Athletes
Adam Ondra
Adam Ondra is a singular talent, described in the media as a “prodigy” and “the leading climber of his generation.” Ondra won his first Lead Climbing World Cup Gold at age 16. Since then he’s put together an unmatched resume, winning three gold medals at the World Climbing Championships. Ondra pushes himself to get better every climb, recently repeating the legendary Dawn Wall in a record-setting eight days. His enthusiasm and zest for life mirror his climbs, which exude a lust for life and sense of adventure. His sense of humor is infectious, Ondra is a seminal talent and human being. He describes himself as, “not really a morning person.”
Alex Honnold
Alex Honnold is known for his free solo ascents of big walls, his philanthropy, and his writing. A real student of climbing, Honnold left UC Berkeley at 19 to become a professional climber. He remains the only person to ever free-solo El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. This was called, “One of the greatest athletic feats of all time” by the New York Times. He holds the record for fastest ascent of the Yosemite Triple Crown. An avid reader and intellectual, Honnold co-wrote the book, Alone on the Wall with fellow climber David Roberts. Not content with his accomplishments on the mountain, in 2012 he founded The Honnold Foundation whose mission is to reduce environmental impact and addresses inequality by supporting solar energy initiatives worldwide.
Angelika Reiner
Angelika Reiner started climbing rocks with her mother at the tender age of 10. She entered climbing competitions soon after, winning the Junior Italian Championships in sports climbing several times before becoming a Senior Italian Champion in 2007. In 2011 she became a world champion in Ice Climbing before going on to win that title for three consecutive years. Her passion for the natural world led her to a BA in agricultural economics from the University of Bolzano and a career at the Agricultural Center of Laimburg.
Lai Chi-Wai
Lai Chi-Wai is a four-time champion of the Asian Rock Climbing Championships and the first Chinese winner of the X-Games in extreme sports. His enthusiasm for climbing burns inside him with a white-hot passion. After a car accident in 2011 left him without the use of his legs, he continued to climb summits and inspire a new generation of climbers. In 2015, Lai scaled Lion Rock, a symbol of the Hong Kong spirit of persistence, resilience, and humility. Lai did this in his wheelchair, on the fifth anniversary of his accident, and in doing so was nominated for the Laureus Best Sporting Moment of the Year for feats of endurance and inspiration.
Chris Sharma
Routinely described as, “the world’s best climber,” Chris Sharma upholds that title with an enthusiasm and dedication unmatched by his peers. Sharma won the National Bouldering Championship by age 14, and a year later completed an ascent of Necessary Evil in the Virgin River Gorge, then the highest-rated climb in North America. As he’s continued his career, Sharma has become a teacher and mentor to the next generation of climbers. He works with Adam Ondra, offering guidance and motivation on routes, and in 2013 opened his climbing school, Sender One Climbing in Santa Ana, California.
Conrad Anker
Conrad Anker is a pioneer of American rock climbing and mountaineering. The author of several books, Anker is a seminal figure in climbing history, having led ascents and expeditions around the world for over 30 years. In 1999, he found the remains of George Mallory as part of a recovery mission on Everest. His climb and subsequent burial by an avalanche in the Tibetan Himalayas are the subjects of the film, The Endless Knot, which also extensively deals with his feelings of survivor’s guilt and its eventual acceptance. He continues to climb and resides in Bozeman, Montana.
David Lama
David Lama has climbing in his blood. The son of a Himalayan sherpa and a mother from the mountains of Austria, he was discovered by veteran climber Peter Habeler at the tender age of five. He became the youngest person to compete at the Climbing World Cup at age 15, and the first climber ever to win in lead and bouldering in their first season. In 2011 he retired from competitive climbing to focus on mountaineering, a pursuit most recently defined by his ascent of The Elgar’s north face with his friend and mentor, Habeler. On the 16th of April 2019,[David, along with climbers Jess Riskelley and Hansjörg Auer were caught in an avalanche on Howse Peak in the Waputik Range of the Canadian Rockies and tragically lost their lives.
Emily Harrington
Emily Harrington is a five-time US national Sport Climbing Champion and a two-time International Sport Climbing Champion. She is the first woman climber to ascend multiple 5.14 sport climbs and continues to be an outspoken advocate of climbing and mountaineering. In 2012, she summited Mount Everest with The North Face expedition and followed that up with a 2015 free climb of Golden Gate on El Capitan in Yosemite. At only 32, Harrington continues to develop her skills as a climber and mountain athlete, with the ambition only matched by her already impressive resume.
Erik Weihenmayer
Erik Weihenmayer is the first blind person to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest, but that doesn’t begin to describe who he is or where he’s going. A supreme athlete, adventurer, and activist, Weihenmayer is all about transcending any so-called limits imposed on him. He has climbed the Seven Summits — the commonly referred to term for the highest point on every continent. Weihenmayer continues to adventure, give lectures, and recently founded the group No Barriers whose mission is to help people, “who have challenges live a life rich in meaning and purpose.”
Hillary Nelson
The first woman to ever climb two 8,000m peaks in 24 hours (Everest and Lhotse), Hilaree Nelson is a true adventurer. Her combination of skills for exploration, mountaineering, and skiing has led her to some of the farthest-flung mountain ranges in the world. Born in the American Northwest, Nelson’s ski training started at the tender age of three, with mountaineering becoming a natural extension of those disciplines soon after. The mother of two boys, she has not slowed down at all, summiting the famous Peak of Evil (Papsura, India) in 2017. On September 26, 2022, while skiing with her husband Jim Morrison, Nelson was caught by an avalanche, leading to a fall of more than 1,800 meters (5,900 ft) from the summit ofMount Manaslu in Nepal and tragically lost her life.
