Only 14 peaks in the world rise above 8,000 m, into what climbers call “the death zone”, where the air holds too little oxygen to keep a human body alive for long. All of them stand in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges, spread over Nepal, China (Tibet), Pakistan and India.
The beginning
The first 8,000 m peak was climbed by a French expedition on 3 June 1950, when the guide Louis Lachenal from Annecy and Maurice Herzog from Lyon stood on the summit of Annapurna (8,091 m). They did it without supplementary oxygen, on a mountain nobody had even properly mapped. Just getting the gear from France to Nepal in 1950 was a huge and expensive obstacle, and the team still had to find a route into completely unknown terrain.
They paid the price. Herzog had chosen lighter boots and lost his gloves near the summit, and frostbite set in fast. He lost most of his fingers and toes. What makes Annapurna 1950 special is not only that it was the first 8,000 m summit, but also that the mountain was scouted and climbed in a single season, something very few expeditions managed in the golden era of mountaineering.
Between 1950 and 1964 all 14 were climbed for the first time. Then the game changed. In the 1970s climbers started going without bottled oxygen, then in smaller and lighter teams, and from 1980 the Polish climbers opened a whole new chapter: winter. It took 41 years, from Everest in 1980 to K2 in 2021, to climb all 14 in winter.
The 14 × 8,000 m club today
Reinhold Messner was the first to climb all 14, in 1986, and he did it without bottled oxygen. Jerzy Kukuczka followed a year later. Back in 2011 the club counted only about 24 members. By the end of 2025 it had grown to roughly 75, helped by commercial expeditions, fixed ropes and helicopters. Doing all 14 without supplementary oxygen remains rare: only a little over 20 climbers can claim it.
There is a twist. In 2022, the statistician Eberhard Jurgalski and a team of experts published a study of summit photos and satellite data showing that many climbers had stopped on a fore-summit on peaks like Manaslu, Shishapangma, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri or Annapurna. By their count, only three people had stood on the true summit of all 14: Ed Viesturs, Veikka Gustafsson and Nirmal Purja. Since then, more and more climbers have made a point of walking the extra (and often dangerous) metres to the real top.
The peaks below are listed by height. For each one you will find the first ascent, the first ascent without bottled oxygen and the first winter ascent.
01. Everest
Other names: Sagarmatha, Chomolungma or Qomolangma
Altitude: 8,849 m (8,848.86 m since the joint China–Nepal survey of 2020)
Location: Nepal / Tibet
First ascent: 29 May 1953, by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (British expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: 8 May 1978, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler
First winter ascent: 17 February 1980, by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy (Polish expedition)
Difficulty: Mostly a non-technical climb on both normal routes. On the south side you deal with the dangerous Khumbu Icefall and the Hillary Step, on the north side with a few short technical passages. Fixed ropes are in place on all tricky sections. The real obstacle is altitude, and nowadays crowding too.
02. K2
Other names: Mount Godwin-Austen, Chogori or Dapsang
Altitude: 8,611 m
Location: Pakistan / China
First ascent: 31 July 1954, by Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli (Italian expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: 6 September 1978, by Louis Reichardt (American expedition)
First winter ascent: 16 January 2021, by a team of 10 Nepali climbers led by Nirmal Purja and Mingma Gyalje Sherpa
Difficulty: Possibly the most difficult peak on earth. It's high, avalanche risk is serious, the weather is often bad and there is no easy route to the summit. The technical difficulty is high. The north side is slightly less technical but far more remote and exposed.
03. Kangchenjunga
Other names: Kanchenjunga
Altitude: 8,586 m
Location: Nepal / India
First ascent: 25 May 1955, by George Band and Joe Brown (British expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: 16 May 1979, by Doug Scott, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker
First winter ascent: 11 January 1986, by Krzysztof Wielicki and Jerzy Kukuczka
Difficulty: One of the most massive peaks on the list, and the way to its summit is long. Add many short but technical sections and the altitude, and Kangchenjunga sits firmly in the harder half of the list.
04. Lhotse
Altitude: 8,516 m
Location: Nepal / Tibet
First ascent: 18 May 1956, by Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger (Swiss expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: 11 May 1977, by Michel Dacher
First winter ascent: 31 December 1988, by Krzysztof Wielicki, solo
Difficulty: The normal route starts with the same dangerous icefall as Everest, and shares its crowds up to the South Col area. The altitude and exposure on the final couloir put Lhotse in the middle of the list for difficulty. Its south face, on the other hand, is one of the most feared walls in the Himalaya.
05. Makalu
Other names: Makalufeng
Altitude: 8,485 m
Location: Nepal / Tibet
First ascent: 15 May 1955, by Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy (French expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: 6 October 1975, by Marjan Manfreda (Yugoslav expedition, south face)
First winter ascent: 9 February 2009, by Simone Moro and Denis Urubko
Difficulty: One of the more technical peaks, and among those considered hard climbs. Steep passages on both rock and snow, exposure and avalanche danger make it a tough target.
