There are only 14 places on Earth where you can enter the death zone, places where the oxygen pressure is so low that there’s simply not enough to sustain human life beyond a matter of hours. These places only occur on the world’s 8,000-meter peaks: Shishapangma, Gasherbrum II, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum I, Annapurna I, Nanga Parbat, Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, Cho Oyu, Makalu, Lhotse, Kangchenjunga, K2 and Everest.
If you have ambitions to climb above 8,000 meters, you’ll have to grapple with the death zone. On Shishapagma or Gasherbrum II, your acquaintance with the death zone would be relatively brief, with “only” 27 and 35 meters respectively to contend with. However, to attain the 8,849 meter apex of Everest, there’s a full 849 meters within this rather frightening sounding zone standing between you and summit glory. To put that into context, that’s an elevation gain just 65 meters short of the height of El Capitan from base to summit.
