Eight-thousander

From 1950 to 1964, all 14 of the eight-thousanders were first summited by expedition climbers in the summer season (the first to be summited was Annapurna I in 1950, and the last was Shishapangma in 1964); from 1980 to 2021, all 14 were summited in the winter season (the first to be summited in winter was Mount Everest in 1980, and the last was K2 in 2021). As measured by a variety of statistical techniques, the deadliest eight-thousander is Annapurna I, with one death (of a climber or climbing-support member) for every three summiteers, followed by K2 and Nanga Parbat (each with one death for every four to five summiteers), and then Dhaulagiri and Kangchenjunga (each with one death for every six to seven summiteers).

The first person to summit all 14 eight-thousanders was the Italian climber Reinhold Messner in 1986, who did not use any supplementary oxygen. In 2010, Edurne Pasaban, a Basque Spanish mountaineer, became the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders, though 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. In 2013, South Korean Kim Chang-ho set a speed record by climbing all 14 eight-thousanders in 7 years and 310 days, without the aid of supplementary oxygen. In July 2023, Kristin Harila and Tenjen Lama Sherpa set a speed record of 92 days for climbing all 14 eight-thousanders, with supplementary oxygen. In July 2022, Sanu Sherpa became the first person to summit all 14 eight-thousanders twice, which he achieved from 2006 to 2022.

Climbing history

First ascents

The first recorded attempt on an eight-thousander occurred when Albert F. Mummery, Geoffrey Hastings and J. Norman Collie tried to climb Nanga Parbat in 1895. The attempt failed when Mummery and two Gurkhas, Ragobir Thapa and Goman Singh, died in an avalanche.

The first successful ascent of an eight-thousander was by the French climbers Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, who reached the summit of Annapurna on 3 June 1950 using expedition climbing techniques as part of the 1950 French Annapurna expedition. Due to its location in Tibet, Shishapangma was the last eight-thousander to be ascended for the first time; a Chinese team led by Xu Jing completed the ascent in 1964 (Tibet's mountains were closed by China to foreigners until 1978).

The first winter ascent of an eight-thousander was by a Polish team led by Andrzej Zawada on Mount Everest, with Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki reaching the summit on 17 February 1980; all-Polish teams would complete nine of the first fourteen winter ascents of eight-thousanders. The final eight-thousander to be climbed in winter was K2, whose summit was ascended by a 10-person Nepalese team on 16 January 2021.

Only two climbers have completed the first ascent of more than one eight-thousander: Hermann Buhl (Nanga Parbat and Broad Peak, in 1953 and 1957) and Kurt Diemberger (Broad Peak and Dhaulagiri, in 1957 and 1960). Buhl's summit of Nanga Parbat in 1953 is notable as being the only solo first-ascent of an eight-thousander. The Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczka is noted for creating over ten new routes on various eight-thousander mountains. Italian climber Simone Moro made the first winter ascent of four eight-thousanders (Shishapangma, Makalu, Gasherbrum II, and Nanga Parbat), while three Polish climbers have each made three first winter ascents of an eight-thousander, Maciej Berbeka (Cho Oyu, Manaslu, and Broad Peak), Krzysztof Wielicki (Everest, Kangchenjunga, and Lhotse) and Jerzy Kukuczka (Dhaulagiri I, Kangchenjunga, and Annapurna I).

All 14

On 16 October 1986, Italian Reinhold Messner became the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. In 1987, Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczka became the second person to accomplish this feat. Messner summited each of the 14 peaks without the aid of bottled oxygen, a feat that was only repeated by the Swiss Erhard Loretan nine years later in 1995 (Kukuczka had used supplementary oxygen while summiting Everest but on no other eight-thousander).

On 17 May 2010, Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban became the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders. 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 to summit all 14 eight-thousanders were the Italians Nives Meroi (who was the second woman to accomplish this feat without supplementary oxygen), and her husband Romano Benet on 11 May 2017. The couple climbed alpine style, without the use of supplementary oxygen or other support.

On 22 May 2024, Nepali guide Kami Rita summited Everest for the 30th time (a record for Everest), also becoming the first-ever person to climb an eight-thousander 41 times. In July 2022, Sanu Sherpa became the first person to summit all 14 eight-thousanders twice. He started with Cho Oyu in 2006, and completed the double by summiting Gasherbrum II in July 2022.

On 20 May 2013, South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho set a new speed record of climbing all 14 eight-thousanders, without the use of supplementary oxygen, in 7 years and 310 days. On 29 October 2019, the British-Nepali climber Nirmal Purja set a speed record of 6 months and 6 days for climbing all 14 eight-thousanders with the use of supplementary oxygen. On 27 July 2023, Kristin Harila and Tenjen Lama Sherpa set a new speed record of 92 days for climbing all 14 eight-thousanders with supplementary oxygen.

Deadliest

The eight-thousanders are some of the world's deadliest mountains. The extreme altitude and the fact that the summits of all eight-thousanders lie in the Death Zone mean that climber mortality (or death rate) is high. Two metrics are quoted to establish a death rate (i.e. broad and narrow) that are used to rank the eight-thousanders in order of deadliest.

• Broad death rate: The first metric is the ratio of total deaths on the mountain to successful climbers summiting over a given period. The Guinness Book of World Records uses this metric to name Annapurna I as the deadliest eight-thousander, and the world's deadliest mountain with roughly one person dying for every three people who successfully summit, i.e. a ratio of circa 30%. Using consistent data from 1950 to 2012, mountaineering statistician Eberhard Jurgalski (see table) used this metric to show Annapurna is the deadliest mountain (31.9%), followed by K2 (26.5%), Nanga Parbat (20.3%), Dhaulagiri (15.4%) and Kangchenjunga (14.1%). Other statistical sources including MountainIQ, used a mix of data periods from 1900 to Spring 2021 but had similar results showing Annapurna still being the deadliest mountain (27.2%), followed by K2 (22.8%), Nanga Parbat (20.75%), Kangchenjunga (15%), and Dhaulagiri (13.5%). Cho Oyu was the safest at 1.4%.
• Narrow death rate: The drawback of the first metric is that it includes the deaths of any support climbers or climbing sherpas that went above base camp in assisting the climb; therefore, rather than being the probability that a climber will die attempting to summit an eight-thousander, it is more akin to the total human cost in getting a climber to the summit. In the Himalayan Database (HDB) tables, the climber (or member) "Death Rate" is the ratio of deaths above base camp, of all climbers who were hoping to summit and who went above base camp (calculated for 1950 to 2009), and is closer to a true probability of death (see table below). The data is only for the Nepalese Himalaya and therefore does not include K2 or Nanga Parbat. HDB estimates the probability of death for a climber attempting the summit of an eight-thousander is still highest for Annapurna I (4%), followed by Kangchenjunga (3%) and Dhaulagiri (3%); the safest is still Cho Oyu at 0.6%.

The tables from the HDB for eight-thousanders also show that the death rate of climbers for the period 1990 to 2009 (e.g. modern expeditions), is roughly half that of the combined 1950 to 2009 period, i.e. climbing is becoming safer for the climbers attempting the summit.