Who Has Climbed All 14 Eight Thousanders? Records

Who Has Climbed All 14 Eight Thousanders? Records and Key Climbers

Last updated: September 23, 2026

Quick answer: Reinhold Messner was the first climber broadly recognized as completing all 14 eight-thousanders, finishing in 1986. Guinness World Records separately recognizes Ed Viesturs as the first person confirmed to have physically stood on the true summit of all 14, completing his cycle in 2005 (Guinness applied this classification in 2023). Roughly 77 climbers are historically credited with the full set under the older, legacy standard. Under the stricter “true summit” standard now used by Guinness, 8000ers.com’s New Era table listed 39 climbers, including 15 women, as of its April 13, 2026 update. That 39 figure is a dated snapshot, not a live count, and at least two more Nepali guides completed the challenge later in the summer of 2026.

Both numbers are accurate. Which one answers your question depends on what standard you mean, and the sections below explain why.

Why There Are Two Different Answers

For decades, nobody seriously questioned whether a climber had reached the true summit of an eight-thousander. If you stood where the fixed ropes ended and the ground fell away on every side, you had summited. Photographs and altimeters from the era backed that up.

That changed after mountaineering chronicler Eberhard Jurgalski, who runs 8000ers.com and serves as Guinness World Records’ primary consultant on 8,000-meter records, led a roughly decade-long review using satellite imagery, drone footage, and historical expedition photos. According to Guinness, the review found that on several peaks, most notably Annapurna I, Dhaulagiri I, and Manaslu, the point where climbers traditionally stopped was often a foresummit rather than the true highest ground.

Guinness adopted this framework as its official standard for true summit claims. That is why two rosters now get cited side by side:

• The legacy roster: around 77 climbers, credited under the standards, maps, and technology available at the time of their individual climbs.
• The true summit table: 39 climbers as listed in 8000ers.com’s April 13, 2026 New Era update, including 15 women, verified to have physically stood on the highest geographic point of all 14 mountains.

Treat the 39 figure as an April 2026 snapshot, not a live counter. Nepali guides Kili Pemba Sherpa and Phur Galjen Sherpa both completed their own 14-peak cycles later that summer, after the update was published, and their ascents had not yet appeared in a published true summit table as of this writing. The true summit total is likely to change once 8000ers.com issues its next update.

How True Summit Verification Actually Works

Verification starts with the historical record for a given climb: expedition photographs, summit logs, GPS tracks where they exist, and firsthand accounts from climbers and guides. Where that evidence is unclear, researchers compare it against high-resolution satellite imagery and, on several peaks, drone footage that captures the true high point from angles a climber on the ground could not have seen or judged accurately.

This is how the foresummit problem on Annapurna and Manaslu came to light. It was not a case of dishonesty. Climbers working from period maps and their guides’ best judgment genuinely believed, often correctly by the standards of the day, that they had reached the top.

Climbers who want their record corrected can complete a correction ascent: returning to a specific mountain and climbing the additional distance to the verified true summit. Later in 2021, Kili Pemba Sherpa and Mingma Gyalje Sherpa (known as Mingma G) helped establish a corrected route to Manaslu’s true summit, one that most commercial teams now use as standard.

If you are researching a specific climber’s record, check which list is being cited. A name appearing on an older roster and missing from a current true summit list usually is not an error, it reflects which standard is being applied.

The First to Climb All 14, and the First Under Today’s Standard

Reinhold Messner completed his cycle on October 16, 1986, a process spanning 16 years, entirely without supplemental oxygen. He is the answer to “who was first” under the legacy roster and remains the foundational name in eight-thousander history.

Ed Viesturs, an American climber, finished his own cycle in 2005 on Annapurna, also without supplemental oxygen. Research into the true summit question, published around 2022, found Viesturs among a small handful of climbers confirmed to have genuinely stood on all 14 highest points, and in 2023 Guinness formally named him the first verified true summit finisher [Guinness World Records]. Viesturs himself has publicly questioned the framing of this reclassification, and it is not universally treated as settled among climbers and historians, but it is the standard Guinness currently applies.

A year after Messner, Polish climber Jerzy Kukuczka became the second person to complete all 14. Swiss climber Erhard Loretan became the second to do so without supplemental oxygen, in 1995.

