Eight-thousander

The eight-thousanders are the fourteen independentIn 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.] mountains on Earth that are more than convert|8000|m|ft|0|lk=on 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 Pakistan 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 2008, 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.__NOTOC__

List of eight-thousanders

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

Climbers who have reached the summit of all 14 eight-thousanders

Gallery

Notes

ee also

* List of highest mountains
* List of deaths on eight-thousanders

* Seven Summits
* Seven Second Summits
* Volcanic Seven Summits
* Three Poles Challenge
* Explorers Grand Slam, also known as The Adventurers Grand Slam

External links

* [http://www.everestnews.com/8000.htm List of ascensionists from everestnews.com]
* [http://www.8000ers.com/ Site dedicated to the 8000m peaks and mountaineers]
* [http://myhimalayas.com/pictures/14peaks.htm Pictures of 8'000 meter peaks]
* [http://www.geofinder.ch/karte.php?typ=Gipfel&min=8000 Map in "GeoFinder.ch" showing the locations of the main summits]