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 meters (610 and 1524 feet). Some eight-thousand meter subpeaks have been climbed as goals in themselves, for example Lhotse Middle, but this is quite rare. mountains on Earth that are higher than 8,000 metres (26,427 feet) measured from sea level. They are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia.

The first person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders was Reinhold Messner. He completed this task on October 16, 1986. One year later, in 1987, Jerzy Kukuczka was the second man to do so, and as of 2005, a total of thirteen people have done the same. This is an extremely hazardous feat; at least four people have died while close to completing the full list. __NOTOC__

List of eight-thousanders

Climbers who have reached the summit of all eight-thousanders

Notes