The most dangerous mountains to climb are Annapurna I in Nepal, with 31.9 deaths for every 100 people who reached its summit, K2 on the Pakistan–China border (26.5) and Nanga Parbat in Pakistan (20.3), according to mountaineering statistician Eberhard Jurgalski's figures for 1950 to March 2012. All ten of the deadliest peaks on that measure are eight-thousanders in the Himalaya and Karakoram, and Mount Everest, the mountain with the most deaths in total, does not make the top ten: it ranks 11th of the 14, at 3.9 deaths per 100 summits.
How the 1950–2012 death-to-summit ratio is counted
"Dangerous" needs a yardstick, and the one used here is the broad death rate: every death on the mountain above base camp, divided by every successful ascent, over the same years. Jurgalski's 8000ers.com data covers the period from the first eight-thousander ascent in 1950 to March 2012, and the Guinness Book of World Records uses the same metric to name Annapurna I the world's deadliest mountain. Because it counts porters and Sherpas too, it measures the human cost of a summit rather than one climber's odds.
The Himalayan Database, started by the chronicler Elizabeth Hawley, offers a narrower figure: deaths among expedition members who went above base camp. On that basis, for 1950 to 2009, Annapurna I is still the worst at about 4%, followed by Kangchenjunga and Dhaulagiri at about 3% each, with Cho Oyu the safest at 0.6%. The same tables show that the death rate for 1990 to 2009 was roughly half the rate for the whole period.
| Rank | Mountain | Height | Country | Deaths per 100 summits (1950–2012) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annapurna I | 8,091 m | Nepal | 31.9 |
| 2 | K2 | 8,611 m | Pakistan / China | 26.5 |
| 3 | Nanga Parbat | 8,125 m | Pakistan | 20.3 |
| 4 | Dhaulagiri I | 8,167 m | Nepal | 15.4 |
| 5 | Kangchenjunga | 8,586 m | Nepal / India | 14.1 |
| 6 | Manaslu | 8,163 m | Nepal | 9.8 |
| 7 | Gasherbrum I | 8,080 m | Pakistan / China | 8.7 |
| 8 | Makalu | 8,485 m | Nepal / China | 8.6 |
| 9 | Shishapangma | 8,027 m | China (Tibet) | 8.3 |
| 10 | Broad Peak | 8,051 m | Pakistan / China | 5.2 |
Nos. 10 to 7: Broad Peak, Shishapangma, Makalu and Gasherbrum I
10. Broad Peak, 5.2 per 100. At 8,051 m, Broad Peak stands about 8 km from K2 in the Karakoram. Its summit ridge runs for more than 1.5 km. A low historical ratio does not make it safe: on 30 July 2026 an avalanche between Camp 2 and Camp 3 swept away ten climbers, among them the Nepali-British mountaineer Nirmal Purja and Nadhira Al Harthy of Oman, and all ten were confirmed dead on 1 August.
9. Shishapangma, 8.3 per 100. The lowest of the fourteen at 8,027 m, and the only one entirely inside Tibet, Shishapangma is usually described as one of the easier eight-thousanders: vehicles can reach a base camp at about 5,000 m. Even so, 36 people have died climbing it, including the American Alex Lowe in a 1999 avalanche. Its particular hazard is the summit ridge: the central top at 8,008 m is almost two hours of dangerous ridge-climbing from the true summit, which is only 19 m higher.
8. Makalu, 8.6 per 100. Makalu, 8,485 m, stands 19 km southeast of Everest on the China–Nepal border and is shaped like an isolated four-sided pyramid. Its standard route, by the north face and northeast ridge, is the line Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy took on the first ascent on 15 May 1955.
7. Gasherbrum I, 8.7 per 100. Also called Hidden Peak, because it stays out of sight behind other Gasherbrum peaks for most of the walk up the Baltoro Glacier, this 8,080 m summit lies between Gilgit-Baltistan and Xinjiang. The name was given by William Martin Conway in 1892 in reference to its extreme remoteness. The Polish climber Artur Hajzer died on 7 July 2013 after a fall in the Japanese Couloir.
Nos. 6 and 5: Manaslu and Kangchenjunga
6. Manaslu, 9.8 per 100. The world's eighth-highest mountain, at 8,163 m in Nepal's Gorkha District, has a long record of avalanche deaths: in 1972 an avalanche buried a Korean camp at 6,500 m, killing fifteen climbers. On 23 September 2012 a second avalanche killed eleven climbers. Ten years later, on 26 September 2022, a third struck just below Camp IV, killing the Nepali guide Anup Rai, and the same day the American ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson fell to her death while skiing from the summit.
5. Kangchenjunga, 14.1 per 100. The world's third-highest mountain, 8,586 m on the Nepal–India border, has kept a high fatality rate despite better equipment. Joe Brown and George Band made the first ascent on 25 May 1955 and stopped just short of the summit, keeping a promise to Tashi Namgyal, the Chogyal of Sikkim, that the top would remain inviolate. The deaths continue. In May 2014 Chhanda Gayen, the first Indian woman to reach the top, was killed by an avalanche on the descent, and in May 2023 the German Luis Stitzinger died during a ski descent after summiting.
