The
eight-thousanders are the fourteen independent
[1] mountains on
Earth that are more than 8,000&_160;
metres (26,247&_160;
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 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.
