Since some years, the fourteen highest mountains of the world have been becoming the stage of an absurd competition for setting records and the core of a grotesque business on high altitudes. There you can meet hundreds of professionals climbers from everywhere in the world, as well as merely dummies, trekkers, rich and irresponsible tourists, commercial expedition, most of them trying, climbing, sometimes dieing either on Everest or on the "easiest" 8,000 meters peaks of Himalaya and Karakoram. You can find everything around the 8000s, today.

That's not less than odd, not to say meaningless: for American and British people, for example, there are no 8,000 meters peaks, but some mountains around the world which are higher than 24,000 feet! Everest is only a mountain higher than 29,000 feet ;-)

This said, I have only an answer for those one who always ask me for knowing what's the dream of my life: climbing at least one of the 8,000 meters peaks!

		Height	First ascent
EVEREST		8,850 m	1953, E. Hillary (New Zealand), T. Norgay (Nepal)
K2		8,611 m	1954, L. Lacedelli, A. Compagnoni (Italy)
KANGCHENJUNGA		8,586 m	1955, G. Band, J. Brown (UK)
LHOTSE		8,516 m	1956, F. Luchsinger, E. Reiss (Switzerland)
MAKALU		8,463 m	1955, French expedition
CHO OYU		8,201 m	1954, H. Tichy, SJochler (Austria), Pasang Dawa Lama (Nepal)
DHAULAGIRI		8,167 m	1960, E. Forrer, A. Schelbert, M. Vaucher, H. Weber (Switzerland), K. Diemberger (Austria)
MANASLU		8,163 m	1956, T. Imanishi (Japan), G. Norbu (Nepal)
NANGA PARBAT		8,125 m	1953, H. Buhl (Austria)
ANNAPURNA I		8,091 m	1950, M. Herzog, L. Lachenal (France)
GASHERBRUM I o HIDDEN PEAK		8,068 m	1958, P. Schoening, A. Kauffman (U.S.A.)
BROAD PEAK		8,047 m	1957, H. Buhl, M. Schmuk, K. Diemberger, F. Wintersteller (Austria)
SHISHA PANGMA		8,046 m	1964, Chinese expedition
GASHERBRUM II		8,035 m	1956, S. Larch, H. Willenpart, F. Moravec (Austria)

Our pictures available

These are the men who have succeeded in climbing all of the fourteen 8,000 meters peaks. This list has been last updated on 2009, August 1st.

		Year of last summit and notes
	Reinhold Messner Italy (1944)	1986, in 16 years and 3 months (all climbed without supplementary oxygen) Note: he has climbed twice Everest, Nanga Parbat, G1 and G2, counting 18x8000 meters peaks as a total. He's been the first one in climbing alone an 8000 meters peak (Nanga Parbat), concatenating the ascents on a couple of the 8000s (G1 e G2), climbing the 8000s in alpine style, climbing the Everest without supplementary oxygen, climbing alone the Everest, climbing 3x8000s in the same year. Anything else?...
	Jerzy Kukuczka Poland (1948-1989)	1987, in 7 years and 11 months Note: He opened ten new routes on the 8000s and four first winter ascents. Also, he climbed the Broad Peak twice. He died while trying his second ascent to the Lhotse, climbing its legendary South face. This ascent would have been his 16th 8,000 meters peak and he'd have been the first man in climbing the hardest wall of Himalaya, which at that time was still unclimbed. He fell down when he was only less than 200 meters under the summit.
	Erhard Loretan Switzerland (1959)	1995, in 13 years and 3 months (all climbed without supplementary oxygen)
	Carlos Carsolio Mexico (1963)	1996, in 10 years and 9 months
	Krzysztof Wielicki Poland (1959)	1996, in 16 years and 6 months Note: he's the "king" of winter ascents. At present, after completing the ascents of all the fourteen 8,000 meters peak, he's trying to climb again all of them in winter.
	Sergio Martini Italy (1949)	1998, in 16 years and 9 months Note: he has climbed Lhotse twice, so counting 15x8000 meters peaks as a total. Some sources don't count his first ascent of Lhotse, that's why he climbed it twice. According these ones, he completed the ascent of the fourteen 8,000 meters peak only in 2000. See also below, Fausto de Stefani.
	Fausto De Stefani Italy (1952)	1998, in 24 years Note: many sources, above all American ones, don't count Fausto in this list as they say he actually didn't reach the summit of Lhotse. Fausto stopped his ascent to the Lhotse only some tens of meters under the true summit as the wind was too strong and he considered the job to be done. He was there with his mate Sergio Martini, who came back on Lhotse a couple of years later just to close the dispute. See above, Sergio Martini.
	Juanito Oiarzabal Spain (1956)	1999, in 13 years and 11 months (all climbed without supplementary oxygen) Note: he gets the record of ascents on 8,000 meters peaks, counting 22 total ascents. He has climbed 4 times Cho Oyu, and twice Everest, K2, Makalu, G1 and G2.
	Park Young Seok South Korea (1962)	2001, in 8 years and 2 months Note: between 1997 and 1998 he climbed six 8,000 meters peaks in 12 months, five of them in the same year (1997). He's the only one out of this list, sharing the record with Reinhold Messner, having climbed also the seven summits.
	Um Hong Gil South Korea (1960)	2001, in 12 years and 11 months
	Alberto Inurrategui Spain (1968)	2002, in 10 years and 7 months (all climbed without supplementary oxygen)
	Han Wang Yong South Korea (1966)	2003, in 8 years and 9 months
	Vladislav Terzyul Ukraina (1953-2004)	2004, in 14 years? Note: he died on 2004, May 18, while descending from Makalu, which would have been (or has been?) his 14th 8,000 meters peak climbed. Many sources accredit him this summit too, and I also support this end of the story.
	Ed Viesturs U.S.A. (1959)	2005, in 15 years and 11 months (all climbed without supplementary oxygen) Note: he has climbed Everest 6 times, in 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2004. Then, he counts for 19 ascents on 8,000 meters peaks.
	Alan Hinkes UK (1954)	2005, in 18 years
	Silvio "Gnaro" Mondinelli Italy (1958)	2007, in 13 years and 4 months (all climbed without supplementary oxygen)
	Ivan Vallejo Ecuador (1959)	2008, in 10 years and 8 months (all climbed without supplementary oxygen) Note: he climbed twice mount Everest
	Denis Urubko Kazakhstan (1973)	2009, in 8 years and 9 months (all climbed without supplementary oxygen) Note: he climbed twice Broad Peak, Manaslu and Makalu, so counting for 17x8000.