This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject.(August 2022) |
Jake Julian Barrington Meyer (born 20 January 1984) is a British mountaineer and adventurer. He achieved fame by becoming the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest in 2005, aged 21 years 4 months. [1] In doing so, Meyer also became the youngest man in the world to climb the Seven Summits. [1] More recently in 2018 he summited K2, the second highest mountain in the world, and climbed Everest a second time. He has taken part in over 30 expeditions around the world.
From Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England, Meyer was educated at Beaudesert Park School, Hawtreys, Cheam School and Marlborough College, then embarked on the study of Environmental Geoscience at Bristol University, [1] where he was also a member of Bristol University Officer Training Corps. He has since been commissioned into the Royal Wessex Yeomanry as an Armoured Troop Leader and has served in Afghanistan. [2]
Meyer began climbing at 13. [3] Aged 15, he saw in the new millennium with his father from the crater rim of his first summit, Kilimanjaro. [1] At 18, he climbed Mount Elbrus in Southern Russia, Europe's highest peak. In 2002, he was awarded with a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust travelling fellowship to climb Elbrus (aged 18), Aconcagua (aged 18), Denali (aged 19) and Mount Kosciuszko (aged 19), the highest peaks in North and South America and Australia. He then climbed Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica, before attempting Everest.
Meyer ascended from the Tibetan side, via the North Col-North East Ridge route. The climb started on 2 April 2005, reaching the summit on 4 June 2005.
He was accompanied by Diahanne Gilbert, the Scottish team leader, and two Sherpas, Mingma Nuru and Anil Bhattarai. [1]
Meyer's climb was in aid of the Children's Wish Foundation.
On the 23rd May 2023, Meyer summited Everest for a second time via the South Col Route from Nepal with Fursang Sherpa. This followed an attempt to climb Kanchenjunga, where he was part of a team that reached c8350m before turning back after the rope fixing team ran out of rope.
Meyer has broken and holds or has previously held several records:
Meyer has often used his expeditions to raise money for charities which are close to his heart, especially military and youth charities. He is an ambassador for Walking With The Wounded, and has also fundraised for Help for Heroes and the ABF (Soldier's Charity). He is a keen supporter of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and has also supported the Prince's Trust, Make a Wish Foundation, Prince's Teaching Institute, the CAIRN Trust (Child Action in Rural Nepal), and Mercy Ships . He is a regular speaker at schools around the UK and has a Explorer Scout Group named after him (The Meyer Explorer Scouts in Dursley, Gloucestershire).
Meyer was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to mountaineering, young people and charity. [6]
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.
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.
Tomas Kenneth Olsson was a Swedish adventurer and ski mountaineer. He was born in Kristinehamn but grew up in Borås. He took an engineering degree at Linköping University in 2001, after which he moved to Chamonix in France to focus on skiing. He specialized in skiing down some of the world's highest and steepest mountains. He had gone from the top of Aconcagua in Argentina, Lenin Peak in Kyrgyzstan, Muztagh Ata and Kuksay Peak in China and Cho Oyu in Tibet.
Sergey Anatolyevich Kofanov is a Russian mountaineer.
Jordan Romero is an American mountaineer who was 13 years old when he reached the summit of Mount Everest. Romero was accompanied by his father, Paul Romero, his step-mother, Karen Lundgren, and three Sherpas, Ang Pasang Sherpa, Lama Dawa Sherpa, and Lama Karma Sherpa. The previous record for youngest to climb Everest was held by Ming Kipa of Nepal who was 15 years old when she reached the summit on May 22, 2003.
Krushnaa Patil is an Indian climber. In 2009, at the age of 19, she became the youngest Indian woman to successfully ascent Mount Everest, earth's highest mountain.
Carlos Soria Fontán is a Spanish mountaineer who has taken up the challenge of becoming the oldest person in the world to reach the summits of the 14 eight-thousanders. He is the only climber to have ascended ten mountains of more than 8,000 meters after turning 60, and is the oldest person in history to have successfully climbed K2, Broad Peak (68), Makalu (69), Gasherbrum I (70), Manaslu, Kanchenjunga and Annapurna.
George Atkinson is an English climber. At the age of sixteen he became the youngest ever person to complete the Seven Summits Challenge by climbing to the summit of the highest mountain on each of seven continents. He completed the challenge on 26 May 2011 when he reached the summit of Mount Everest.
The Indonesian Seven Summits Expedition Mahitala Unpar (ISSEMU) was a team of four mountaineers from Indonesia that successfully climbed the Seven Summits (the Messner version) between 2009 and 2011. The last peak of their expedition was Denali in Alaska, which they reached on July 7, 2011. This marked the first time a team from Indonesia had completed the challenge.
Garrett Madison is an American mountaineer, guide and expedition leader. Madison began guiding professionally in 1999 on Mount Rainier and has climbed Mount Everest 14 times. His company, Madison Mountaineering, specializes in climbs on Mount Everest and other high altitude peaks, operates on the highest peaks on all seven continents, and also provides training programs and summit climbs in Washington State.
Geordie Stewart is a British explorer, endurance athlete, and former British Army officer. In May 2011, aged 22, he became the youngest Briton to climb the Seven Summits – the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. In October 2019, he completed a 22,500-mile solo cycle around the world.
Rhys Jones is an English mountaineer and was the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, and reached the summit of Mount Everest.
Samina Khayal Baig is a Pakistani mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest in 2013, all Seven Summits by 2014, and K2 in 2022. She is the first Pakistani woman to climb Everest, K2 and the Seven Summits. She climbed Mt. Everest at the age of 21.
Chhang Dawa Sherpa : is a Nepalese mountaineer and the youngest climber till 2019 to summit the 14 highest peaks. Dawa and his brother Mingma Sherpa together hold the world record as "first brothers to summit the 14 highest peaks", a single record shared by the two.
Pema Diki Sherpa is from Simigau, Gauri Sankar, Dolakha District, Nepalese mountain climber. In 2008 she became the youngest woman to climb Mount Everest and in 2009 she joined the Seven Summits Women Team, a team of Nepalese women whose goal is to climb the Seven Summits.
Richard "Rick" Agnew is an Australian alpine mountaineer and high altitude sports aviator who has completed the Seven Summits climbing Mount Everest and many other peaks. He holds over 40 international and Australian speed, distance and height aviation records.
Mrika Nikçi is an Albanian mountaineer from the Republic of Kosovo.
Tashi Lakpa Sherpa (born 1985) in Makalu Region, Sankhuwasabha District) is a Nepalese mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest eight times, Cho Oyu twice and other 7000 metre and 6000 metre peaks. He has also climbed the Seven Summits. Everest, Denali, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro Aconcagua, Vinson and Kosciuszko.
Lucy Westlake is an American mountaineer from Naperville, Illinois. She became the youngest American woman to climb Mount Everest when she reached the summit on May 12, 2022. Westlake also became the youngest girl to summit all of the highest points of the contiguous United States when she was age 12 in 2016. In June 2021, Westlake also became the youngest female to climb all 50 of the US state peaks when she reached the summit of Denali in Alaska. Westlake's other major ascents include Aconcagua, Elbrus, and Kilimanjaro, the highest peaks in South America, Europe, and Africa respectively.
Adriana Brownlee is a British mountaineer, certified paragliding pilot and adventure athlete. She is the youngest woman to have climbed the world’s second-highest peak K2 on 28 July 2022 and youngest woman to climb all 14 of the eight-thousanders on 9 October 2024.