8000m Peaks

China/India/Nepal/Pakistan, Asia

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8000m Peaks

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Introduction

Everest and moonlight

Mountaineers and climbers have a tendency to strive for the highest point possible and the summits over 8000 meters are therefore naturally the most sought after peaks on the planet.

In the early days a huge prestige factor, individual as well as national, was an issue. The race for the highest summits on earth even got governments involved and national pride came at play. Some of the mountains were off limits due to political reasons and others were very hard to reach because of logisitical issues, bad mapping and the fact they were located in unhospitable mountain areas. In the beginning the peaks almost had a mythical status and some even regarded the summits impossible to reach. Looking at the equipment used and the inadequate knowledge about the altitude's impact on the human body some extraordinary achievements were done.

A real breakthrough came in 1950 when the French expedition summited Annapurna. Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal were the first humans ever to set a foot on a summit over 8000 meters. This triumph spurred others even harder to reach more of the elusive summits. In 1953 Terzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary made it to the highest of all peaks, Everest and in the following years one by one of the 14 were climbed. The last unclimbed summit, Xixabangma were summited in 1964.

In the early days most expeditions were carried out in "siege style", i.e. large ventures with hundreds, sometimes even thousands of porters and many climbers which put the mountain on siege. Many times they were carried out in an almost military fashion with strict hierarchial structure, with pre-choosen climbers for the summit bid and help climbers which only purpose was to set up the route.

The very low oxygen levels on the peaks created two alternative standpoints about how to climb them sucessfully.
In 1920 Mallory argued:

"that the climber does best to rely on his natural abilities, which warn him whether he is overstepping the bounds of his strength. With artificial aids, he exposes himself to the possibility of sudden collapse if the apparatus fails."

Broad Peak after a storm

Most other thought the use of artificial aid in terms of bottled oxygen was of necessaty. All the first successful climbs were done in this way and it became the norm. In 1975 Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler shook the traditional mountaineering world by climbing Gasherbrum I without using bottled oxygen and three years later they continued with a successful ascent of Everest in the same fashion. This astonished the world, especially the Sherpa community, which thought no one could outperform them on altitude.
Today the debate about using or not using bottled oxygen still rages on. Some think it's cheating, some argues it's a must considering the safety.

In 1953, Herman Buhl did what most climbers thought impossible; he made it to the summit of Nanga Parbat solo. It's still uncommon with solo ascents of the 8000 meter peaks, but there have been some successful climbs. Nowadays it's a bit debatable how many of these "soloes" are true ones, as there are lots of fixed ropes and other climbers on the peaks. A true solo climb of Everest was made by Messner in 1980, when he completely alone on the whole mountain made it to the summit.

Nowadays it's becoming more and more common to have the highest peaks on earth on the climbing list. Commercial expedition organizers offers package prices and basically anyone who's got the cash can try it out. This has lead to crowded peaks and a lot of casualties.

Is this page too brief?

Many books have been written about the 8000 meter peaks and this page could be made kilometers long. I think all the Summitpost pages about the 14 peaks are of good quality and therefore I've choosen to make a portal; an introduction to each peak.

Note: I will add more info now and then. Tons can be added, but I'm not sure how much I should add, as checking out respective peak's main page will give you a lot of additional info.

The Highest Peaks on Earth

Camp 1, Cho Oyu

Numbers

The 14 peaks over 8000 meters are all located in Asia.
China has 9 within its borders, Nepal 8, Pakistan 5 and India 1.
9 of the summits are located on borders between countries.
The highest is Everest at 8848m and the lowest is Xixabangma at 8027m.
The first 8000m peak was climbed in 1950 (Annapurna).
The last was climbed in 1964 (Xixabangma).

All the 14 summits!

Climbing Xixabangma

There is a very small group of elite mountaineers which have reached all the 14 peaks summits.