Records: Fastest, First, and No-Oxygen Ascents

Fastest Overall Ascent

Kristin Harila of Norway and her climbing partner Tenjen Lama Sherpa of Nepal set the current speed record, completing all 14 true summits in 92 days between April 26 and July 27, 2023, using supplemental oxygen and substantial logistical support, including helicopters between base camps.

Fastest Without Supplemental Oxygen

Kim Chang-ho of South Korea previously held this record, completing his cycle without bottled oxygen in 7 years and 310 days, finishing in May 2013. Nirmal Purja now holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest true summit ascent of all 14 without supplemental oxygen: 2 years and 150 days, between May 7, 2022, and October 4, 2024.

First Woman

Under the legacy standard, Edurne Pasaban of Spain became the first woman to finish all 14, reaching her final peak, Shishapangma, on May 17, 2010, with the aid of oxygen. Under the true summit standard, that distinction belongs to Dong Hong Juan of China, who reached the true summit of Shishapangma on April 26, 2023.

Oxygen use is tracked as a separate distinction. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner of Austria was the first woman to complete all 14 without supplemental oxygen, finishing in 2011. He Jing of China closed her own no-oxygen cycle at Shishapangma on October 9, 2024; Guinness World Records recognized her the following year as the first woman to complete the fully reviewed true summit standard without supplemental oxygen.

First Team and Double Completion

Nives Meroi and her husband Romano Benet, both Italian, became the first couple and first team to summit all 14, finishing on May 11, 2017, climbing alpine style without supplemental oxygen or outside support.

Sanu Sherpa of Nepal is widely credited as the first person to summit all 14 twice, closing his second cycle on July 21, 2022, under the legacy standard. Nirmal Purja completed his own second full cycle of the 14 true summits on October 4, 2024, a run that began on May 7, 2022, on Kangchenjunga; Guinness documented that same 2-year, 150-day run as his no-oxygen speed record. The two achievements are not competing claims: Sanu Sherpa’s double completion is recognized under the legacy standard, while Purja’s second cycle is documented under the true summit standard and doubles as his speed record.

Youngest Finisher

Nima Rinji Sherpa of Nepal completed all 14 on October 9, 2024, at age 18, closing his cycle on Shishapangma. His completion came during a group finish on the same mountain that also included fellow Nepali climber Lakpa Temba Sherpa.

Nirmal Purja’s Records and His 2026 Death

Nirmal Purja, known as Nims, is one of the most recognized names associated with this challenge. In 2019, the British-Nepali former special forces soldier climbed all 14 with supplemental oxygen in 6 months and 6 days, a project later covered in the Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible. At the time, it broke Kim Chang-ho’s previous pace record by several years.

That original record did not survive the true summit audit unchanged. Researchers found Purja had not reached the verified highest points of Dhaulagiri and Manaslu during the 2019 project, which pushed his officially corrected true summit completion date later, once he returned to climb both peaks’ true summits. His overall pace record stood until July 27, 2023, when Kristin Harila and Tenjen Lama Sherpa cut the time needed to complete all 14 down to 92 days. Separately, as detailed above, Purja completed his own second full true summit cycle without supplemental oxygen on October 4, 2024, a record Guinness recognizes at 2 years and 150 days.

Purja was also part of the 10-member Nepali team that made the first winter ascent of K2 on January 16, 2021, closing out the last unclimbed winter eight-thousander. One of his K2 winter teammates was Kili Pemba Sherpa, the same guide credited above with helping correct the Manaslu route in 2021.

On July 30, 2026, an avalanche struck a 10-member expedition attempting Broad Peak in Pakistan. Purja was leading the group. His death, along with the deaths of all nine other climbers, was confirmed by his expedition company, Elite Exped, on August 1, 2026; he was 43. Kili Pemba Sherpa was also among those killed. Kili Pemba had completed his own 14-peak cycle weeks earlier, on July 3, 2026, via Nanga Parbat, and was back on Broad Peak guiding a Chinese client, Wang Zhong, toward Wang’s 13th eight-thousander when the avalanche hit. Purja’s death does not change any of the speed or completion records listed above.

Notable Climbers and Record Holders

There is no single, publicly reproducible list naming every one of the roughly 77 legacy finishers or all 39 true summit finishers that can be verified here with confidence, and getting individual names or dates wrong would do readers a disservice. The table below profiles the most significant, independently documented finishers referenced throughout this article, spanning both standards.

