 | |
| Industry | Mountaineering guides |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1984 |
| Founders | Scott Fischer, Wes Krause, and Michael Allison |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | Christine Boskoff, Anatoli Boukreev, Charlie Fowler |
| Services | Adventure travel, Rock climbing, Peak Ascents |
| Owner | Mark Gunlogson |
| Website | mountainmadness |
Mountain Madness is a Seattle-based mountaineering and trekking company. The company specializes in mountain adventure travel and has a training school for mountain and rock climbing.
In 1984, Scott Fischer, Wes Krause, and Michael Allison, each a mountaineering guide, co-founded Mountain Madness. Although Fischer had decided in the early 1970s that he would one day have a guide service named Mountain Madness, the founders did not incorporate the company until 1984. Fischer anchored the Seattle operations while Krause concentrated his efforts in Africa. Allison soon sold his share to his partners so that he could pursue other interests. [1]
While leading Mountain Madness, Fischer became renowned for his ascents of the world's highest mountains without the use of supplemental oxygen. He and Wally Berg were the first Americans to summit Lhotse, the world's fourth highest mountain (27,940 feet / 8516 m), located next to Mount Everest. [2] Fischer and Ed Viesturs were the first Americans to summit K2 (28,251 feet / 8611m), in the Karakoram of Pakistan, without supplemental oxygen. [3]
During his stewardship of Mountain Madness, Fischer led social and environmental initiatives to help people in the countries in which Mountain Madness traveled. As the leaders of the 1994 Sagarmatha Environmental Expedition, Fischer and Rob Hess both summited Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. Later that year, the American Alpine Club awarded the David Brower Conservation Award, "an annual award recognizing leadership and commitment to preserving mountain regions worldwide," to all members of the expedition. [4] Fischer also led the 1996 Climb for CARE expedition on Mount Kilimanjaro (19,341 feet / 5,895 m) in Africa. This endeavor raised nearly a million dollars for the relief organization. [5]
After 23 years of mountaineering and 12 years of guiding Mountain Madness, Fischer died in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster while leading an expedition and descending from summit. [6]
In 1997, the year after Scott Fischer's death, the Boskoffs purchased Mountain Madness. [7] [8] [9] Christine and Keith Boskoff had met each other at a climbing gym and after a time, got married. [7] Christine was an aeronautical engineer and Keith an architect, but climbing became a bigger part of their lives, and Christine soon left her job to climb full-time with Keith. [7] They purchased Mountain Madness in 1997, and under their guidance it found increasing success. [7] Christine climbed six of the world's fourteen 8000 meter peaks, a feat unequalled by any other American woman at the time. [10]
In 1999 Keith died, leaving his widow Christine to run Mountain Madness on her own. [7] She led expeditions for about three months that year and planned to ring in the year 2000 on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, with a group of climbing clients. [11] Other famous losses in the climbing community during this period, besides Scott and the Everest losses, were Alison Hargreaves in 1995 and Alex Lowe in 1999. [11]
With a renewed commitment to teaching important mountaineering skills, Mountain Madness broadened its adventure travel offerings to include a new genre of trips: "adventure treks" that include both trekking and climbing options. [9] The company earned an accreditation by the American Mountain Guides Association [12] as a commitment to "high technical standards, strong programs, and a quality staff of engaged and engaging climbing instructors and guides." [13]
Like her predecessor, Boskoff was committed to social issues. She served on the board of Room to Read, an international organization dedicated to improving education in developing countries, [14] and through Mountain Madness, she led a fund-raising climb of Mount Baker, the third highest mountain in Washington state (10,781 feet / 3,286 m), to benefit the organization's long-term goal of helping 10 million children. [15] Boskoff worked with the Central Asia Institute as well, an organization in Bozeman, Montana that promotes and supports community-based education, primarily in Pakistan and Afghanistan, by building schools, training teachers, and funding scholarships. [14]
Nine years into her tenure as the owner and leader of Mountain Madness, in the fall of 2006, Boskoff and Charlie Fowler, another well-known American climber and Mountain Madness guide, died in an avalanche while climbing near Lenggu Monastery on Genyen Mountain, in Sichuan Province in southwest China. [10] [16] [17] [18]
The loss of both of the company's owners presented new challenges for Mountain Madness, so in 2008, Mark Gunlogson, who began guiding for Mountain Madness in 1993, took over. Since 2000, he had been the company's business operations manager, and he is currently the president and majority owner. Mountain Madness continues to operate as a well-known and respected international adventure travel company. [19] [20] [21] Mountain Madness currently concentrates on expeditions to the Seven Summits, on mountaineering schools, and on trekking. [22]
Mountain Madness endeavors to assist those who live in the places where its guides and clients visit. It works directly with special populations, donates trips for fundraising events, and collaborates with a variety of relief agencies, conservation groups, and NGOs. During the course of many of the adventures it leads, Mountain Madness encourages clients to help local school programs, work on community projects, and visit conservation areas. [23]
Mount Everest 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.
