Shishapangma

The fourteenth-highest mountain on Earth, 8,027 metres in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Shishapangma is the only 8000-metre peak entirely within Tibet — every other 8000er sits on a national border or in Nepal or Pakistan. The name in Tibetan refers to the meadow at the mountain's base where summer grasses turn to crested seed-heads in the high Tibetan light.

The first ascent was the last among the 8000ers, made in 1964 by a large Chinese expedition led by Hsu Ching. Ten climbers reached the summit on May 2 — eleven years after Everest. The mountain had been politically inaccessible to non-Chinese climbers for the entirety of the post-war 8000er race. The first non-Chinese ascent came in 1980, after Tibet was reopened to foreign expeditions. Reinhold Messner climbed the central summit of Shishapangma alone that year as part of his project to climb all fourteen 8000ers without supplemental oxygen.

The standard route from the north is among the most straightforward of the 8000ers — broad, glaciated, with no major rock or ice climbing on the line itself. The fatality rate is approximately 8 percent. The mountain has two summits: Main and Central. The Central summit at 8,008 metres is fifteen metres lower than the true summit, and the traverse between them crosses a corniced ridge that some climbers will not attempt in poor weather. For some years it was unclear how many recorded ascents had reached the actual main summit. The data has been corrected.

In 2023, the Italian climber Hervé Barmasse and the American Anna Gutu were among four climbers killed by an avalanche near the summit on the same day. The mountain has been less travelled than the giants of Nepal but is no easier to climb safely.