5.70% | 37% | 4.4% |
| K2 | 8611 m (28,251 ft) | China/Pakistan[9] | 31 Jul 1954 | Achille Compagnoni Lino Lacedelli |
284 | 66 | 23.24% | 41% | 19.7% | ||
| Kangchenjunga | 8586 m (28,169 ft) | Nepal/India | 25 May 1955 | George Band Joe Brown |
11 Jan 1986 | Krzysztof Wielicki Jerzy Kukuczka |
209 | 40 | 21.4% | 21% | 22% |
| Lhotse | 8516 m (27,940 ft) | China/Nepal | 18 May 1956 | Fritz Luchsinger Ernst Reiss |
31 Dec 1988 | Krzysztof Wielicki | 221 | 11 | 3.43% | 14% | 2% |
| Makalu | 8485 m (27,838 ft) | China/Nepal | 15 May 1955 | Jean Couzy Lionel Terray |
09 Feb 2009 | Simone Moro Denis Urubko |
234 | 26 | 11.11% | 16% | 8.5% |
| Cho Oyu | 8201 m (26,906 ft) | China/Nepal | 19 Oct 1954 | Joseph Joechler Pasang Dawa Lama Herbert Tichy |
12 Feb 1985 | Maciej Berbeka Maciej Pawlikowski |
2668 | 39 | 1.46% | ||
| Dhaulagiri I | 8167 m (26,795 ft) | Nepal | 13 May 1960 | Kurt Diemberger Peter Diener Nawang Dorje Nima Dorje Ernst Forrer Albin Schelbert |
21 Jan 1985 | Andrzej Czok Jerzy Kukuczka |
358 | 58 | 16.20% | 31% | 11% |
| Manaslu | 8163 m (26,781 ft) | Nepal | 9 May 1956 | Toshio Imanishi Gyalzen Norbu |
14 Jan 1984 | Maciej Berbeka Ryszard Gajewski |
297 | 53 | 17.85% | 35.16% | 13.42% |
| Nanga Parbat | 8126 m (26,660 ft) | Pakistan | 03 Jul 1953 | Hermann Buhl | 287 | 64 | 22.30% | 77% | 5.5% | ||
| Annapurna I | 8091 m (26,545 ft) | Nepal | 03 Jun 1950 | Maurice Herzog Louis Lachenal |
03 Feb 1987 | Jerzy Kukuczka Artur Hajzer |
153 | 58 | 38% | 66% | 19.7% |
| Gasherbrum I (also known as Hidden Peak) | 8080 m (26,444 ft) | China/Pakistan [9] | 05 Jul 1958 | Andrew Kauffman Pete Schoening |
265 | 25 | 9.43% | 15.5% | 8.75% | ||
| Broad Peak | 8051 m (26,414 ft) | China/Pakistan[9] | 09 Jun 1957 | Fritz Wintersteller Marcus Schmuck Kurt Diemberger Hermann Buhl |
359 | 19 | 5.29% | 5% | 8.6% | ||
| Gasherbrum II | 8034 m (26,358 ft) | China/Pakistan[9] | 07 Jul 1956 | Fritz Moravec Josef Larch Hans Willenpart |
02 Feb 2011 | Simone Moro Denis Urubko Cory Richards |
836 | 19 | 2.27% | 7.8% | 0.44% |
| Shishapangma | 8027 m (26,335 ft) | China | 2 May 1964 | Hsu Ching Chang Chun-yen Wang Fuzhou Chen San Cheng Tien-liang Wu Tsung-yue Sodnam Doji Migmar Trashi Doji Yonten |
14 Jan 2005 | Piotr Morawski Simone Moro |
274 | 23 | 8.39% | 2% | 16.8% |
* As of September 2003, data from Chinese National Geography, august 2006, page 77 (the column "first ascensionist(s) in winter" has different sources).
Field 02 lists people who have peaked all 14 without bottled oxygen.
| Order accomplished |
All without O2 (order) |
Name | Period | born | at 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 | [11] | 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[12] | 40 | Korean | ||
| 10 | 4 | Alberto Iñurrategi | 1991-2002[13] | 1968 | 33 | Spanish | |
| 11 | Han Wang-Yong | 1994–2003 | 1966 | 37 | Korean | ||
| 12 | 5[14] | Ed Viesturs | 1989–2005 | 1959 | 46 | American | |
| 13 | 6[15][16][17] | Silvio Mondinelli | 1993–2007 | 1958 | 49 | Italian | |
| 14 | 7[18] | Ivan Vallejo | 1997–2008 | 1959 | 49 | Ecuador | |
| 15 | 8 [19] | Denis Urubko | 2000–2009 | 1973 | 35 | Kazakhstan | |
| 16 | Ralf Dujmovits | 1990–2009 | 1961[20] | 47 | German | ||
| 17 | 9 | Veikka Gustafsson | 1993–2009 | 1968 | 41 | Finnish | |
| 18 [21] | Andrew Lock | 1993–2009 | 1961[22] | 48 | Australian | ||
| 19 | 10 | João Garcia | 1993–2010 | 1967 | 43 | Portuguese | |
| 20 [23] | Piotr Pustelnik | 1990–2010 | 1951 | 58 | Polish | ||
| 21 [24] | Edurne Pasaban | 2001–2010 | 1973 | 36 | Spanish | ||
| 22 [25] | Abele Blanc | 1992–2011[26][27] | 1954 | 56 | Italian | ||
| 23 | Mingma Sherpa | 2000–2011[28] | 1978 | 33 | Nepal | ||
| 24 | 11 | Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner | 1998–2011[29] | 1970 | 40 | Austria | |
| 25 | Vassily Pivtsov | 2001–2011[30] | 1975 | 36 | Kazakhstan | ||
| 26 | 12 | Maxut Zhumayev | 2001–2011[31] | 1977 | 34 | Kazakhstan | |
| 27 | Kim Jae-Soo | 2000–2011[32] | 1951 | 50 | Korean |
Disputes occur when not enough evidence was provided to claim the climb up to the highest peak.
| Name | Period | born | at age | Nationality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fausto De Stefani (Lhotse 1997[33]) | 1983–1998 | 1952 | 46 | Italy |
| Alan Hinkes (Cho Oyu 1990[34][35]) | 1987–2005 | 1954 | 53 | British |
| Vladislav Terzyul[36][37] | 1993-2002 (deceased) | 1953 | 49 | Ukrainian |
| Oh Eun-Sun[38][39][40][41] | 1997–2010 | 1966 | 44 | Korean |
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