	Name	Nation	Last summit	Year	Remark
1.	Reinhold Messner*	Italy	Lhotse	1986
2.	Jerzy Kukuczka	Poland	Xixabangma	1987
3.	Erhard Loretan*	Switzerland	Kangchenjunga	1995
4.	Carlos Carsolio	Mexico	Manaslu	1996
5.	Krzysztof Wielicki	Poland	Nanga Parbat	1996
6.	Juanito Oiarzabal*****	Spain	Annapurna	1999
7.	Sergio Martini	Italy	Lhotse	2000
8.	Park Young-seok	South Korea	K2	2001
9.	Um Hong-gil	South Korea	Xixabangma	2001
10.	Alberto Inurrategi*	Spain	Ammapurna	2002
11.	Han Wang-yong	South Korea	Broad Peak	2003
12.	Alan Hinkes* and ***	UK	Kangchenjunga	2005
13.	Edmund Viesturs*	USA	Annapurna	2005
14.	Silvio "Gnaro" Mondinelli*	Italy	Broad Peak	2007
15.	Ivan Vallejo*	Ecuador	Dhaulagiri	2008
16.	Denis Urubko*	Kazakhstan	Cho Oyu	2009
17.	Ralf Dujmovits**	Germany	Lhotse	2009
18.	Veikka Gustafsson*	Finland	Gasherbrum I	2009
19.	Andrew Lock	Australia	Xixabangma	2009
20.	Joao Garcia*	Portugal	Annapurna	2010
21.	Piotr Pustelnik	Poland	Annapurna	2010
22.	Oh Eun-sun (f)****	South Korea	Annapurna	2010
23.	Edurne Pasaban (f)	Spain	Xixabangma	2010
24.	Abele Blanc	Italy	Annapurna	2011
25.	Mingma	Nepal	Kangchenjunga	2011
26.	Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner (f)*	Austria	K2	2011
27.	Vassili Pivtsov	Kazakhstan	K2	2011
28.	Maksut Zhumayev*	Kazakhstan	K2	2011
29.	Kim Jae-soo	South Korea	Annapurna	2011
30.	Mario Luciano Panzeri*	Italy	Dhaulagiri	2012
31.	Takeuchi Hirotaka	Japan	Dhaulagiri	2012
32.	Chhang Dawa******	Nepal	Dhaulagiri	2013
33.	Kim Chang-ho*	South Korea	Everest	2013
34.	Jorge Egocheaga	Spain	Kangchenjunga	2014
35.	Radek Jaros*	Czech Republic	K2	2014

* No bottled oxygen used.
** Ralf Dujmovits has climbed all the 14 peaks, but according to himself, he doesn't count Everest as it was climbed with O2.
*** Cho Oyu disputed.
**** Kangchenjunga disputed.
***** By 1999, Oirzabal climbed all 8000ers, but at that time Everest was climbed with bottled O2. He then repeated Everest, this time without O2, in 2001. Anyway, even by counting 2001 as finishing date instead of 1999, he remains the third man after Messner and Loretan to have climbed all 14 without artificial O2.
****** Annapurna disputed
List

A list of about the women which have climbed more than 4 8000m peaks.

First winter ascents

Everest - 17 February 1980, Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki (Poland)
Manaslu - 14 January 1984, Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski (Poland)
Dhaulagiri - 21 January 1985, Jerzy Kukuczka and Andrzej Czok (Poland)
Cho Oyu - 12 February 1985, Maciej Berbeka and Maciej Pawlikowski (repeated three days later by Andrzej Heinrich and Jerzy Kukuczka) (Poland)
Kangchenjunga - 11 January 1986, Jerry Kukuczka and Krzysztof Wielicki (Poland)
Annapurna I - 3 February 1987, Jerzy Kukuczka and Artur Hajzer (Poland)
Lhotse - 31 December 1988, Krzysztof Wielicki (Poland)
Shisha Pangma - 14 January 2005, Simone Moro (Italy) and Piotr Morawsky (Poland)
Makalu - 9 February 2009, Denis Urubko (Kazakhstan) and Simone Moro (Italy).
Gasherbrum II - 02 February 2011 Simone Moro (Italy), Denis Urubko (Kazakhstan), Cory Richards (Canada).
Gasherbrum I - 08 March 2012 Adam Bielecki and Janusz Golab (Poland).
Broad Peak - 05 March 2013 Maciej Berbeka*, Adam Bieleck, Tomasz Kowalski*and Artur Malek (Poland)
Nanga Parbat - 26 February 2016 Simone Moro (Italy), Muhammad Ali Sadpara (Pakistan) and Alex Txikon (Spain)

K2 - No winter ascent

* Died on descent

Everest

Everest - 8,848m, Central Himalaya, China/Nepal.
First ascent: 1953; E. Hillary, T. Norgay
The highest point on planet earth.

Difficulty
Mostly a non-technical climb regardless on which of the two normal routes you choose. On the south you have to deal with a dangerous ice fall and The Hillary Step, a short section of rock, on the north side there are some short technical passages. On both routes (permanent) fixed ropes are placed at the tricky sections. The altitude is main obstacle. Nowadays also crowding is mentioned as a factor of difficulty.

K2

K2	K2 - 8,611m, Baltoro, Northern Karakoram, China/Pakistan First ascent:1954; A. Compagnoni, L. Lacedelli. Possibly the world's most difficult mountain to climb.
Difficulty Possibly the most difficult peak on earth. It’s high, there’s a high risk for avalanches, the weather is often bad and there are no easy route to the peak’s summit. The technical difficulty is high. A ridge on the north side offers a little lower difficulty, but suffers from extended problems with unsheltered exposure.

Kangchenjunga

Kangchenjunga	Kangchenjunga - 8,586m, South-East Himalaya, India/Nepal First ascent:1955; G. Band, J. Brown.
Difficulty It’s one of the largest of the peaks on the list and the way to its summit is long. This fact and the many short, but technical sections place Kangchenjunga firmly in the higher end of the list. The altitude is also a factor which solidify this.

Lhotse

Lhotse	Lhotse - 8,516m, Central Himalaya, China/Nepal First ascent:1956; F. Luchsinger, E. Reiss.
Difficulty The normal route starts with a dangerous icefall. Crowding, due to sharing route with Everest can be a problem. The altitude and exposure on the final parts are contributing to the peak’s reputation of being one in the middle of the list in terms of difficulty.

