Outdoors
Viesturs makes 6th trip to top of Everest

By Seattle Times staff

Ed Viesturs

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Other links Ed Viesturs Web site: High altitude adventurer Times archive: Seattle climber did everything right, mountain still won Times archive: One to go for Viesturs, who summits Pakistan peak

Seattle climber Ed Viesturs has summited Mount Everest for the sixth time, becoming one of two non-Sherpa to do so.

"Our entire team, all six of us and seven Sherpa, stood on the summit of Mount Everest," he reported on his Web site yesterday. "It was a pretty spectacular day."

In 1996, Viesturs, long considered America's top high-altitude climber, led a climbing team on an IMAX documentary expedition when a sudden snowstorm high on Everest killed another group of eight climbers, including guide Scott Fischer of Seattle and Douglas Hansen of Renton.

The disaster, which was recounted in the book "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer, thrust Viesturs and the IMAX team into a recovery mission to help survivors.

Noted filmmaker David Breashears, who was on that 1996 IMAX project and climb, returned with Viesturs in March to take another attempt at Everest. This time, the goal was to shoot footage for another film, this one by Working Title Films for Universal, to chronicle the tragedy.

It took more than six weeks for all conditions to be right for the summit.

"It was a great day," Viesturs wrote on www.edviesturs.com. "(We) were able to do some filming on the Summit, on the South Summit and also from the Balcony. That's the reason we went up today, not just to get to the summit but also to get some footage and some scenics for the film.

"We had seven Sherpa accompanying us. They performed very well today. They carried the camera, the tripod, the film, the batteries, the lenses. And then a few of the Sherpa had to carry oxygen to support the other Sherpa who were carrying the camera gear. So a big, happy family."

Accompanying Viesturs, Breashears, of Boston, and seven Sherpa were Veikka Gustafsson, of Finland; Robert Schauer, of Austria; Jimmy Chin, of Jackson, Wyo.; and Amy Bullard, of Bozeman, Mont. The age range of the climbers was 25 to 51.

Viesturs, 44, is the only American and one of seven people to climb the six highest peaks in the world — all without supplemental oxygen. He is on a quest to climb all 14 of the world's highest mountains (above 8,000 meters) without the use of supplemental oxygen. He has successfully climbed 13 to date, with only Annapurna, in Pakistan, remaining.
 
Two others summit

Also summiting yesterday with another group was Murray Rice, 50, a physician from Seattle. Rice has previously taken part on expeditions to K2 and Everest.

On Sunday, Tacoma native Craig Van Hoy summited Everest on what was his third attempt. Van Hoy, 46, a full-time mountain guide who now lives in Clackamas, Ore., used supplemental oxygen.