Shishapangma, Mountain summit in Shigatse, China

Shishapangma reaches 8027 meters in elevation and ranks as the lowest summit among the fourteen eight-thousanders on Earth. The southern wall rises more than 2000 meters steeply from the Tibetan plateau and displays a face of rock and ice.

Shishapangma was first climbed on 2 May 1964 by a Chinese expedition led by Xǔ Jìng, whose ten-member summit team included Zhāng Jùnyán, Wang Fuzhou and Wū Zōngyuè. It was the last eight-thousander to be ascended. The mountain was opened to foreign climbers only in 1978.

Geologist Toni Hagen read the Tibetan name as a "grassy plain" (pangma) below a "comb" or "range" (shisha), giving "crest above the grassy plains". Tibetologist Guntram Hazod recorded a local story instead: shisha means meat of an animal that died naturally and sbangma the malt dregs left from brewing beer, food the villagers ate after a heavy snowfall killed most of their animals. The Nepali name Gosainthan, from Sanskrit, means "place of the saint"; in Tintin in Tibet a fictional Air India flight crashes there.

Expeditions often last more than a month and include a gradual approach from Kathmandu as well as several weeks of acclimatization in high camps. Most routes go up the northern side, as the area is accessible only from Tibet.

The summit ridge forms a narrow snow crest that connects the central summit plateau with the main peak. This short passage sits above 8000 meters and requires extra caution due to exposure.