Peter Athans (born March 1, 1957) is one of the world's foremost high-altitude

mountaineer Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports ...

s. In 2008 he was celebrated for summiting

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 ...

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 Scott Eugene Fischer (December 24, 1955 – May 11, 1996) was an American mountaineer and mountain guide. He was renowned for ascending the world's highest mountains without supplemental oxygen. Fischer and Wally Berg were the first Americans ...

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 Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

n guides who have adopted

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

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 (; January 16, 1958 – December 25, 1997) was a Kazakh mountaineer who made ascents of 10 of the 14 eight-thousander peaks—those above —without supplemental oxygen. From 1989 through 1997, he made 18 successful as ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athans, Peter American mountain climbers American summiters of Mount Everest Living people 1957 births

Rescues

Everest summits

See also

References