06. Cho Oyu
Altitude: 8,188 m
Location: Nepal / Tibet
First ascent: 19 October 1954, by Joseph Jöchler, Pasang Dawa Lama and Herbert Tichy (Austrian expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: same as the first ascent
First winter ascent: 12 February 1985, by Maciej Berbeka and Maciej Pawlikowski
Difficulty: Technically the easiest of the 14. No technical climbing, but large snowfields and long distances. Many climbers don't reach the true summit, which sits some distance across the summit plateau and is only marginally higher than the point where most people stop.
07. Dhaulagiri
Altitude: 8,167 m
Location: Nepal
First ascent: 13 May 1960, by Kurt Diemberger, Peter Diener, Nawang Dorje, Nima Dorje, Ernst Forrer and Albin Schelbert (Swiss-led international expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: same as the first ascent
First winter ascent: 21 January 1985, by Andrzej Czok and Jerzy Kukuczka
Difficulty: Considered a hard peak by the pioneers, it now sits in the lower half of the list. The normal route has a few short technical sections and some avalanche danger, but overall it's a fairly straightforward climb. Watch out near the top: a false summit has fooled more than one climber.
08. Manaslu
Other names: Kutang
Altitude: 8,163 m
Location: Nepal
First ascent: 9 May 1956, by Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu (Japanese expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: 25 April 1972, by Reinhold Messner
First winter ascent: 12 January 1984, by Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski
Difficulty: On the lower half of the normal route, avalanches are the main problem. Higher up, the climb is mostly non-technical. Even so, Manaslu has one of the higher death rates and is considered a dangerous peak. The true summit sits at the end of a sharp and exposed ridge, which for years most climbers did not go along.
09. Nanga Parbat
Other names: Diamir
Altitude: 8,125 m
Location: Pakistan
First ascent: 3 July 1953, by Hermann Buhl, solo (German-Austrian expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: same as the first ascent
First winter ascent: 26 February 2016, by Simone Moro, Alex Txikon and Muhammad Ali Sadpara
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 has many tricky sections. It's considered one of the harder peaks.
10. Annapurna
Other names: Morshiadi
Altitude: 8,091 m
Location: Nepal
First ascent: 3 June 1950, by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal (French expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: same as the first ascent
First winter ascent: 3 February 1987, by Jerzy Kukuczka and Artur Hajzer
Difficulty: Statistically the most dangerous of the 14, with roughly one death for every three successful climbers over its history. The north side and its original route are not very technical, but extremely avalanche-prone. The south face is highly technical and full of objective danger.
11. Gasherbrum I
Other names: Hidden Peak or K5
Altitude: 8,080 m
Location: Pakistan / China
First ascent: 5 July 1958, by Andrew Kauffman and Pete Schoening (American expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: 10 August 1975, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler
First winter ascent: 9 March 2012, by Adam Bielecki and Janusz Gołąb
Difficulty: Once the icefall and some easy ground are behind you, the climb gets harder. Steep mixed climbing and some objective danger place Gasherbrum I among the more difficult mountains on the list.
12. Broad Peak
Other names: Falchan Kangri or K3
Altitude: 8,051 m
Location: Pakistan / China
First ascent: 9 June 1957, by Hermann Buhl, Kurt Diemberger, Marcus Schmuck and Fritz Wintersteller (Austrian expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: same as the first ascent
First winter ascent: 5 March 2013, by Maciej Berbeka, Adam Bielecki, Tomasz Kowalski and Artur Małek
Difficulty: Considered a straightforward climb. The long, moderately steep slopes up to the summit ridge can hold avalanche danger, but there are no technical surprises. Rocky sections around the false summits and the exposure on the ridge are the final test before the true summit.
13. Gasherbrum II
Other names: K4
Altitude: 8,034 m
Location: Pakistan / China
First ascent: 7 July 1956, by Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch and Hans Willenpart (Austrian expedition)
First ascent without oxygen: same as the first ascent
First winter ascent: 2 February 2011, by Simone Moro, Denis Urubko and Cory Richards
Difficulty: Some years back GII was described as one of the easiest 8,000 m peaks, usually together with Shishapangma and Cho Oyu. Since the collapse of the “Banana Ridge”, the climb has become harder. The main obstacles are the huge icefall, crevasses, some steep snow and the exposure on the final part.
14. Shishapangma
Other names: Gosainthan or Xixabangma
Altitude: 8,027 m
Location: Tibet (China)
First ascent: 2 May 1964, by ten climbers of a Chinese expedition led by Xu Jing
First ascent without oxygen: same as the first ascent
First winter ascent: 14 January 2005, by Piotr Morawski and Simone Moro
Difficulty: Considered one of the easiest and a non-technical climb, to the central summit, that is. The final part to the true summit is an airy and sometimes dangerous walk along a knife-edge ridge, so for years most climbers stopped at the central summit. The rest of the climb is easy, but sometimes avalanche-prone. It was the last of the 14 to be climbed, as Tibet stayed closed to foreigners until 1978. The name is often written Shisha Pangma, a spelling that survives from the time when the rest of the world still called Beijing “Peking”.