A Sydney mountaineer has become the first Australian and 18th person worldwide to climb all 14 of the world's peaks above 8000 metres.

Andrew Lock, 48, cemented his place as one of the country's best mountaineers when he reached the peak of Tibet's Mount Shishapangma yesterday.

In a short post on his website, simply titled "Did it", Lock wrote: "Summitted the true summit of Shishapangma at 5.05pm, 2nd October, with Neil Ward.

"Very tough climb via a variation of the Inaki route on the north face.

"Caught in a storm on descent with an open bivouac at 7600 metres without equipment thrown in for good measure.

"Just into basecamp now, bit tired, more later."

Lock had previously attempted to scale Shishapangma, unsuccessfully.

Earlier this year, Chinese bureaucracy had held up the issuing of his climbing permit, and in 2007, poor weather forced him to abort a climb.

In 2003 and 2005 Lock climbed as high as the central summit at 8013 metres, but that was not considered the true summit, which is about 14 metres higher and more difficult to reach.

His travelling partner had been unable to continue.

Of his urge to climb all 14 mountains, Lock told the Herald last month: "I can't fully justify why I do it, but it is a driving need.

"Facing your own fears and pushing yourself to the absolute extremes of your physical and mental endurance is a revealing experience.

"And the fact is, I love it. Obviously there's the satisfaction of reaching a summit but what I really enjoy is that these 8000-ers demand total immersion in the environment."

He has also said he decided to climb all 14 8000m-plus peaks after discovering he had a "physiology that lets me climb at high altitudes".

"When I started out I just wanted to see if I could climb an 8000m peak," he said.

"I found at that I could ... and at some point I looked down and thought: 'Actually I've climbed 10 of these peaks, 14 is a realistic goal."'

Lock believed his achievements were particularly notable as he was Australian.

"As an Australian coming from a non-climbing community and background, [climbing the 14 peaks] seemed like an objective that was just in a different dimension."

Lock has previously said that should he succeed at Shishapangma, he planned to climb Mount Everest for the third time, but solo and without oxygen.

"It may be time to hang up my ice axes after Everest," he said in a statement.

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I would prefer to be tossed into fire.

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