Fourteen 8000ers

In the summer of 2024, Expeditions Unlimited had the opportunity to accompany Jean-François Descat and Julien Delteil, two experienced mountaineers, on their first expedition to very high altitude: the ascent of Broad Peak at 8047 meters in Pakistan.

Everest, the roof of the world at 8849 meters, remains the dream of many a mountaineer, despite the criticism of its organization, which increases every year. The last few seasons have seen some serious changes in the number and value of climbers visiting the mountain. In this article, we look back at the recently concluded Spring 2024 season, during which, for the first time since 2019, the Tibetan North Face was also accessible. Weather windows, summit push, number of permits and percentage of summiters on the Nepalese and Tibetan sides, highlights... Everything worth remembering about this 2024 Everest mountaineering season.

On May 29, 2023, the mountaineering community will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary. Our friend Jean-Michel Asselin, journalist and writer, takes us back to 1953, to relive this feat that forever marked the history of Himalayan climbing.

The 1938 expedition was the last to be led by the British on the north face of Everest. The conquest of the poles eluded them. The French, their long-standing adversaries, took the first 8,000 m ascent from them. That's all they need. Now they have to climb Everest.

Ever since man first set out to conquer the mountains in the mid-19th century, he has continued to push back the limits of what is considered possible. Of the fourteen peaks over 8,000 meters high on our planet, all are in the Himalayas, between Nepal, Pakistan and China. We take a look at the history of the world's highest mountains.

3 June 1950, 2pm, 8,091m. Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal photographed themselves at the summit of the first 8,000-metre peak ever climbed by man. A few minutes of glory, but at what price? While Maurice Herzog survived the terrible tragedy of the descent relatively unscathed, gaining fame and honours, the same cannot be said for Lachenal, who was condemned to silence in the name of the honour of the Republic. To disentangle the true from the false, it is necessary to take the time to look seriously at the writings of each person in order to go beyond the myth.

It had taken fifty-six years of intense effort to reach the summit of Kangchenjunga. Finally, in 1955, it was the route initiated by Crowley that provided the key to success for the British duo of George Band and Joe Brown. We take you back to those intense years.

We reported on the German tragedies of 1934 and 1937 on Nanga Parbat, followed by Hermann Buhl's astonishing victory in 1953 on the north face of Rakhiot. Under the leadership of the indomitable Dr Karl Maria Herrligkoffer, the western slopes of Diamir and finally the southern slopes of Rupal gave way over the years. But the 'killer mountain' was not finished yet.

May 1960. Ten years, almost to the day, after the first reconnaissance at the foot of the ‘White Mountain’, Dhaulagiri (8,167 m) was about to be climbed. The seventh highest peak on the planet, it is the last to resist its many contenders. Or to be more precise, the last summit accessible to the Western world.