8000m Peaks

China/India/Nepal/Pakistan, Asia
Page Type Page Type: List
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Introduction

Everest by moonlight from...
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."

 

A clear cold morning on the...
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 view on NW ridge
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!

Aclimatation for the British...
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

 
North-east Ridge of Everest...
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

 
A shot of K2 from the classic...
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

 
The Southeast face of...
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

 
the famous south face of...
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

 
close-up on Makalu as seen from Mera Peak
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 from ABC<br />
September...
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 summit in the...
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

 
Sunset behind 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 Rupal face (seen...
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

 
The south face from ABC. July...
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

 
Two massive and complicated...
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

 
A clear cold morning on the...
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

 
Photo # 2. The avalanche has...
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

 
Xixa seen from the plains of...
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".

Recommended reading - links

8000ers.com A site dedicated to the 14 peaks.
Planet Fear's article about climbing the 8000 meter peaks: Part 1.
Planet Fear's article about climbing the 8000 meter peaks: Part 2.

Recommended reading - books

Personal Accounts
My Vertical World Jerzy Kukuczka's book about climbing the peaks. One of my absolute favorite mountaineering books.
All fourteen 8000ers Reinhold Messner's book about climbing all the peaks.
Himalayan Quest: Ed Viesturs on the 8,000-Meter Giants Very nice photos in this one.
No shortcuts to the top Another book by Viesters about the climbs.

Informative books on the subject
Richard Sale's classic about the 8000 meter peaks.

Additions and CorrectionsPost an Addition or Correction

Viewing: 1-4 of 4

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.

Corax

Corax - Dec 14, 2015 8:10 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Crown of Himilaya

Thanks for the remark. I have now added Radek and the other missing climbers on the list.

Scott

Scott - Mar 29, 2016 1:20 am - Hasn't voted

Nanga Parbat Winter Ascent

Nanga Parbat was climbed on February 26 2016 by imone Moro (Italy), Muhammad Ali Sadpara (Pakistan) and Alex Txikon (Spain): Winter Ascent

Corax

Corax - Mar 29, 2016 5:32 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Nanga Parbat Winter Ascent

Forgot about that one. Updated. Thanks.

Viewing: 1-4 of 4


Children

Children

Children refers to the set of objects that logically fall under a given object. For example, the Aconcagua mountain page is a child of the 'Aconcagua Group' and the 'Seven Summits.' The Aconcagua mountain itself has many routes, photos, and trip reports as children.