Conquering the Eight-thousanders: Everest, K2, and Beyond

There are fourteen mountains that present the ultimate challenge to the world’s most experienced climbers. They are the so-called eight-thousanders, the fourteen mountains on Earth that are over eight thousand metres in height, all of them to be found in the Himalaya and the Karakoram mountain range. They are:

• Everest (8848m)
• K2 (8611m)
• Kangchenjunga (8586m)
• Lhotse (8516m)
• Makalu (8463m)
• Cho Oyu (8201m)
• Dhaulagiri (8167m)
• Manaslu (8163m)
• Nanga Parbat (8125m)
• Annapurna I (8091m)
• Gasherbrum I (8068m)
• Broad Peak (8047m)
• Gasherbrum II (8035m)
• Shisapangma (8027m)

Anyone who goes trekking in Nepal is likely to see at least one of these mountains. Treks to Everest Base Camp, the Annapurna Sanctuary and Kangchenjunga Base Camp are common routes for trekking in Nepal, but only the very best mountaineers can make it to the summit of any of the peaks that these treks visit.

The Race to the Top

After trekking through Nepal and scouting base camps and climbing routes for these great mountains, expedition after expedition was defeated many years. Aside from the severity of the weather and the extreme technical challenges presented by these fourteen peaks, climbers also faced an even more serious challenge – altitude. Above eight-thousand metres, climbers enter “The Death Zone”, where the air is so thin that prolonged exposure is fatal and the physical exertion required for climbing becomes almost impossible.

It wasn’t until the use of bottled oxygen, which began in the 1920’s, that making it to the top of these summits seemed to be possible. The portable oxygen helped to counter the effects of altitude, but the mountains continued to defeat all attempts to conquer them for almost thirty years.

In 1950, Maurice Herzog stunned the world with a successful ascent of Annapurna I (8,091m) now regarded as one of the most dangerous mountains in the world. In a single expedition, his climbing team made a trek through Nepal to the mountain itself, planned the route, established their camps and made a push for the summit. Despite severe weather that almost killed them, Maurice and his climbing partner Louis Lachenal became the first people to summit an eight-thousand metre peak.

Throughout the 1950s, most of the other peaks were conquered one by one, most notable Everest in 1953 which was successfully climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. But it wasn’t until 1964 that the final peak was successfully climbed – Shispangma, the smallest of the fourteen.

The Climbing Elite

Climbing just one of the eight-thousanders is a feat that takes skill, experience, training, and no short supply of luck. Making the summit of all fourteen would seem to be beyond the capabilities of most mortals, yet there is a small group of mountaineers who have achieved precisely that. The legendary Italian climber Reinhold Messner was the first person to make it to the top of all fourteen, beginning with Nanga Parbat in 1970 and completing the final summit of Lhotse in 1986, sixteen years and 115,948 metres of climbing later. Even more remarkably, he made it to the top of all fourteen without the use of bottled oxygen, a feat which the medical establishment and climbing community believed to be impossible.

Many others have tried to emulate his success, but few have succeeded. Only a handful of the very best climbers have made it to the summit of all fourteen of these mountains. Strangely enough, these climbers also number fourteen.