Nos. 4 and 3: Dhaulagiri I and Nanga Parbat, the 15 to 20 per cent band
4. Dhaulagiri I, 15.4 per 100. At 8,167 m, Dhaulagiri is the highest mountain wholly inside one country, Nepal, and it rises about 7,000 m from the Kali Gandaki River just 30 km away. Its south and west faces drop more than 4,000 m. Because the other routes are so dangerous, most ascents follow the northeast ridge of the 1960 first ascent. The history is dominated by avalanches: seven members of an American team, including leader Boyd Everett, were killed on the southeast ridge in 1969, and six Japanese climbers died on the southwest ridge in 1975.
3. Nanga Parbat, 20.3 per 100. Nanga Parbat, 8,125 m in Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, is nicknamed "Killer Mountain", and much of that reputation was earned before anyone stood on top. Albert Mummery and two Gurkha companions died there in 1895, and German expeditions of the 1930s suffered terribly: a storm on the 1934 attempt killed Willy Merkl, Willo Welzenbach and Ulrich Wieland among others, and in 1937 an avalanche buried Camp IV below Rakhiot Peak, killing all sixteen men inside, seven Germans and nine Sherpas. By the time the Austrian Hermann Buhl reached the summit alone on 3 July 1953, 31 people had died on the mountain.
The mountain's scale explains a great deal. On the south side, the Rupal Face rises about 4,600 m from its base and is often called the highest mountain face in the world. On the north, the Rakhiot Flank climbs about 7,000 m from the Indus valley in just 25 km. The standard Kinshofer route on the Diamir Face, first climbed in 1962, avoids the centre of that face because hanging glaciers above it shed avalanches.
No. 2: K2 and the Bottleneck
2. K2, 26.5 per 100. The world's second-highest mountain, 8,611 m on the border between Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and China's Xinjiang, got the nickname "Savage Mountain" from George Bell of the 1953 American expedition. Three things make it worse than Everest. It lies farther north, so multi-day storms are more frequent; every route is steep and exposed, so retreat is hard; and at the summit there is only about a third of the oxygen available at sea level.
About 75% of climbers use the Abruzzi Spur, the southeast ridge. Near the top it passes the Bottleneck, a narrow couloir beneath an overhanging wall of ice. On 1 and 2 August 2008, a falling section of that ice cut the fixed ropes, and eleven climbers from several expeditions died, among them Meherban Karim of Pakistan and Ger McDonnell, the first Irishman to summit. Earlier disasters killed thirteen climbers over the 1986 season and six in 1995. The first winter ascent came only on 16 January 2021, by ten Nepali climbers. Traffic has since changed the arithmetic: by August 2023 about 800 people had summited K2 against 96 deaths, a ratio near 12 per 100. Our K2 guide tells the longer story.
No. 1: Annapurna I, deadliest since Herzog's 1950 ascent
1. Annapurna I, 31.9 per 100. Annapurna I, 8,091 m in north-central Nepal, was the first eight-thousander ever climbed: Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal reached the summit on 3 June 1950. Over the following six decades, about one person died for every three who stood on top. The threats are avalanches, unpredictable weather and extremely steep, committing routes; the 3,000 m south face is counted among the most difficult climbs in the world.
The roll of those who died there includes some of the strongest climbers of their generation: Ian Clough in 1970, hit by a falling serac after the British first ascent of the south face; Alex MacIntyre in 1982; Pierre Béghin in 1992; Anatoli Boukreev in 1997; Iñaki Ochoa in 2008; and Park Young-seok in 2011. More recent seasons have brought the ratio down. Guinness World Records now gives about 13.4 deaths per 100 ascents (75 deaths from 559 ascents as of February 2025). Our guide to the Annapurna massif covers the wider range and the treks below it.
Why Everest ranks only 11th
Everest has more deaths than any other eight-thousander, 223 above base camp by March 2012 against 5,656 ascents, but that is a ratio of 3.9 per 100, eleventh of the fourteen. Lhotse (2.8), Gasherbrum II (2.3) and Cho Oyu (1.4) are the only eight-thousanders with lower figures. Its standard route from Nepal poses no substantial technical climbing challenges, and since the commercial era began in the 1990s large guided teams have put thousands of people on top, so the sheer number of summits dilutes the deaths.
The two deadliest Everest disasters did not happen on summit pushes: on 18 April 2014 a serac collapse in the Khumbu Icefall killed sixteen Sherpas, and on 25 April 2015 the Nepal earthquake sent an avalanche from Pumori into base camp that killed at least 24 people. Above 8,000 m the "death zone", where the air pressure is too low to sustain life for long, affects every summit on this list. What separates Annapurna, K2 and Nanga Parbat from Everest is avalanche-prone terrain, harsher weather and steep routes on which retreat is hard. To see how the world's highest summit compares to the second, read our Everest vs K2 comparison.