We are excited that the legendary climber Ed Viesturs will be returning this season to co-guide another special Mount Vinson expedition with Garrett Madison in 2024 / 2025.  In addition, we are equally excited to have Ed guiding one of our Aconcagua expeditions on January 24, 2025.  If you are interested in joining either of these special expeditions, please contact our office for details.  

Ed Viesturs is familiar to many from the 1996 IMAX Everest Expedition documentary and in 2001, he was awarded the historic Lowell Thomas Award by the Explorer’s Club for outstanding achievement in the field of mountaineering. In winning the award, he joined an elite group of climbers including Sir Edmund Hillary. In 1992 he was awarded the American Alpine Club Sowles Awards for his participation in two rescues on K2.

He made a career as a professional mountaineer and is an ambassador for ROLEX and still works as a design consultant for several prominent outdoor equipment manufacturers. He currently does corporate motivational speeches as well, touching on subjects such as Risk Management, Leadership, Team Work, Overcoming Major Obstacles, and Decision Making Under Pressure.

Ed serves as an advocate for Big City Mountaineers (BCM), an organization that instills critical life skills in under-resourced youth through wilderness mentoring experiences that help keep kids in school, reduce violence, and drug use. He is a spokesperson for their Summit For Someone benefit climb series which places individuals on iconic peaks raising support for BCM youth and programs.

He has successfully reached the summits of all of the world’s fourteen 8000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen, an 18-year project he christened Endeavor 8000. His goal was completed on May 12, 2005, with his ascent of Annapurna one of the world’s most treacherous peaks. He is one of only a handful of climbers in history (and the only American) to accomplish this. That year Viesturs was awarded National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year.

Ed is the author of many books on the subject of mountaineering including his best selling autobiography “No Shortcuts To The Top” which was published and released by Broadway Books. The book covers in detail Ed Viesturs’ career as a mountaineer, how he prepared for his expeditions and his philosophy about how he managed the inherent risks.