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.
Yasuko Namba was the second Japanese woman to climb the Seven Summits. Namba worked as a businesswoman for Federal Express in Japan, but her hobby of mountaineering took her all over the world. She first summited Kilimanjaro on New Year's Day in 1982, and summited Aconcagua exactly two years later. She reached the summit of Denali on July 1, 1985, and the summit of Mount Elbrus on August 1, 1992. After summiting Vinson Massif on December 29, 1993, and Carstensz Pyramid on November 12, 1994, Namba's final summit to reach was Mount Everest. She signed on with Rob Hall's guiding company, Adventure Consultants, and reached the summit in May 1996, but died during her descent in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.
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 has been 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.
Charlie Fowler was an American mountain climber, writer, and photographer. He was one of North America's most experienced mountain climbers, and successfully climbed many of the world's highest peaks. Along with his climbing partner, Christine Boskoff, he went missing in southwestern China sometime between November 11 and November 14, 2006. His body was found on a Ge'nyen Mountain on December 27, 2006, and was officially identified a day later.
Christine Boskoff was an American mountaineer.
The Ge'nyen Massif, is a mountain in the Shaluli Mountains of western Sichuan province, China. With an elevation of 6,204 metres (20,354 ft), it is the third highest peak in the province. It was first climbed in 1988 by a Japanese team.
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 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.
Robert C. Birkby is an American adventure guide, author, photographer, speaker and trail designer.
Garrett Madison is an American mountaineer, guide and expedition leader. Madison began guiding professionally in 1999 on Mount Rainier and has reached the summit of 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.
Ang Dorje (Chhuldim) Sherpa is a Nepalese sherpa mountaineering guide, climber, and porter from Pangboche, Nepal, who has reached the summit of Mount Everest 23 times. He was the climbing Sirdar for Rob Hall's Adventure Consultants expedition to Everest in spring 1996, when a freak storm led to the deaths of eight climbers from several expeditions, considered one of the worst disasters in the history of Everest mountaineering.
Rhys Jones is an English mountaineer and was the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, and reached the summit of Mount Everest.
RMI Expeditions, also known as Rainier Mountaineering Inc. (RMI), is a mountain guide company based in Ashford, Washington founded in 1969 by Jerry Lynch and Lou Whittaker. It leads mountaineering, ski mountaineering, and ice climbing trips on Mount Rainier and the Seven Summits.
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.
Asian Trekking is a Nepal-based adventure company, specializing in mountaineering expeditions and trekking in the Himalayas. Started in 1982 by UIAA Honorary Member Ang Tshering Sherpa, it is Nepal's oldest mountaineering and trekking company still in operation. In 2008, Tshering's son Dawa Steven Sherpa, an environmentalist and mountaineer, took over the leadership of the company and continues to serve as the managing director to this day.
Narender Singh Yadav is an Indian mountaineer. He is best known for his controversial climbing expedition to Mount Everest in May 2016, where he claimed to have summitted the mountain but had recognition of this attempt stripped years later after discrepancies were noticed which indicated he had faked the summit, leading to his 2020 Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award being revoked and a ban from the mountain for six years from the climbing date by the Nepali government in 2021. In May 2022, soon after his ban expired, he again went to Everest and successfully reached the summit with ample proof that he had actually done so.
