Gary Ian Ball (died October 1993) was a New Zealand mountaineer who summited Mount Everest twice, in 1990 and 1992. [1] [2]
Ball was a New Zealand Antarctic Division field guide and instructor in survival training at Scott Base in 1976–77 and a field guide in northern Victoria Land for the GANOVEX expedition in 1979–80. [3] He also climbed Aoraki (Mt Cook) 26 times, at that time a record. [4]
In 1989 Gary Ball tried unsuccessfully to climb Mount Everest. [5] In 1990 Gary Ball summited Mount Everest with Peter Hillary and Rob Hall. [6] They made a call from the summit to a New Zealand television station for an on-air talk during prime time. [7] On return to New Zealand they appeared in parades and gained corporate sponsorships for additional climbs. [7] With Hall, Ball climbed the Seven Summits in seven months in 1990. [8] Together, Ball and Hall founded Adventure Consultants in 1991, and were among the pioneers of guided tours of Mount Everest. [9] Hall and Ball had climbed 16 mountains together and were celebrities in New Zealand for their climbing exploits. [10]
In 1990, Ball was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. [11]
In 1992, Ball also attempted K2 but was struck down by a pulmonary embolism. He was rescued from 8300 metres altitude over the course of several days initially by Rob Hall and later by a team including Dan Mazur, Scott Fischer, Ed Viesturs, Neal Beidleman and Jon Pratt. [12]
Ball died in October 1993 after coming down with high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) while climbing Himalayan mountain Dhaulagiri with Hall. [3] [9] Rob Hall buried Ball's body in a crevasse on the mountain, and it was rediscovered ten years later. [4] In 2004 his family members planned a trip to re-bury the body. [4]
Ball Glacier is a 7 nautical miles (13 km) long glacier in Victoria Land, Antarctica named by the New Zealand Geographic Board after Ball. [13] Ball climbed Mount Lister with an Italian field party in 1976–77, and camped on this glacier; he was field assistant with R.H. Findlay's New Zealand Antarctic Research Program party to this area, 1980–81. [13]
Ball Peak is a mountain named by the New Zealand Geographic Board after Ball. [3] This was related to his time as a New Zealand Antarctic Division field guide and instructor in survival training at Scott Base in 1976–77 and as a field guide in northern Victoria Land for the GANOVEX expedition in 1979–80. [3] Ball peak is a mountain 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) tall at the head of Loftus Glacier in the Asgard Range, Victoria Land, Antarctica. It stands in proximity to Mount Hall and Harris Peak, with which this naming is associated. [3]
K2, at 8,611 metres (28,251 ft) above sea level, is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest at 8,849 metres (29,032 ft). It lies in the Karakoram range, partially in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and partially in the China-administered Trans-Karakoram Tract in the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang.
Mount Everest, known locally as Sagarmatha or Qomolangma, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation of 8,848.86 m was most recently established in 2020 by the Chinese and Nepali authorities.
Vinson Massif is a large mountain massif in Antarctica that is 21 km (13 mi) long and 13 km (8 mi) wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located about 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) from the South Pole. Vinson Massif was discovered in January 1958 by U.S. Navy aircraft. In 1961, the Vinson Massif was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN), after Carl G. Vinson, United States congressman from the state of Georgia, for his support for Antarctic exploration. On November 1, 2006, US-ACAN declared Mount Vinson and Vinson Massif to be separate entities. Vinson Massif lies within the unrecognised Chilean claim under the Antarctic Treaty System.
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains on each of the seven traditional continents. On 30 April 1985, Richard Bass became the first climber to reach the summit of all seven.
Anatoli Nikolaevich Boukreev was a Soviet and Kazakh mountaineer who made ascents of 10 of the 14 eight-thousander peaks—those above 8,000 m (26,247 ft)—without supplemental oxygen. From 1989 through 1997, he made 18 successful ascents of peaks above 8,000 m.
Scott Eugene Fischer 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 to summit Lhotse, the world's fourth highest peak. Fischer, Charley Mace, and Ed Viesturs summitted K2 without supplemental oxygen. Fischer first climbed Mount Everest in 1994 and later died during the 1996 blizzard on Everest while descending from the peak.
