First person to climb all 8,000-m mountains (legacy)

Reinhold Messner (Italy) became the first person to climb the world's 14 mountains over 8,000 m (26,246 ft) when he summited Lhotse (8,516 m; 27,940 ft) on the Nepal­/Tibet border, on 16 October 1986. His quest had started in June 1970, and the difficulty of this feat is illustrated by the fact that as of 30 August 2014 only 34 people had achieved it.

In mountaineering circles the '8,000ers' are regarded as the ultimate challenge and seen as more prestigious than the 'Seven Summits'. Of the seven summits, only three (Everest, Mt McKinley and Aconcagua) are higher than 6,000 m (19,685 ft), and only Everest is higher than 7,000 (22,965 ft). Part of the challenge of climbing the 8,000ers is that they take climbers into the so-called 'death zone', a term originally coined by a Swiss Doctor named Edouard Wyss-Dunant in an article about acclimatisation published by the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research in 1953. Wyss-Dunant demarked the 'Todeszone' as beginning at 7,500 m (24,606 ft) and from this altitude, he stated, not only could normal human functions not be maintained, but they rapidly deteriorated – even with the use of supplemental oxygen.