Eight-thousander


The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation or UIAA recognise eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent from neighbouring peaks. However, 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.
The first person to summit all 14 eight-thousanders was Italian Reinhold Messner in 1986, who completed the feat without the aid of supplementary oxygen. In 2010, Basque Edurne Pasaban became the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders, but with the aid of supplementary oxygen; in 2011, Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner became the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders without the aid of supplementary oxygen. From 1950–1964, all eight-thousanders were summited., K2 remains the only eight-thousander not summited in a winter ascent.
On 29 October 2019, Nepalese climber Nirmal Purja, set a new speed record by climbing the 14 eight-thousanders in 6 months and 6 days.

Climbing history

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 failed 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 reached the summit of Annapurna on 3 June 1950 during the 1950 French Annapurna expedition. The first winter ascent of an eight-thousander was done by a 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 Italian Reinhold Messner, 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 new routes on the main eight-thousanders. Messner summited each of the 14 peaks without the aid of bottled 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 made the most first winter ascents of eight-thousanders ; Jerzy Kukuczka made four winter ascents as well, but one was a repetition., K2 remains the only eight-thousander that has never been summited during the winter season.
In 2010, Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban, became the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders with no disputed climbing. 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, and her husband :it:Romano Benet|Romano Benet in 2017. The couple climbed alpine style, without the use of supplementary oxygen and other aids.
, the country with the most climbers to 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 each have three climbers who have completed the "Crown of the Himalaya".
On 29 October 2019, former Nepalese Gurka, and Special Boat Service elite soldier Nirmal Purja, set a new speed record by climbing the 14 eight-thousanders in 6 months and 6 days, beating the previous record of just under 8 years.

List of 14

Proposed expansion

In 2012, to relieve capacity pressure, overcrowding on the world’s highest mountain was tackled by placing greater restrictions on expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest. The move is a response to growing problems with litter, pollution and recent clashes between Sherpas and Western climbers. But, in an attempt to appease those hoping to conquer the tall peak, the Nepalese government is to open access to five other summits that sit over and develop climbing tourism. Nepal lobbied the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation to reclassify five summits, as standalone eight-thousanders, while Pakistan lobbied for a sixth summit. The UIAA initiated in 2012 what it calls the ARUGA project with an aim to see if new -plus could feasibly achieve international recognition. Under that project, Nepal had tabled five new peaks and Pakistan had tabled one. In 2012, the UIAA set up a project group to consider the proposals called the AGURA Project. The six proposed summits for reclassification are subsidiary-summits of existing eight-thousanders, but which are also themselves above and have a prominence above.
Proposed new eight-thousanderHeight
Prominence
Dominance
Dominance
classification
Broad Peak Central80111812,26B2
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Kangchenjunga W-Peak 85051351,59C1
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Kangchenjunga S-Peak84761161,37C2
Kangchenjunga C-Peak8473630,74C2
Lhotse C-Peak I8410650,77C2
Lhotse Shar8382720,86C2
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K 2 SW-Peak8580300,35D1
Lhotse C-Peak II8372370,44D1
Everest W-Peak8296300,36D1
Yalung Kang Shoulder8200400,49D1
Kangchenjunga SE-Peak8150300,37D1
K 2 P. 8134 8134350,43D1
Annapurna C-Peak8013490,61D1
Nanga Parbat S-Peak8042300,37D1
Annapurna E-Peak7986650,81C2
Shisha Pangma C-Peak8008300,37D1
----
Everest NE-Shoulder8423190,23D2
Everest NE-Pinnacle III8383130,16D2
Lhotse N-Pinnacle III8327100,12D2
Lhotse N-Pinnacle II8307120,14D2
Lhotse N-Pinnacle I8290100,12D2
Everest NE-Pinnacle II8282250,30D2

The proposed six new eight-thousander peaks would not meet the wider UIAA criteria of of elevation from nearest larger mountain's saddle, called topographic prominence, as used by the UIAA elsewhere for major mountains. For example, only Broad Peak Central, with a topographic prominence of 181 metres, would even meet the 150–metre prominence threshold to be a British Isles Marilyn. However, the appeal noted the UIAA's 1994 reclassification of Alpine four-thousander peaks, where a prominence threshold of was used, amongst other criteria; the logic being that if worked for summits, then is proportional for summits.
, there has been no conclusion by the UIAA and the proposals appear to have been set aside.