Climber	Nationality	Completion	Note
Reinhold Messner	Italy	1986	First to complete all 14, legacy standard, no supplemental oxygen
Jerzy Kukuczka	Poland	1987	Second to complete all 14, legacy standard
Erhard Loretan	Switzerland	1995	Second to complete all 14 without supplemental oxygen
Ed Viesturs	USA	2005	First verified true summit finisher (Guinness classification, 2023), no supplemental oxygen
Edurne Pasaban	Spain	2010	First woman, legacy standard
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner	Austria	2011	First woman without supplemental oxygen
Kim Chang-ho	South Korea	2013	Former no-oxygen speed record holder, 7 years 310 days
Nives Meroi and Romano Benet	Italy	2017	First couple and team, alpine style, no supplemental oxygen
Nirmal Purja	Nepal, UK	2019; true summit completion corrected in 2021	Set original 6-month, 6-day oxygen-assisted speed record
Sanu Sherpa	Nepal	2019, second cycle 2022	First person to complete all 14 twice, legacy standard
Kristin Harila and Tenjen Lama Sherpa	Norway, Nepal	2023	Current fastest true summit completion, 92 days, with oxygen
Dong Hong Juan	China	2023	First woman, true summit standard
Nima Rinji Sherpa	Nepal	2024	Youngest verified finisher, age 18
Nirmal Purja	Nepal, UK	2024	Second full true summit cycle, doubles as no-oxygen speed record, 2 years 150 days
He Jing	China	2024, Guinness recognition 2025	First woman, true summit standard, without supplemental oxygen
Kili Pemba Sherpa	Nepal	2026	Completed via Nanga Parbat on July 3, 2026; died in the July 30 Broad Peak avalanche
Phur Galjen Sherpa	Nepal	2026	Completed via Gasherbrum I on August 1, 2026

For a continuously updated roster of all legacy and true summit finishers, 8000ers.com remains the primary reference used by Guinness World Records and most mountaineering journalists.

The 14 Eight-Thousanders at a Glance

Mountain	Height	Location	First Ascent Year
Mount Everest	8,849 m	Nepal, China	1953
K2	8,611 m	Pakistan, China	1954
Kangchenjunga	8,586 m	Nepal, India	1955
Lhotse	8,516 m	Nepal, China	1956
Makalu	8,485 m	Nepal, China	1955
Cho Oyu	8,188 m	Nepal, China	1954
Dhaulagiri I	8,167 m	Nepal	1960
Manaslu	8,163 m	Nepal	1956
Nanga Parbat	8,126 m	Pakistan	1953
Annapurna I	8,091 m	Nepal	1950
Gasherbrum I	8,080 m	Pakistan, China	1958
Broad Peak	8,051 m	Pakistan, China	1957
Gasherbrum II	8,034 m	Pakistan, China	1956
Shishapangma	8,027 m	China	1964

All 14 were first summited within a 14-year window, from Annapurna I in 1950 to Shishapangma in 1964. There is no unclimbed 8,000-meter peak left. What remains genuinely open on a handful of these mountains is whether specific historical ascents reached the verified true summit or stopped at a nearby foresummit, which is the entire reason the legacy and true summit lists differ.

Why Do Climbers Try to Complete All 14?

For much of the twentieth century, the eight-thousanders were treated as a national project. European expeditions in the 1950s raced to claim first ascents for their countries, and Reinhold Messner’s completion of all 14 in 1986 marked the first time the full set was treated as a single, definable challenge for one climber rather than a sequence of separate national achievements.

Messner’s completion gave the collection a clear finish line: fourteen mountains, one shared standard of measurement, a list anyone could point to and say was complete or not yet complete. That clarity is part of what makes the challenge distinct from other pursuits in mountaineering, which often lack such an unambiguous endpoint.

Since Messner, the composition of finishers has shifted substantially. Where early completions were dominated by Western European climbers, the past two decades have seen Nepali and Pakistani climbers, many of whom built their careers guiding others up these same mountains, complete the list themselves and set most of the current speed and age records. The challenge has moved from a matter of national representation toward an individual benchmark pursued by climbers from a much wider range of countries.

Frequently Asked Questions