First national flag on a 8000m+ summit - held by French Maurice Herzog on Annapurna, June 3rd, 1950. Illustration from Herzog's book "Regards Vers L’Annapurna" (click to enlarge).
10:28 am CST Nov 02, 2009
(MountEverest.net) How many (and which) countries have at least one climber with all 14x8000ers summited?
And who's next up? Here goes from ExWeb's regular contributor Rodrigo Granzotto Peron.
The first dozen
A dozen countries have at least one 14x8000ers summiteer in their ranks; Italy and South Korea taking the first post with three men each, followed by Poland and Spain.
Other countries are Switzerland (Erhard Loretan), Mexico (Carlos Carsolio), USA (Ed Viesturs), Ecuador (Ivan Vallejo), Kazakhstan (Denis Urubko), Germany (Ralf Dujmovits), Finland (Veikka Gustafsson) and, since last month, Australia (Andrew Lock).
Since the current stats make no differences between O2 and No O2 ascents, it may be worth to mention that two out of three Italian 14x8000ers summiteers (Messner and Mondinelli) bagged all their tops without gas, while all Korean climbers used bottle O2 on at least part of their ascents.
Both Polish climbers used O2 on Everest, although their climbs were otherwise remarkable: Kukuczka climbed via a new route, and Wielicki’s was a winter ascent. As for the Spaniards, both have all Great 14 done without O2 – Oiarzabal used gas on his first Everest ascent, but repeated the climb without it years later.
Strongest candidates: Portugal, Russia and Austria
As for nations close to 14x8000er summits, the near future depends on each climber’s circumstances. UK’s Hinkes, Tibetan (Chinese) Bianba Zaxi, Cering Doje, Lodue and Portuguese Joao Garcia have 13x8000ers summited.
However, while Joao hopes to bag his last summit (Annapurna) in spring 2010, Alan Hinkes claims to have already completed all 14 ascents (not accepted due a disputed Cho Oyu summit). Tibetans/Chinese Bianba Zaxi, Cering Doje, Lodue are reportedly not planning to repeat Broad Peak, although they actually stopped at its Foresummit.
Ukraine’s most accomplished climber Vladislav Terzyul perished on descent from Makalu, his 12th 8000er, five years ago. Russia’s Serguey Bogomolov and Japan’s Hirotaka Takeuchi are fully active with their 14x8000er project; a first for their countries when completed. Funny enough, Austria’s most promising climber in this aspect (12, 8000ers) is a female - Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner.
Here the full list by nations:
14 Italy (Reinhold Messner, Sergio Martini, Silvio Mondinelli)
14 S Korea (Park Young-Seok, Um Hong-Gil, Han Wang-Yong)
14 Poland (Jerzy Kukuczka, Krzyzstof Wielicki)
14 Spain (Juanito Oiarzabal, Alberto Iñurrategi)
14 Switzerland (Erhard Loretan)
14 Mexico (Carlos Carsolio)
14 USA (Ed Viesturs)
14 Ecuador (Ivan Vallejo)
14 Kazakhstan (Denis Urubko)
14 Germany (Ralf Dujmovits)
14 Finland (Veikka Gustafsson)
14 Australia (Andrew Lock)
13 UK (Alan Hinkes)
13 Tibet/China (Bianba Zaxi, Cering Doje, Lodue)
13 Portugal (João Garcia)
12 Ukraine (Vladislav Terzyul)
12 Russia (Serguey Bogomolov)
12 Austria (Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner)
12 Japan (Hirotaka Takeuchi)
11 France (Jean-Christophe Lafaille)
11 Nepal (Serap Jangbu Sherpa)
06 Latvia (Ilgvars Pauls)
06 India (Chering Norbu Bodh)
05 Georgia (Gia Tortladze, Bidzina Gujabidze)
05 Iran (Mohammad Oraz)
05 New Zealand (Rob Hall)
05 Pakistan (Rajab Shah, Nazir Sabir, Hassan Asad Khan, Nisar Hussain)
05 Serbia (Isso Planic)
Notes:
a) the list is updated to October/2009.
b) some sherpa names are similar, but they are different climbers. For example, Tshering Dorje II is the owner of Rolwaling Excursion, while Tshering Dorje III is the sherpa partner of Kim Jae-Soo and Go Mi-Sun this year. Both have 6x8000ers in the curriculum.
c) only confirmed main summits are accepted. Non-proved claims, fore summits (like Shishapangma Central, Broad Peak Rocky Fore Summit, Gasherbrum II Fore Summit, Makalu Fore Summit, Manaslu Fore Summit etc) and disputed summits are disregarded.
d) some summits are still being investigated, so some entries may be revisited in the following months, with possibly a few corrections to be done.
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