Thomas Hornbein (born November 6, 1930) 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 ...
.
Biography
Born in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
, Hornbein developed an interest in
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
as a teenager. His study of geology led to a fascination with mountains. Eventually he also became interested in
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
; he received his MD in 1956 from
Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine has 1,260 students, 604 of which are pursuing a medical degree with ...
and worked as an
anesthesiologist
Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology, or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine ...
. He also studied human
physiological limits and performance at high altitude. He was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at the
University of Washington School of Medicine
The University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) is a large public medical school in the northwest United States, located in Seattle and affiliated with the University of Washington. According to ''U.S. News & World Report''s 2022 Best Grad ...
in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Washington from 1978 to 1993. His life was a link of medicine and mountaineering.
Hornbein was an early area climber of
Boulder, Colorado in the
Flatirons
The Flatirons are rock formations in the western United States, near Boulder, Colorado, consisting of flatirons. There are five large, numbered Flatirons ranging from north to south (First through Fifth, respectively) along the east slope of ...
.
Hornbein and his partners
Willi Unsoeld
William Francis Unsoeld (October 5, 1926 – March 4, 1979) was an American mountaineer who was a member of the first American expedition to summit Mount Everest. The American Mount Everest Expedition was led by Norman Dyhrenfurth, and included ...
and Dick Emerson attempted to climb
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 ...
in 1963 as part of the American Everest Expedition.
Jim Whittaker
James W. Whittaker (born February 10, 1929), also known as Jim Whittaker, is an American mountaineer and mountain guide. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, on May 1, 1963 he became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest as a ...
and
Nawang Gombu
Nawang Gombu (1 May 1936 – 24 April 2011) was a Sherpa mountaineer who was the first man in the world to have climbed Mount Everest twice.
Gombu was born in Minzu, Tibet and later became an Indian citizen, as did many of his relatives inclu ...
Sherpa from this expedition had summitted on May 1, 1963. Hornbein, Unsoeld, and Emerson were the first to attempt an ascent of the daunting West Ridge. Previously, ascents of the mountain had been made only via the South Col and Southeast Ridge or the North Col and Northeast Ridge. Their plan was to climb up the West Ridge and down the Southeast Ridge/South Col route. This would make theirs the first traverse of an 8000-meter peak.
On May 22, 1963 at 6:50 a.m. they left their final camp and started the climb (Emerson stayed at the high camp due to altitude sickness), and even though progress was very slow made it to the summit at 6:15 that night. They found themselves hours behind the generally accepted schedule and after spending 20 minutes at the top they began the descent. Shortly after they started Unsoeld ran out of oxygen.
At 9:30 they came upon two other Americans from the same expedition,
Barry Bishop and
Lute Jerstad. Bishop and Jerstad had reached the summit earlier in the day using the South Col route and by this time were exhausted and nearly out of oxygen. The four climbers joined together on the descent and continued to make very slow progress until they felt it was too dangerous and stopped sometime after midnight.
They huddled together until 4:00 a.m. and started down again, meeting expedition members carrying extra tanks of oxygen. They made it to camp to find Unsoeld’s feet hard and frostbitten. Barry Bishop and Lute Jerstad also suffered from frostbite and Bishop and Unsoeld lost toes as a result.
Hornbein wrote about this night event in his book "Everest: The West Ridge":
"The night was overwhelming empty. The black silhouette of the
Lhotse
Lhotse ( ne, ल्होत्से ; , ''lho tse'', ) is the fourth highest mountain in the world at , after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. The main summit is on the border between Tibet Autonomous Region of China and the Khumbu ...
Mountain was lurking there, half to see, half to assume, and below of us. In general there was nothing – simply nothing. We hung in a timeless gap, pained by an intensive cold air – and had the idea not to be able to do anything but to shiver and to wait for the sun arising."
Hornbein named the
Hornbein Couloir
The Hornbein Couloir is a narrow and steep couloir high to the west on the north face of Mount Everest in Tibet, that extends from about elevation, below the summit.
For the first vertical, the couloir inclines at about 47°, and the last is ...
, a steep gully which he and Unsoeld climbed in the uppermost part of the north wall. In his book ''
Into Thin Air
''Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster'' is a 1997 bestselling nonfiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It details Krakauer's experience in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers were killed and sev ...
'',
Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954) is an American writer and mountaineer. He is the author of bestselling non-fiction books—'' Into the Wild''; ''Into Thin Air''; ''Under the Banner of Heaven''; and '' Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat ...
writes that "Hornbein's and Unsoeld's ascent was--and continues to be--deservedly hailed as one of the great feats in the annals of mountaineering."
In the year 2002 Hornbein, 72 years old, was still active as a Professor of Anesthesiology and as a mountaineer. In 2006, he moved from the Seattle area to
Estes Park, CO, where he lives with his wife, Kathy Mikesell Hornbein, a retired pediatrician and young adult novelist. They climb regularly in the
Colorado Rockies.
Awards
On April 14, 2018, Hornbein was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by
The Mountaineers (club)
The Mountaineers is an alpine club in the US state of Washington. Founded in 1906, it is organized as an outdoor recreation, education, and conservation 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation, and is based in Seattle, Washington. The club hosts a wid ...
, a Seattle-based mountaineering club and publisher of mountaineering books.
Book
*
References
External links
Thomas Hornbein PapersMSS 669
Special Collections & Archives UC San Diego Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hornbein, Tom
American mountain climbers
American summiters of Mount Everest
American anesthesiologists
Living people
Medical educators
University of Washington faculty
Writers from St. Louis
1930 births
Washington University in St. Louis alumni
Washington University School of Medicine alumni