Climbers of all 14

There is no single undisputed source for verified Himalayan ascents; however, Elizabeth Hawley's The Himalayan Database, is considered as an important source for the Nepalese Himalayas. Online ascent databases pay close regard to The Himalayan Database, including the website AdventureStats.com, and the :de:Eberhard Jurgalski|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.

Verified ascents

The "No O2" column lists people who have climbed all 14 eight-thousanders without supplementary oxygen.
OrderOrder
NamePeriodBornAgeNationality
11Reinhold Messner1970–1986194442 Italian
2Jerzy Kukuczka1979–1987194839 Polish
32Erhard Loretan1982–1995195936 Swiss
4Carlos Carsolio1985–1996196233 Mexican
5Krzysztof Wielicki1980–1996195046 Polish
63Juanito Oiarzabal1985–1999195643 Spanish
7Sergio Martini1983–2000194951 Italian
8Park Young-seok1993–2001196338 Korean
9Um Hong-gil1988–2001196040 Korean
104Alberto Iñurrategi1991–2002196833 Spanish
11Han Wang-yong1994–2003196637 Korean
125Ed Viesturs1989–2005195946 American
136Silvio Mondinelli1993–2007195849 Italian
147Ivan Vallejo1997–2008195949 Ecuadorian
158Denis Urubko2000–2009197335 Kazakhstani
16Ralf Dujmovits1990–2009196147 German
179Veikka Gustafsson1993–2009196841 Finnish
18Andrew Lock1993–2009196148 Australian
1910João Garcia1993–2010196743 Portuguese
20Piotr Pustelnik1990–2010195158 Polish
21Edurne Pasaban2001–2010197336 Spanish
22Abele Blanc1992–2011195456 Italian
23Mingma Sherpa2000–2011197833 Nepali
2411Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner1998–2011197040 Austrian
25Vassily Pivtsov2001–2011197536 Kazakhstani
2612Maxut Zhumayev2001–2011197734 Kazakhstani
27Kim Jae-soo2000–2011196150 Korean
2813Mario Panzeri1988–2012196448 Italian
29Hirotaka Takeuchi1995–2012197141 Japanese
30Chhang Dawa Sherpa2001–2013198230 Nepali
3114Kim Chang-ho2005–2013197043 Korean
32Jorge Egocheaga2002–2014196845 Spanish
3315Radek Jaroš1998–2014196450 Czech
34/3516/17Nives Meroi1998–2017196155 Italian
34/3516/17:it:Romano Benet|Romano Benet1998–2017196255 Italian
Slovenian
36Peter Hámor1998–2017196452 Slovak
3718Azim Gheychisaz2008–2017198137 Iranian
381999–2017197046 Spanish
3919Òscar Cadiach1984–2017195264 Spanish
40Kim Mi-gon2000–2018197345 Korean
41Sanu Sherpa2006–2019197544 Nepali
42Nirmal PurjaApril 2019 – October 2019198336 Nepali
43Mingma Gyabu Sherpa2010–2019198930 Nepali

Disputed ascents

Claims have been made for all 14 peaks in which not enough evidence was provided to verify the ascent. The disputed ascent in each claim is shown in parentheses. In most cases, the Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley is considered the definitive source regarding the facts of the dispute. Her The Himalayan Database is the source for other online Himalayan ascent databases.
Cho Oyu is a recurrent problem peak as it is a small hump about 30 mins into the summit plateau, and the main proxy of a view of Everest, which is possible from the true summit, 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. Hawley judged that Ed Viesturs had not reached the true summit, and he re-climbed the mountain to definitively establish his ascent.
NamePeriodBornAgeNationality
:it:Fausto De Stefani|Fausto De Stefani
1983–1998195246 Italian
Alan Hinkes
1987–2005195453 British
Vladislav Terzyul
1993–2004 195349 Ukrainian
Oh Eun-sun
1997–2010196644 Korean
:es:Carlos Pauner|Carlos Pauner
2001–2013196350 Spanish
Zhang Liang
2000–2018196454 Chinese

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