Famous Mountaineers Past and Present
Famous mountaineers! These people gave courage and inspiration to everyday people, stranded in the doldrums of everyday life.
Perhaps the most famous of all mountain climbers is Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand naturalist, climber and philanthropist. He made his living as a bookkeeper, climbing mountains up to 20,000 feet in his local New Zealand. He was famous for saying, “It’s not the Mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
He is best known for leading the first successful climb on Mt. Everest in May 1953. From 1920 until 1953, many attempts had been made but had been unsuccessful due to bad weather, high altitude and the rugged terrain. Located in the Himalayan mountain range, it’s the tallest documented mountain on the face of the earth.
Together with Nepalese climber Tenzing Norgay, Edmund Hillary made it to the peak. Suffering from exhaustion at the high altitude, most of his exhibition were forced to turn back. Only the two men were able to continue on to the peak at 29,028 feet and the equally treacherous descent down the mountain.
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Reinhold Messner succeeded in being the first mountaineer to have ever made it to the top. He made his historic climb ten years earlier than Sir Hillary team mastering the towering Himalayan peak completely solo.
Archille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli were another two-man mountain climbing team which succeeded in climbing K2 in July of 1954, a year after Sir Hillary scaled Mount Everest. The second tallest mountain in the world, K2 is considered even more difficult than Mt Everest to climb.
Conrad Kain, an Austrian, was known for his numerous expeditions climbing the North American Canadian Rockies. He made fifty “first ascents” in the Canadian Rockies, which are known to be both icy and treacherous.
John Salathe, a Swiss mountaineer, invented the pithon, a pin and pound technique used by climbers world-wide. This handy tool is the trusted friend of mountaineers and rock climbing enthusiasts everywhere.
Hans Meyer, a German geology professor, is best known for climbing Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa’s highest peak in the late 19th century. Accompanied by an African guide named Yahuni Lauwo who climbed the mountain three times before World War I. The latter was born in 1871 and is accredited with accompanying Meyer in his climb. He died at a record age of 124 or 125 years old.
Sir Chris Bonington is a modern mountaineer who began climbing mountains at age 16 in 1951. He made the first South West Face of Everest ascent in 1975, known as the Patagonian Climb. Knighted in 1996 for his service to mountaineering, he is now in his seventies. He continues to climb, work, photograph, write books and lecture internationally.
Joe Simpson, born in 1960, is a professional mountaineer. Known for climbing the Siule Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985 with climbing partner Simon Yates. He has also climbed the north face of Eiger. Riddled with injuries, the doctors claimed he would never walk again, much less climb, but he rehabilitated him and returned to the mountains that he loves. He has also written several bestselling books, including Touching the Void, reprinted in 23 foreign languages.
