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Mountaineering is one of the most exhilarating outdoor activities, yet it is also among the most perilous. The risks include falling rocks, avalanches, unpredictable weather, falls, and illness. Despite these dangers, people have been scaling mountains for centuries. The call of the mountains attracts those with a deep passion for nature and a fearless adventurous spirit. Being high in the mountains allows one to witness the unspoiled beauty of the natural world and truly grasp how small we are in the vastness of it all. George Mallory’s famous reply to the question, “Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?” is forever etched in history: “Because it’s there.”
To be included in this list, the accidents must have occurred during mountain climbing, not hiking or rock climbing, and they must have resulted in the tragic loss of multiple lives. The events are not ranked in any specific order, as the loss of each life is equally heart-wrenching.
10. Mount Manaslu (8,156m) Nepal
Manaslu stands as the eighth tallest mountain on the planet, first conquered on May 9, 1956, by Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu, both members of a Japanese expedition. The mountain is known as the 'Mountain of the Spirit.'
On April 10, 1972, a South Korean expedition met a tragic end while attempting to scale the northeast face. A massive avalanche struck their high camp at 6,500 meters, claiming the lives of 15 climbers, including 10 Sherpas, the Korean leader Kim Ho-sup, and Kazunari Yasuhisa from Japan. This disaster remains Nepal's deadliest mountaineering tragedy.
9. Mount Hood (3,426 m) USA
As Oregon's highest peak, Mount Hood was first ascended on July 11, 1857, by Henry Pittock, W.L. Chittenden, Wilbur Cornell, and Rev. T.A. Wood. However, it is also known for one of the most devastating climbing accidents in U.S. history, when seven teenagers and two teachers from the Oregon Episcopal School in Portland tragically froze to death on its slopes.
On May 12, 1986, a group of 19 climbers set off from Timberline Lodge at 3 a.m. As they ascended, six members turned back early due to illness or exhaustion. The remaining climbers continued upward, reaching above 3,000 meters. By 3 p.m., however, they were forced to retreat because of worsening weather conditions.
With no choice but to bivouac for the night, the climbers dug a snow cave to shield themselves. The following day, two members descended the mountain to seek help. On May 14, a search party discovered three climbers who had tragically frozen to death. The remaining eight were found on May 15, also in a snow cave. Only two of these eight survived, while three others were severely hypothermic, and one required a leg amputation.
8. Dhaulagiri (8,167m) Nepal
Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest mountain on Earth, was first ascended on May 13, 1960, by a Swiss-Austrian team led by Max Eiselin.
On the morning of April 28, 1969, a team of six Americans and two Sherpas left their camp in the ice-fall to carry supplies towards a higher camp. They were attempting to build a log bridge over a crevasse at approximately 5,200 meters. As they worked on this task, a massive avalanche, possibly originating from the ice-fall above or from the Southeast ridge, swept seven members of the team to their deaths. Miraculously, the eighth climber managed to survive without injury. The bodies of those lost could not be retrieved.
7. Mount Temple (3400m) Canada
Mt. Temple holds the distinction of being the first peak climbed in the Canadian portion of the Rocky Mountains. The inaugural ascent was made in 1894 by Walter Wilcox, Samuel Allen, and L.F. Frissel.
On July 11, 1955, one of Canada’s most devastating mountaineering accidents occurred on the southwest ridge route of Mount Temple. Seven American teenage boys lost their lives. The group, consisting of 11 unsupervised boys from the Wilderness Camp of Philadelphia, was attempting the Tourist Route on the southwest ridge of the mountain. Dressed in only light clothing, they had just one ice axe between them. Some wore baseball cleats for better grip, and they were roped together with a manila rope.
At 4:00 p.m., the group reached 2,750 meters and paused to assess the situation, as the warm summer afternoon had triggered several avalanches nearby. After discussing their options, the boys decided to descend. Moments later, a massive avalanche roared toward them. One climber planted his ice axe into the snow, but the rope went taut before snapping. Ten boys, aged 12 to 16, were swept 200 meters down the snowfield, crashing through a narrow gap and slamming into rocks. By the end of the day, seven of them had perished in one of the most tragic avalanche incidents in Parks Canada history.
6. Eiger (3,970m) Switzerland
The Eiger is a formidable mountain located in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland. It was first ascended on August 11, 1858, by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren, along with Irishman Charles Barrington. Since 1935, more than sixty-four climbers have lost their lives attempting to scale the north face, earning it the ominous German nickname Mordwand, or “murder wall.”
In July 1936, a four-man team consisting of Andreas Hinterstoisser, Toni Kurz, and Austrians Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer, embarked on their second attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger. After days of poor weather, they began the ascent. Hinterstoisser made a daring traverse across a slab of icy rock, a critical move that allowed the rest of the team to continue up the face. This maneuver became known as the Hinterstoisser Traverse, named in his honor for his technical achievement.
During the climb, Angerer was severely injured by falling rocks dislodged by the warming sun. The team decided to abandon their attempt on the Eiger and began their descent. However, they became trapped on the face when they were unable to cross back over the treacherous Hinterstoisser Traverse.
The weather then took a turn for the worse, worsening for two consecutive days. Eventually, an avalanche struck, and only Toni Kurz survived, clinging to a rope. A team of three Swiss guides set out on a daring rescue mission, despite the extreme danger.
They managed to extend a rope long enough to reach Kurz by tying two ropes together. As he descended, Kurz struggled to pass the knot through his carabiner. For hours, he fought to reach his rescuers, who were only a few meters below him. As exhaustion took its toll, Kurz began to lose consciousness. One of the guides, standing on another’s shoulders, managed to touch the tip of Kurz’s crampons with his ice-axe but couldn’t reach higher. Unable to descend any further, Kurz, completely drained, uttered his final words: “Ich kann nicht mehr” (“I can’t [go on] anymore”) before he died.