Jimmy Chin
An accomplished climber, skier, and photographer, Chin’s breathtaking photographs are featured in National Geographic, Outside, and Men’s Journal. He has led exploratory missions in Asia, South America, Africa, North America, and Borneo. In 2004, after failing to reach the summit the previous year in a disastrous attempt that almost led to his death by avalanche, he reached the summit of Everest. He accompanied Alex Honnold on the first ever rope-free ascent of El Capitan in 2017 and was the first to ever summit Meru.
Leo Houlding
The first Briton to ever free climb, El Capitan, Leo Houlding may be the most famous British climber and adventurer living today. Not just content to score many of the world’s most famous (and dangerous) ascents, Houlding also is an experienced base jumper who has helped pioneer the new sport of Para-Alpinism — which involves both summiting a peak and descending via base jump. In 2013, Houlding led an ascent of Ulvetanna’s northeast ridge under brutal conditions in Antarctica. This 1000 mile trek of on the Antarctic Spectre expedition was another example of supreme endurance, taking 53 days and different 31 camps. He continues to mentor and inspire the next generation of adventurers.
Lynn Hill
A groundbreaking figure in competitive rock climbing, Lynn Hill made a name for herself during the 1980s, but it wasn’t until her free ascent of The Nose on El Capitan that she gained true notoriety. The first person to ever accomplish this feat, many thought The Nose was an impossible climb until Hill successfully navigated it. Not content to accomplish her goals on the cliff-side, Hill has become a spokesperson and advocate for equality in climbing, as well as helping the sports mainstream popularity. She has won multiple masters competitions and World Cups but recently returned to her original love of traditional climbing. Her autobiography, Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World is required reading for any aspiring climber.
Maureen Beck
“I don’t have a disability. I have a different ability,” says Beck on her website. An American one-handed climber, Beck has faced people underestimating her for an entire lifetime on the mountain. She has responded with an impressive resume, placing in the World Paraclimbing Championships every year since 2014, including four national titles and two world championship first-place finishes. Her 2018 is already shaping up to be her greatest year yet, with an expedition to the Cirque of the Unclimbables to be filmed by Rainier FIlms in August.
Pasang Lhamu
In 2016, Pasang Lhamu won the title of Adventurer of the Year. A trailblazer, she is the first woman in Nepal to become a mountaineering instructor and one of the first to summit K2. She has racked up peaks every year since 2006, when she became the first woman to ever climb Nangpai Gosum II, at just 22 years old. Lhamu is also an activist, working with other agencies after the 2015 Nepal earthquake to distribute food, blankets, and shelter for those affected. She coordinates relief convoys and has also worked to prevent human trafficking by aiding women’s education efforts in Nepal.
Pemba Gyalje Sherpa
Pemba Gyalje Sherpa is one of the most renown sherpas to ever live, with over 129 ascents on various mountains. He was awarded the Adventure of the Year and the Heroism Award by National Geographic for his heroic actions during the 2008 K2 tragedy. He has appeared alongside Swedish climber Fredrik Strang in the documentary The Summit where he recounted the day 11 climbers died on K2 after an avalanche. It was Gyalje’s quick action and heroic efforts that led to the direct survival of multiple climbers during this event. He spent a total of 90 hours in the Death Zone, working tirelessly to coordinate rescues. Today he guides expeditions to Everest, Ama Dablam, and holds training courses for climbers.
Reinhold Messner
A true adventurer in every sense of the word, Reinhold Messner is an almost mythic figure in the world of climbing and mountaineering. His career reads as a list of firsts and groundbreaking achievements. He is the first person to make a solo ascent of Mount Everest, and the first to ascend Everest without supplemental Oxygen. He is the first person to ascend all fourteen peaks of over 8,000 meters, and the first person to cross Antarctica without the use of dog sled or snowmobile. He has published more than 80 books on the subjects of mountaineering and exploring and continues to be a vocal proponent of these passions.
Steph Davis
Steph Davis is a legend in both the rock climbing and wingsuit flyer communities. She’s the first woman to ever solo a 5.11-grade climb and the first to summit all the peaks of the Fitzroy Range in Patagonia. Her passions connect her to the earth and all its creatures and have led her to become a vocal advocate for veganism. Davis is no stranger to the devastating losses that can occur with an adventurous lifestyle, having lost two partners to wingsuit accidents. An unstoppable force, she continues to climb and test the boundaries and her limitations through these varied challenges.
Tommy Caldwell
Tommy Caldwell is no stranger to dire circumstances, having survived both a hostage situation in Kyrgyzstan in 2000 and a potentially disastrous accident which left him without an index finger. In every case, Caldwell’s level-headedness has averted disaster and kept him where he finds his inner-peace — on the mountain. His ascent of the Dawn Wall in 2018 is a perfect example, a 19-day climb up El Capitan on a route previously thought impossible. He has also free ascended some of the most intense and rigorous peaks in the world, including the Yosemite Triple Crown with Alex Honnold in 2015. Not one to dwell on the negative and with trademark wry wit, Caldwell tours a lecture entitled, “How Becoming a Hostage and Losing a Finger Made Him a Better Climber.”
Xavier De Le Rue
A big mountain snowboarder and adventurer, Xavier De Le Rue synthesizes multiple disciplines to reframe the discussion around extreme sports. A multiple-time Olympian, De Le Rue has won gold twice and silvered once in the FIS Snowboarding World Championships. His straight line technique on the mountain are the stuff of legend and have captured the imaginations of snowboarders across the world.