Ryan Waters is an American

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 ...

, mountaineering guide, and polar skiing guide. He runs the guide service Mountain Professionals based in Colorado, USA. In 2014, he became the first American to complete the Adventures Grand Slam, by climbing the

Seven Summits The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven traditional continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. Climbing the Seven Summits a ...

and skiing coast to pole, unsupported / unassisted trips to the North and South Poles. To date he has guided clients more than 50 times to the

. In January 2010, Ryan and

Cecilie Skog Cecilie Skog (born August 9, 1974) is a Norwegian adventurer. She studied and worked as a nurse, but since summiting Mount Everest in 2004, she has worked as a professional adventurer, guide and lecturer. In August 2008, she climbed K2. Her husb ...

completed a "nice long ski tour" in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. The team skied 1,117 miles/1,800 kilometers over 70 days from

Berkner Island Berkner Island (also known as the Berkner Ice Rise or as Hubley Island) is an Antarctic ice rise, where bedrock below sea level has caused the surrounding ice sheet to create a dome. If the ice cap were removed, the island would be underwater. B ...

in the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf to the South Pole, then continued to the

Ross Sea The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who vi ...

completing the first ski traverse of Antarctica to the Ross Ice Shelf without resupplies or the use of kites. He and fellow explorer Eric Larsen reached the North Pole on May 4, 2014 after skiing unsupported for 53 days from Cape Discovery, Canada. This expedition was made into a 2-hour documentary titled ''Melting: Last Race to the Pole'', for Animal Planet television network.} In September, 2015, he and Larsen also made the first ascent of 6,166m Jabou Ri in the Rolwaling area of Nepal. In 2016, Ryan guided 3 clients on an unsupported full length ski trip to the South Pole via the Messner/Fuches route over a 44-day expedition. This is thought to be only the second time that a full-length unsupported expedition has been guided taking clients to the South Pole.And again in 2019, he guided two clients on a full-length unsupported South Pole ski trip from the Hercules Inlet start on Antarctica. Ryan is the author of the 2022 autobiographical book An American's Grand Slam: A True Adventurer's Unlikely Journey, which he wrote with coauthor Hudson Lindenberger.

References

External links

Ryanwaters.net

Adventureblog.nationalgeographic.com
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waters, Ryan American mountain climbers American summiters of Mount Everest Living people Year of birth missing (living people)

See also

References

External links