Adrian Ballinger

Adrian Ballinger (born 1976) is a certified IFMGA/AMGA mountain guide, certified through the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA Rock, Alpine, and Ski Certifications). Ballinger has been guiding full-time for 15 years, and has led over 100 international climbing expeditions on 5 continents. In 2004 Ballinger founded Alpenglow Expeditions, a mountaineering guide company that specializes in high altitude guiding worldwide. From 2007-2012, Ballinger was the lead Everest guide for Himalayan Experience. Ballinger, along with Himalayan Experience's founder, Russell Brice, has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s Everest: Beyond the Limit series.[1]

Ballinger has led clients up Everest, Manaslu, Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Cho Oyu, and Makalu. During the 2010 climbing season on Mt. Everest, Ballinger summited the mountain twice in 3 weeks, first on May 5 and then again on May 22. On his May 5 summit, Ballinger was the first non-sherpa of the season to summit as he fixed ropes, replaced anchors, and removed old ropes from the mountain in partnership with 9 sherpa. Also in 2010, Ballinger led an Alpenglow Expeditions Clean Up Expedition on Ama Dablam. This team, along with summitting the mountain, removed thousands of feet of old fixed rope from the route, along with hundreds of pounds of trash from the camps. They also provided outreach to sherpa and members of other climbing teams to teach the use of human waste disposal kits while on the mountain, and donated human waste disposal bags to many of those teams. In 2011, he repeated his feat of summiting Everest twice (May 5 and May 20) in only a few weeks and added his first summit of Lhotse (May 26) to that schedule as well. Ballinger has led successful expeditions to more than 25 Himalayan summits over 6000 meters, including twelve ascents of Ama Dablam, which is a highly technical 6800m peak next to Everest. Since 2007, he has guided clients to the summit of Everest 6 times,[2] Manaslu 4 times, and Cho Oyu and Lhotse once each. He has also led an expedition to Makalu, the world's fifth tallest peak.

Ballinger has also guided on Kilimanjaro (14 times by 4 different routes), Denali (by the West Rib), Alpamayo (14 times by 3 different routes), Huascarán Sur (3 times by 2 routes), Cotopaxi (more than 30 times), and many other expeditions including multiple ascents on Orizaba, Wayna Potosí, Kitarahu, Chopicalqui, Chimborazo, Cayambe, Mt. Blanc, Mt. Elbrus, Island Peak, Lobuche Peak, Mera Peak and many North American peaks.

Ballinger's personal ascents include technical alpine-style climbs on the South Ridge of Pumo Ri, the West Face of Kayish, and the NE Ridge of Huascaran Norte. Ballinger also ski, ice, and rock guides in his dual “hometowns” of Squaw Valley, California and Chamonix, France (with lots of time in nearby La Grave), guiding in the Mt Blanc region for Chamonix Experience.

Ballinger has been featured in numerous climbing and skiing industry articles and press.[3]

2016 Everest climb

Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards were sponsored by Eddie Bauer to do an Everest climb, and they relayed information from the Everest climb using the smartphone software application and service called Snapchat.[4] Mount Everest has had a 3G wireless data communication network since 2010.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Gianpaolo Pietri. "Interview with Alpinist Adrian Ballinger". Climbing.com. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Jordan. "Marmot Athlete Adrian Ballinger Returns to Everest's Summit". Campbell. SNEWS. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  3. ↑ Miller, Marissa. "Meet the Couple Who Met on Everest and Just Speed-Climbed the World's Sixth-Tallest Peak". Vogue. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
  4. ↑ Peaople.com - Two Mount Everest Climbers Are Documenting Their Entire Journey on Snapchat in the First Ever Snap-umentary
  5. ↑

External links

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