Mark Synnott is an American professional rock climber and author. He is an internationally certified mountain guide and member of

The North Face The North Face is an American outdoor recreation products company. The North Face produces outdoor clothing, footwear, and related equipment. Founded in 1968 to supply climbers, the company's logo draws inspiration from Half Dome, a distinct ...

athlete team. Synnott specializes in remote first ascents of big wall climbs.

Books

Synnott has climbed frequently with fellow The North Face athlete

Alex Honnold Alex Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his Free solo climbing, free solo ascents of Big wall climbing, big walls. Honnold rose to worldwide fame in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo a f ...

, who is famous for free solo climbing

El Capitan El Capitan (; ) is a vertical Rock formations in the United States, rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The El Capitan Granite, granite monolith is about from base to summit alo ...

in 2017. Honnold's daring ascent inspired Synnott's best-selling book ''The Impossible Climb'', a part memoir, part historical account of climbing history and the ground-breaking first

free solo Free solo climbing, or free soloing, is a form of rock climbing where the climber (or ''free soloist'') climbs Solo climbing, solo (or alone) without Climbing rope, ropes or other Rock climbing equipment#Protection devices, protective equipmen ...

of El Capitan. In 2021, Synnott published ''The Third Pole'', documenting his 2019 expedition with Renan Ozturk to search for the body of

Sandy Irvine Andrew Comyn "Sandy" Irvine (8 April 1902 – 8 or 9 June 1924) was a British mountaineer who took part in the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition, the third British expedition to the world's highest mountain. He and his climbing par ...

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

Climbing

Synnott is known for groundbreaking first ascents around the world. He often documents these trips for

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

and The North Face. One such first ascent was climbing Mount Weiassipu,

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

on an expedition where he led a team of climbers including

to the top of the

tepui A tepui , or tepuy (), is a member of a family of table-top mountains or mesas found in northern South America, especially in Venezuela, western Guyana, and northern Brazil. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the ...

to help Dr Bruce Means find new species of frogs. Their journey was documented in ''Explorer: The Last Tepui'' by

and was released on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

on Friday 22 April 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Synnott, Mark American rock climbers American non-fiction writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)