5. Mont Blanc (4,810 m) Italy/France
Mont Blanc stands as the tallest mountain in the Alps and holds the title of the highest peak in Western Europe. The first documented ascent took place on August 8, 1786, by Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard.
On August 24, 2008, at around 3 a.m., forty-seven climbers were scaling the northwest face of Mont Blanc du Tacul when a large section of ice broke away at 3,600 meters. The resulting avalanche, which spanned 200 meters in width, caught fifteen climbers in its path. Seven were able to escape, but eight were swept down 1,000 meters along the mountain’s northern face. The slide claimed the lives of eight climbers—four Germans, three Swiss, and one Austrian—and injured seven others. Most of the injured suffered broken bones or sprains, including a guide who was treated for a fractured vertebra.
4. K2 (8,611 m) Pakistan/China
K2, often referred to as the Savage Mountain, is the second tallest mountain in the world and is widely regarded as the most challenging peak to summit. For every four climbers who reach the top, one loses their life in the attempt. The summit of K2 was first achieved by Italians Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni on July 31, 1954.
The deadliest day in K2’s history occurred on August 1, 2008, when eleven climbers from various international expeditions perished on the mountain. Three others suffered severe injuries. This tragic event remains the most deadly single accident in the mountain’s history of mountaineering.
A total of 25 climbers took advantage of favorable weather in an attempt to reach the summit. During the ascent, one climber lost his balance while unclipped from a fixed rope and fell 100 meters to his death in an area known as the Bottleneck. While trying to recover his body, a high-altitude porter also tragically fell to his death.
Eighteen climbers successfully reached the summit that day. However, during the descent at 8:30 p.m., a group was nearing the end of the Bottleneck when a massive serac broke off from the ice field above. The falling ice took out all the fixed lines to the summit and dragged one climber with it. The remaining climbers were stranded at the summit in the infamous 'death zone,' above 8,000 meters.
Some climbers attempted to descend in the darkness without the use of fixed ropes, while others decided to bivouac and wait for daylight. While a few climbers made it down, one fell as he reached the bottom of the Bottleneck. Serac falls continued to claim more lives, taking the lives of seven additional climbers and Sherpas. The victims hailed from Korea, Pakistan, Nepal, Ireland, Norway, France, and Serbia.
3. Pamir Mountains on Lenin’s Peak (7134m) Kyrgyzstan
One of the most devastating disasters in mountaineering history claimed the lives of at least 40 climbers from an international team in the remote Pamir Mountains, located in the Soviet Union near the Chinese border.
On July 17, 1990, a group of 140 climbers from around the world were attempting to reach the summit of Lenin Peak, nestled in the remote Pamir Mountains of the Soviet Union. The team had set up camp at 6,000 meters in a location called the Frying Pan, a well-known ledge where climbers traditionally rest before making their final push to the summit. While the team was in camp, a massive avalanche roared down the mountain and swept 40 climbers from five different countries to their deaths.
Among the victims were 27 Soviet climbers, including a 23-member Leningrad alpine team led by Leonid Troshchinenko, one of the country’s top climbers, according to Soviet sources. Other climbers came from Czechoslovakia, Israel, Switzerland, and Spain.
2. Nanga Parbat (8,126m) Pakistan
Nanga Parbat, the ninth tallest mountain in the world, was first summited on July 3, 1953, by Hermann Buhl. He made the ascent without supplemental oxygen and is the only person to have reached the summit of an 8,000-meter peak solo on the first attempt. Referred to as the “Killer Mountain,” Nanga Parbat was one of the deadliest peaks for climbers during the first half of the twentieth century and remains an extremely dangerous climb even today.
In 1937, a German-led expedition to Nanga Parbat was financed by the Nazi government. This team followed the same route taken by Willy Merkl’s ill-fated 1934 expedition, which resulted in the deaths of nine climbers, including Merkl himself.
Despite progress, the team’s ascent was slowed due to heavy snowfall. Around June 14, almost the entire team was at Camp IV below Raikot Peak when they were struck by a catastrophic avalanche. Seven Germans and nine Sherpas were killed in the avalanche, marking the worst single disaster on an 8,000-meter peak.
1. Mount Everest (8,848m) Nepal
Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth, was first reached on May 11, 1953, by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay via the South Col Route.
One of the deadliest days in Everest’s history occurred on May 11, 1996, when eight climbers perished during summit attempts. A total of 33 climbers from two guide services, Mountain Madness and Adventure Consultants, were trying to reach the top that day.
The expeditions departed around midnight on May 10, but soon faced delays and were forced to stop. Many climbers had not yet reached the summit by 2:00 p.m., the latest safe time to descend to Camp IV before nightfall. By 2:30 p.m., some climbers and guides began their descent, while others were still making their way to the summit. The weather started to deteriorate around 3:00 p.m., and some climbers didn’t reach the summit until after 3:45 p.m.
As the weather worsened, visibility became extremely poor, and the blizzard buried the fixed ropes, erasing the trail back to Camp IV. Several climbers lost their way, and those who could no longer continue huddled together for warmth.
By the morning of May 11, the blizzard had cleared enough for the team to spot Camp IV, and some climbers managed to reach the camp. It was believed that a guide and a client perished due to a fall during their descent near the summit. Additionally, two more guides and a client succumbed to exposure that morning.
Less reported, however, were the three fatalities from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police North Col expedition, who had ascended from the North side of Everest. At approximately 3:45 p.m., the trio communicated to their expedition leader that they had successfully reached the summit.
The three climbers began their descent, but there was no further radio communication after that. Tragically, none of them made it back to the high camp.
