6. Cho Oyu
Elevation: 8,188 meters
Despite its lofty heights, Cho Oyu is often thought of as the easiest 8,000-meter peaks to conquer. Many climbers intent on scaling the 8,000-meter mountains choose this summit as their first. Cho Oyu is located on the border between China and Nepal, and its name means ‘Turquoise Goddess’. Sir Edmund Hillary, the eminent New Zealand mountaineer and explorer, recounts his experience of Cho Oyu in his autobiography. He describes the failed attempt of 1952, which he’d planned as a way of trying out the oxygen equipment in preparation for the following year’s Everest attempt, as largely down to the threat of Chinese troops, not to mention a warning of an ice avalanche. Cho Oyu was climbed successfully in 1954, and since then, ‘only’ 43 fatalities have occurred – one of the lowest tolls for the mountains in our list of the 11 tallest mountains in the world.
