16 October

Born on this day

1947 Wacław Otręba, Polish climber, who ascended Dhaulagiri I in 1983. He died on Everest in 1989, aged 41.
1949 Satoshi (Seishi) Wada, Japanese climber, who ascended Kangchenjunga South-, Central- and Main-Peaks in 1984 and Broad Peak in 1985.
1954 Masami Abe, Japanese climber, who ascended Broad Peak in 1991.
1955 Mehrban Shah, Pakistani climber, who ascended Gasherbrum I in 1992, K2 in 1995, Gasherbrum II twice (1998 and 1999) and Broad Peak Foresummit in 2001.
1956 David Lambert, British climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1998.
1956 Duane Kent Nelson, American climber, who ascended Everest in 2012.
1957 Masayoshi Yamamoto, Japanese climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1995.
1957 Arved Lennard Lahti, Norwegian climber, who ascended Everest twice (2012 and 2013) and Makalu in 2014. He died in 2016 on Mt. Rainier, aged 58.
1958 Keith Brown, American climber, who ascended Everest and Shisha Pangma Central-Peak in 1993.
1959 Ricardo Valencia, Spanish Basque climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2000, Gasherbrum II in 2003, Makalu in 2004 and Nanga Parbat in 2005. He died on Dhaulagiri I in 2007, aged 47.
1959 Peter Roy Morley, British climber, who ascended Everest in 2006.
1960 Laurence Stephen Clark, British climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2011 and Everest in 2012.
1962 Gregory Martin (Greg) Linsdell, Australian climber, who ascended Shisha Pangma Central-Peak in 1994 and Everest in 2005.
1963 Jörg Bartok, German climber, who ascended Manaslu in 1995.
1963 Sergio de Leo, Italian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1991, Broad Peak in 1993, Gasherbrum I in 1994, Shisha Pangma Central-Peak in 1997 and Lhotse in 2003.
1964 Song Jea-Deuk, Korean climber, who ascended Nanga Parbat in 1992.
1965 Amado López de Ipiña, Spanish Basque climber, who ascended Gasherbrum II in 2004.
1968 Fernando (Fercho) González-Rubio, Colombian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1999, Everest in 2001, K2 in 2004, Nanga Parbat in 2005, Annapurna I and Broad Peak in 2007 and Dhaulagiri I in 2008.
1968 Dario-Andri Schwörer, Swiss climber, who ascended Shisha Pangma Central-Peak in 1998.
1969 Zoltán Ács, Hungarian climber, who ascended Tirich Mir in 1998, Broad Peak in 2000, Gasherbrum II in 2003 and Cho Oyu in 2005.
1969 Waldo Farías, Chilean climber, who ascended K2 in 1996.
1970 Richard K. Poole Jr., American climber, who ascended Everest in 2019.
1971 Saray N'kusi Khumalo, South African lady climber, who ascended Everest in 2019.
1973 Henrik Wolf Meedom, Norwegian climber, who ascended Everest in 2005.
1975 Tanel Tuuleveski, Estonian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2010 and Everest in 2011.
1977 Benjamin John West, Australian climber, who ascended Manaslu Foresummit in 2011.
1978 Gun Bahadur Gurung, Nepalese climber, who ascended Lhotse in 2012.
1981 Juan Pablo Alcalde, Chilean climber, who ascended Everest in 2016.
1985 Hari Thomas Mix, American climber, who ascended Broad Peak and Gasherbrum II in 2019.
1988 Tom Ballard, British climber and son of Alison Hargreaves, who attempted Nanga Parbat in 2019 and died there, aged 30.
1998 Antubai Anandrao Kotnake, Indian lady climber, who ascended Everest in 2019.

First ascents on this day

1938 Sri Kailas (6932 m) by an Austrian party.
1964 Tarke Kang (aka "Glacier Dome", subsidiary peak in the long East Ridge of Annapurna I, 7168 m) by a Japanese party.
1979 Manaslu North-Peak II (6991 m) by a Czechoslovak party.
1981 Ganesh II (7118 m) by a German party.
2002 Pandra (6665 m) by a Danish party.
2002 Peak 41 (6648 m, the so-called "Real Mera", which is a mistake on the Finnmaps) by a Slovenian party.
2007 Yarla Shampo (6636 m) by a Japanese party.

Gone on this day

1971 The Japanese climbers Iwao Kokiso, Kohei Sasagawa and Masuo Hakoyama and the Sherpa climbers Ang Pemba, Ang Gyaltsen and Nawang Chotare died in an avalanche on Gangapurna (7454 m). The next day the Sherpa climbers Girme Dorje and Pemba Norbu disappeared as well.
1976 Three American climbers and one Mexican died in a collective fall on Dunagiri (7066 m).
1984 Jozef Psotka, Slovak climber, who participated in the first ascent of Nanga Parbat Forepeak in 1971, ascended Kangchenjunga in 1981 and Everest without bottled oxygen the previous day, died by a fall on descent, aged 50.
1991 Hiroshi Ohnishi, Japanese climber, who ascended Everest in 1989 and Makalu in 1990, died in an avalanche on Namcha Barwa (7782 m), aged 29.
2012 Mahdi Amidi Ahang, Iranian climber, who ascended Manaslu in 2009, Everest and Lhotse in 2011 and Dhaulagiri I in 2012, died on Mont Blanc, aged 32.
2018 Manuel (Manolo) Hernández, Spanish Catalan climber, who ascended Broad Peak in 1981, died, aged 76.

Historical event today

1978 Wanda Rutkiewicz, Polish lady climber, ascended Everest. She was the first European woman with this achievement. The same day the first Polish pope in history was elected, which caused into an interesting ongoing story (see Everest page for further information!).
1986 Reinhold Messner, Italian (South Tyrolean) climber, is the first person who finished the ascents of all 14 8000er Main-Peaks by summiting Lhotse on this day.