14 Peaks
14-Peaks.com is the original poster design series honouring the highest mountains on earth.
Vintage Appeal
Contemporary artwork designed to look vintage, and with plenty of information.
Stunning Designs
Gorgeous colours, reminiscent of wood-cut and serigraph artwork from the 1920s–30s.
Top-quality
Archival-quality paper and inks, custom trimmed by hand.
Collect all 14 Peaks prints!
The Highest Mountains on Earth
The eight-thousanders are recognized as the 14 mountains that are more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) in height above sea level.
All eight-thousanders are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges, and their summits are in the death zone.
The Death Zone
The lack of oxygen above 8,000 metres can be fatal for climbers. The human body functions best at sea level where the atmospheric pressure is 1013.25 millibars. In the death zone, pressure is less than 356 millibars.
In the death zone and higher, no human body can acclimatize. Oxygen in your body is used up faster than it can be replenished. An extended stay in the zone without supplementary oxygen will result in deterioration of body functions, loss of consciousness and, ultimately, death.
Climbing History
The first recorded attempt on an eight-thousander was when Albert F. Mummery, Geoffrey Hastings and J. Norman Collie tried to climb Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat in 1895. The attempt failed when Mummery and two Gurkhas were killed by an avalanche.
The first recorded successful ascent of an eight-thousander was by the French Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, who reached the summit of Annapurna on June 3, 1950.
The first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, “Crown of the Himalaya”, was Italian Reinhold Messner, on October 16, 1986. Messner summited each of the 14 peaks without the aid of bottled oxygen. This feat was not repeated until 1995 by Erhard Loretan, of Switzerland.
In 2010, Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban, became the first woman to summit all 14 eight-thousanders with no disputed climbing. In August 2011, Austrian climber Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner became the first woman to climb the 14 eight-thousanders without the use of supplementary oxygen.