Eight-thousander

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Cho Oyu, Lhotse, Makalu and Mount Everest as seen from the International Space Station.

The eight-thousanders are the fourteen independent^[1] mountains on Earth that are more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) above sea level. They are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia.

The first attempt on an eight-thousander took place on the expedition by Albert F. Mummery, and J. Norman Collie to Nanga Parbat in 1895; this ended in failure, when Mummery and two Ghurkas, Ragobir and Goman Singh, were killed by an avalanche.

The first 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 fourteen 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 2007, a total of fourteen people have followed through undisputed. This is an extremely hazardous feat; at least four people have died while in pursuit of this goal.

[edit] List of eight-thousanders

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	China/Nepal	May 29, 1953	Edmund Hillary Tenzing Norgay	February 17, 1980	Krzysztof Wielicki Leszek Cichy	1924	179	9.30%	37%	4.4%
K2	8611 m	China/Pakistan^[2]	July 31, 1954	Achille Compagnoni Lino Lacedelli			198	53	26.77%	41%	19.7%
Kanchenjunga	8586 m	India/Nepal	May 25, 1955	George Band Joe Brown	January 11, 1986	Jerzy Kukuczka Krzysztof Wielicki	185	40	21.62%	21%	22%
Lhotse	8516 m	China/Nepal	May 18, 1956	Fritz Luchsinger Ernst Reiss	December 31, 1988	Krzysztof Wielicki	243	11	4.53%	14%	2%
Makalu	8463 m	China/Nepal	May 15, 1955	Jean Couzy Lionel Terray			206	22	10.68%	16%	8.5%
Cho Oyu	8201 m	China/Nepal	October 19, 1954	Joseph Joechler Pasang Dawa Lama Herbert Tichy	February 12, 1985	Maciej Berbeka Maciej Pawlikowski	1400	35	2.50%	7%	2%
Dhaulagiri	8167 m	Nepal	May 13, 1960	Kurt Diemberger Peter Diener Nawang Dorje Nima Dorje Ernst Forrer Albin Schelbert	January 21, 1985	Jerzy Kukuczka Andrzej Czok	313	56	17.89%	31%	11%
Manaslu	8163 m	Nepal	May 9, 1956	Toshia Imanishi Gyalzen Norbu	January 12, 1984	Maciej Berbeka Ryszard Gajewski	240	52	21.67%	35.16%	13.42%
Nanga Parbat	8125 m	Kashmir^[2]pakistan	July 3, 1953	Hermann Buhl			216	61	28.24%	77%	5.5%
Annapurna	8091 m	Nepal	June 3, 1950	Maurice Herzog Louis Lachenal	February 3, 1987	Jerzy Kukuczka Artur Hajzer	130	53	40.77%	66%	19.71%
Gasherbrum I	8068 m	China/Pakistan^[2]	July 5, 1958	Andrew Kauffman Pete Schoening			195	21	10.77%	15.5%	8.75%
Broad Peak	8047 m	China/Pakistan^[2]	June 9, 1957	Hermann Buhl Kurt Diemberger Marcus Schmuck Fritz Wintersteller			255	18	7.20%	5%	8.6%
Gasherbrum II	8035 m	China/Pakistan^[2]	July 8, 1956	Josef Larch Fritz Moravec Hans Willenpart			650	17	2.62%	7.8%	0.44%
Shishapangma	8027 m	China	May 2, 1964	Ten climbers led by Hsu Ching	January 14, 2005	Piotr Morawski Simone Moro	201	19	9.45%	2%	16.8%

^* As of September 2003, data from Chinese National Geography 2006.8, page 77.

[edit] The Climbers who have reached the summit of all 14 eight-thousanders

	Name	Period	Nationality
1	Reinhold Messner	1970-1986	Italian
2	Jerzy Kukuczka	1979-1987	Polish
3	Erhard Loretan	1982-1995	Swiss
4	Carlos Carsolio	1985-1996	Mexican
5	Krzysztof Wielicki	1980-1996	Polish
6	Juanito Oiarzabal	1985-1999	Spanish
7	Sergio Martini	1976-2000	Italian
8	Hong-Gil Um	1988-2000	Korean
9	Park Young Seok	1993-2001	Korean
10	Alberto Inurrategi	1991-2002	Spanish
11	Han Wang Yong	1994-2003	Korean
12	Ed Viesturs	1989-2005	American
13	Alan Hinkes(disputed)	1987-2005	English
14	Silvio Mondinelli	1993-2007	Italian
15	Iván Vallejo	1997-2008	Ecuador

[edit] Gallery

Everest	K2	Kangchenjunga	Lhotse
Makalu	Cho Oyu	Dhaulagiri	Manaslu
Nanga Parbat	Annapurna	Gasherbrum I	Broad Peak
Gasherbrum II	Shishapangma

[edit] Notes

^ In making any "highest mountains" list, one needs to use a criterion to exclude subpeaks and only list independent mountains. There is no universally agreed-upon such criterion. However the (generally accepted) list of fourteen eight-thousanders is obtained if one uses a topographic prominence cutoff of between 200 and 500 metres (610 and 1524 feet). Some eight-thousand metre subpeaks have been climbed as goals in themselves, for example Lhotse Middle, but this is quite rare.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Note: The mountains mentioned lie in the disputed Northern Areas region. This region is also claimed by India along with Kashmir.