Height: 8,848m Location: Himalayas, Nepal/Tibet Autonomous Region, China First climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, Mount Everest is, of course, the highest mountain in the world. Everest has come under a lot of scrutiny recently. Photographs showing enormous queues near the summit have opened a huge debate about overcrowding on Everest.
Height: 8,611m Location: Pakistan/China The second highest mountain in the world is K2. The mountain took its name from the notation used by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of British India. At the time, there wasn’t an apparent local name for the mountain, and so it stuck. K2 is also nicknamed the ‘Savage Mountain’, which is cool in a slightly Point Break, over-the-top extreme kind of way. It is fitting, though, too.
Height: 8,586m Location: Himalayas, Nepal/India So you knew Mount Everest was the highest mountain in the world. You even knew K2 was the second highest. But we’re betting if you asked most people what Kangchenjunga was, they’d guess it was some kind of street food. It is not. Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world. It can be found between Nepal and Sikkim in India, with three of the peaks on the border and the other two in the Taplejung District of Nepal.
Height: 8,516m Location: Himalayas, Nepal/Tibet Autonomous Region, China Lhotse is one of the more famous mountains on any list of the top 10 highest mountains in the world, largely because of its proximity to Mount Everest. The route up Lhotse is the same as that up Mount Everest from Everest Base Camp until you pass Camp 3 and then depart to the Reiss couloir from the Lhotse Face, from where the peak of Lhotse is reached.
Height: 8,485m Location: Himalayas, Nepal/Tibet Autonomous Region, China Makalu is the third of the four 8000m-high mountains in the Everest Massif in Nepal. It was first summited by a French expedition led by Jean Franco in 1955. Their ascent was most notable for the fact that a full ten members of the expedition team summited the mountain on the trip.
Height: 8,188m Location: Himalayas, Nepal/Tibet Autonomous Region, China The fourth and final member of the Everest region’s 8000m club is Cho Oyu. The sixth highest mountain in the world at 8188m, Cho Oyu is considered the easiest of the 8000m mountains to climb due to the gentler slopes of the ascent. It’s also just a few kilometres away from the Nangpa La pass, a major trading route between the Tibetan and Khumbu Sherpas.
Height: 8,167m Location: Nepal The Dhaulagiri in Nepal is the seventh highest mountain in the world at 8167m, and one of the most aesthetically stunning mountains of the lot. The Dhaulagiri was first climbed on 13 May 1960 but is perhaps best known for its visibility on the popular Annapurna Circuit, with Annapurna I just 34km away and the Dhaulagiri a regular feature on the skyline while trekking Annapurna
Height: 8,163m Location: Nepal Manaslu is the eighth highest mountain in the world, the name actually comes from the Sanskrit word ‘manasa’, which means “intellect” or “soul”. Manaslu was first scaled by Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu, who were part of a Japanese expedition which reached the top of the mountain on 9 May 1956. Their ascent was controversial.
Height: 8,126m Location: Pakistan The ninth highest mountain in the world is Nanga Parbat, in the Diamer District of Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistan region in the western Himalayas. Like many of the other mountains, the name comes from Sanskrit, with ‘nanga’ and ‘parvata’ meaning ‘naked mountain’. The Tibetan name for the mountain ‘Diamer’, meaning “huge mountain”, is maybe a bit more appropriate (if a little lacking in creativity).
Height: 8,091m Location: Nepal Annapurna I in Nepal is the tenth highest mountain in the world, and one of the most famous mountains on this list courtesy of the fact that the trekking in Annapurna is truly world-renowned. Annapurna I may be only the tenth highest mountain in the world, but it actually has a higher fatality rate than any other mountain on this list, with 32% of attempts to reach the top of the mountain resulting in a fatality.