Edmund Viesturs is an American high-altitude mountaineer, corporate speaker, and well known author in the mountain climbing community. He was the first American to climb all 14 of the eight-thousander mountains, and the 5th person to do so without supplemental oxygen. Along with Apa Sherpa, he has summitted eight-thousanders on 21 occasions, including Mount Everest seven times.
Robert Edwin Hall was a New Zealand mountaineer. He was the head guide of a 1996 Mount Everest expedition during which he, a fellow guide, and two clients died. A best-selling account of the expedition was given in Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air and the expedition was dramatised in the 2015 film Everest. At the time of his death, Hall had just completed his fifth ascent to the summit of Everest, more at that time than any other non-Sherpa mountaineer.
Daniel Lee Mazur is a mountain climber, expedition leader, and philanthropist who has ascended nine of the world's highest summits, including Mount Everest and K2. He is also known for several high altitude mountain rescues: the 1991 rescue of Roman Giutashvili from Mount Everest, the rescue of Gary Ball from K2 in 1992, the rescue in 2006 of Australian climber Lincoln Hall from Mount Everest, and the rescue of British mountaineer Rick Allen from Broad Peak in 2018.
The 1996 Mount Everest disaster occurred on 10–11 May 1996 when eight climbers caught in a blizzard died on Mount Everest while attempting to descend from the summit. Over the entire season, 12 people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest season on Mount Everest at the time and the third deadliest to date after the 23 fatalities resulting from avalanches caused by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 16 fatalities of the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche. The 1996 disaster received widespread publicity and raised questions about the commercialization of Everest.
Andrew James Lock OAM is an Australian mountaineer. He became the first, and still remains the only, Australian to climb all 14 "eight-thousanders" on 2 October 2009, and is the 18th person to ever complete this feat. He climbed 13 of the 14 without bottled oxygen, only using it on Mount Everest, which he has summited three times. He retired from eight-thousander climbing in 2012.
The Newall Glacier is a glacier in the east part of the Asgard Range of Victoria Land, It flows east between Mount Newall and Mount Weyant into the Wilson Piedmont Glacier. The Newall Glacier was mapped by the N.Z. Northern Survey Party of the CTAE, 1956-58, who named it after nearby Mount Newall.
Greg Mortimer is an Australian climber. Mortimer is notable as one of the first two Australians to successfully climb Mount Everest, on 3 October 1984. Their ascent, without supplemental oxygen, was the first via the North Face and Norton Couloir. It is one of the climbing routes that has not been repeated often.
Lydia Pounamu Bradey is a New Zealand mountaineer. She became the first woman to summit Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen in 1988. She has climbed Mount Everest a total of six times.
Martin Walter Schmidt, known as Marty, was a New Zealand-American mountaineer, guide and adventurer.
Adventure Consultants, formerly Hall and Ball Adventure Consultants, is a New Zealand-based adventure company that brings trekking and climbing groups to various locations. Founded by Rob Hall and Gary Ball in 1991, it is known for its pioneering role in the commercialisation of Mount Everest and the 1996 Mount Everest climb during which eight people died, including Hall, a guide, and two Adventure Consultant clients.
Andrew Michael Harris, commonly known by his nickname Andy Harris, was a New Zealand mountain guide who died in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Harris was one of the guides for the Adventure Consultants' 1996 Everest expedition, led by Rob Hall. It was Harris' first attempt to summit Mount Everest, though he had extensive climbing experience in New Zealand.
Vernon "Vern" Tejas is an American mountain climber and mountain guide. He is the current world record holder in the amount of time taken to summit all of the Seven Summits consecutively, having also previously held the same record. He was also the first person to solo summit several of the world's tallest peaks. Tejas was named one of the top fifty Alaskan athletes of the twentieth century by Sports Illustrated in 2002. In 2012, he was elected to the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame. Tejas plays the harmonica and guitar. He currently resides in Greenwich Village, New York.
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