Makalu

Makalu	Makalu - 8,485m, Central Himalaya, China/Nepal First ascent:1955; J. Couzy, L. Terray.
Difficulty One of the more technical peaks and is amongst those considered hard climbs. Steep passages, both on rock and snow, exposure and avalanche danger makes this peak a tough target.

Cho Oyu

Cho Oyu	Cho Oyu - 8,188m, Central Himalaya, China/Nepal First ascent:1954; S. Joechler, H. Tichy, P. Dawa Lama. Arguably the easiest of the 8000 meter peaks.
Difficulty Technically speaking the easiest of the 14. No technical climbing, but large snowfields and long distances. Many climbers has don’t reach the true summit, as it’s located some distance from where you enter the summit plateau and is only marginally higher than the fore summit.

Dhaulagiri

Dhaulagiri	Dhaulagiri - 8,167m, Dhaulagiri Himal(Himalaya), Nepal First ascent:1960; K. Diemberger, P. Diener, M. Dorji, E. Forrer, N. Dorji, A. Schelbert
Difficulty Considered to be a hard peak to climb by the pioneers in the area, but it’s nowadays considered as one on the lower half of the list. The normal route on the peak have some short technical sections and some avalanche danger, but overall it’s a quite straight forward climb.

Manaslu

Manaslu	Manaslu - 8,163m, Central SW Himalaya, Nepal First ascent:1956; T. Imanishi, G. Norbu
Difficulty On the lower half of the peak’s normal route, avalanche danger is usually a main problem. Higher on the peak, the climb is mostly non-technical and easy. Manaslu has one of the higher death rates and is considered a dangerous peak.

Nanga Parbat

Nanga Parbat	Nanga Parbat - 8,125m, Far West Himalaya, Pakistan First ascent:1953; H. Buhl. The first solo ascent of an 8000 meter peak.
Difficulty Nanga Parbat’s normal route is not extremely technical, but it’s long and exposed. The mountain is infamous for bad weather and the route offers many tricky sections. It’s considered as one of the harder peaks.

Annapurna

Annapurna	Annapurna - 8,091m, Annapurna Himal (Himalaya), Nepal First ascent:1950; M. Herzog, L. Lachenal. The first 8000 meter peak to be climbed.
Difficulty Considered the most dangerous of the 14. The north and its original route is not that technical, but extremely avalanche prone. The south is of high technical difficulty and also holds lots of objective danger.

Gasherbrum I

Gasherbrum I	Gasherbrum I - 8,080m, Baltoro, Northern Karakoram, China/Pakistan First ascent:1958; A. Kaufman, P. Schoening
Difficulty When the icefall and some easy ground have been covered, the climb gets more difficult. Steep mixed climbing and some objective danger makes Gasherbrum I a peak which belongs to the part of the list where you find the more difficult mountains.

Broad Peak

Broad Peak	Broad Peak - 8,051m, Baltoro, Northern Karakoram, China/Pakistan First ascent:1957; H. Buhl, K. Diemberger, M. Schmuck, F. Winterstellar.
Difficulty Considered a straight forward climb. The constant, but quite low angled steepness to the summit ridge can hold avalanche danger, but apart from that no technical surprises. Some rocky sections around the false summits and exposure offers the final test before reaching the true summit.

Gasherbrum II

Gasherbrum II	Gasherbrum II - 8,034m, Baltoro, Northern Karakoram, China/Pakistan First ascent:1956; S. Larch, F. Moravec, H. Willenpart
Difficulty Some years back G II was mentioned as one of the easiest 8000m peaks, usually together with Xixa and Cho Oyu. After the "Banana Ridge’s" collapse the climb has become more difficult. The main obstacles are the huge icefall, crevasses, some steep climbing on snow and the exposure on the final part.

Xixabangma Feng

Xixabangma Feng

Xixabangma Feng - 8,027m, Northern Central Himalaya, China
First ascent:1964; Chang Chun-yen, Wang Fu-zhou, Chen San, Cheng Tien-liang, Wu Tsung-yue, Sodnam Doji, Migmar Trashi, Doji, Yonten.
The last of the 8000 meter peaks to be summited.

Difficulty
Considered as one of the easiest and it is a non-technical climb, to the fore summit, that is. The final part to the true summit is an airy and sometimes dangerous walk on a knife edge ridge and therefore a majority of climbers only reach the fore summit. The rest of the climb is easy, but sometimes avalanche prone.
Xixabangma is many times erroneously spelled Shisha Pangma. The latter way of spelling is a survivor from the time when the non-Chinese speaking world still called Beijing for "Peking".

Additions and CorrectionsPost an Addition or Correction

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petr - Dec 12, 2015 6:28 am - Hasn't voted

Crown of Himilaya

It is worth adding Radek Jaros [yarosh] from the Czech Republic to the list of all-14 climbers. He climbed K2 in 2014 as his last of 8000m peaks and all of them without oxygen.