Peter Athans (born March 1, 1957) is one of the world's foremost high-altitude
mountaineer
Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...
s. In 2008 he was celebrated for summiting
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...
seven times, and was given the moniker "Mr. Everest". His first attempt to climb Everest in 1985 via the West Ridge, and further attempts in 1986, 1987, and 1989 were unsuccessful, but he succeeded in summitting in 1990 as part of an expedition that included
Scott Fischer and
Wally Berg.
Athans is one of several western
Himalaya
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
n guides who have adopted
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...
as a second home, and who have taken up the cause of the Sherpa people and their culture.
Rescues
In 1996 he was a key participant in the rescue of several climbers during the
May 1996 Everest Disaster. For his efforts the American Alpine Club awarded him and his partner
Todd Burleson and
Anatoli Boukreev
Anatoli Nikolaevich Boukreev (russian: Анато́лий Никола́евич Букре́ев; January 16, 1958 – December 25, 1997) was a Soviet and Kazakhstani mountaineer who made ascents of 10 of the 14 eight-thousander peaks—those a ...
the
David A. Sowles Memorial Award.
The next year, Athans removed the body of a friend -
Bruce Herrod, a South African climber who had perished just weeks after the 1996 disaster, from the climbing route high up on the mountain. He found Herrod hanging upside down by the climbing ropes that the photographer had been using to make his way down the dangerous Hillary Step section of the mountain, just below the summit. Four expeditions had climbed past his body before the removal of Herrod's body, which was cut loose and pushed over the edge. Athans returned the camera and ice axe of the dead climber to his family. The last pictures Herrod took, shortly after 5PM the night he summitted, were of himself, on the summit, smiling that he had at last reached this goal.
Everest summits
A total of seven Mount Everest summitings:
Everest summitings:
[8000er Statistics by Eberhard Jurgalski]
(Everest)
#May 10, 1990
#May 8, 1991
#May 15, 1992
#May 13, 1994
#May 23, 1997
#May 5, 1999
#May 25, 2002
See also
*
List of climbers
This list of climbers and mountaineers is a list of people notable for the activities of mountaineering, rock climbing (including bouldering) and ice climbing.
A
* Vitaly Abalakov (1906–1992) Russia, climbed Lenin Peak (1934) and Khan Ten ...
*
*
Dave Hahn
David Allen Hahn (born November 3, 1961, Okinawa, Japan) is an American professional mountain guide, ski patroller, journalist and lecturer. In May 2013, he reached the summit of Mount Everest for the 15th time—at the time, this was the most sum ...
*
William Crouse
*
Ed Viesturs
Edmund Viesturs (born June 22, 1959) is a high-altitude mountaineer, corporate speaker, and well known author in the mountain climbing community. He is the only American to have climbed all 14 of the world's eight-thousander mountain peaks, and o ...
*
George Dijmarescu
*
Beck Weathers
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athans, Peter
American mountain climbers
American summiters of Mount Everest
Living people
1957 births