Ed Viesturs Video | Mountain Climbing & Mountaineering Clips and Interviews

Edmund Viesturs, known as Ed Viesturs (born June 22, 1959) is one of the world's premier high-altitude mountaineers. He is one of only 26 people and the only one from the United States to have climbed all eight-thousander peaks. He has summited peaks of more than 8,000 meters for a total of 21 times, including Mount Everest seven times, which makes him the third person with most total summits, behind Phurba Tashi Sherpa Mendewa and the Spanish climber Juanito Oiarzabal who have reached 25 summits. He has reached all of the aforementioned summits without supplementary oxygen. Born of... MORE

Edmund Viesturs, known as Ed Viesturs (born June 22, 1959) is one of the world's premier high-altitude mountaineers. He is one of only 26 people and the only one from the United States to have climbed all eight-thousander peaks. He has summited peaks of more than 8,000 meters for a total of 21 times, including Mount Everest seven times, which makes him the third person with most total summits, behind Phurba Tashi Sherpa Mendewa and the Spanish climber Juanito Oiarzabal who have reached 25 summits. He has reached all of the aforementioned summits without supplementary oxygen. Born of Latvian and German descent in Fort Wayne, Indiana and raised in Rockford, Illinois, Viesturs moved to Seattle, Washington in 1977 to attend the University of Washington. It was here that he began his mountaineering career on the slopes of Mount Rainier. Viesturs graduated from the University of Washington in 1981 with a BS in zoology and eventually became a guide for Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. He later obtained a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine degree from Washington State University. His interest in the Himalayas was sparked in high school by reading Maurice Herzog's account of the first climb of LESS