18 April

Born on this day

1897 Ardito Desio, Italian pioneer, who led the successful K2 first ascent expedition in 1954. He died in 2001 in Rome, aged 104.
1925 Marcus Schmuck, Austrian pioneer, who participated in the first ascent of Broad Peak in 1957. He died in 2005, aged 80.
1931 Robert Niklas, German climber, who ascended Lhotse in 1979.
1938 Bogdan Jankowski, Polish pioneer and author, who was member of many expeditions to High Asia including Kunyang Chhish in 1971, Lhotse in 1974, Everest in 1980 during the first winter ascent, twice K2 in winter (1987/1988 and 2002/2003) and twice Nanga Parbat in winter (1996/97 and 1997/98). He died in 2019, aged 81.
1939 Udo Zehetleitner, Austrian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1990.
1947 Theodore (Ted) Fairhurst, Canadian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2008 and Everest in 2010.
1950 Ramiro Navarrete, Ecuadorian climber, who ascended Shisha Pangma in 1987 and Annapurna I East-Peak in 1988, where he died on descent, aged 38.
1953 Michael Anthony (Mike) Bearzi, American climber, who ascended Ngozumpa Kang II (7743 m) in 2002 and died on descent, aged 49.
1953 Dorje IV, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest in 2001.
1953 Joseph Paul Robinson, Australian climber, who ascended Everest in 2009.
1954 Nam Sung-Il, Korean climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2017.
1956 Christoph von Preysing, German climber, who ascended Dhaulagiri I in 2003.
1957 Hermann Spengler, German climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2001.
1958 Lhakpa Dorje II, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest in 1983 and Cho Oyu in 2004.
1959 Malcolm John Alexander, Australian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2016 and Everest in 2017.
1962 Thomas (Tom) Halliday, American climber, who ascended Everest and Lhotse in 2011 within 21 hours.
1964 Michael Straub, Swiss climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2001.
1964 Oskar Kihlborg, Swedish climber, who ascended Everest in 1990 and Lhotse in 1994.
1964 Albert Kirschner, Austrian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2006.
1965 John Doyle, British climber, who ascended Gasherbrum I in 1996, Kangchenjunga in 2000 and Everest in 2016.
1966 Iñigo Altube, Spanish Basque climber, who ascended Gasherbrum II in 2001.
1966 Kathryn Hess, American lady climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1999.
1966 Allan Harold McLeland, American climber, who ascended Everest in 2017.
1968 Christian Otto, Canadian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2007 and Everest in 2008.
1970 Tashi Tshering I, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest eleven times (1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, three times in 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2006) and Cho Oyu four times (1997, 2004, 2006 and 2007).
1973 Yoo Soon-Ook, Korean climber, who ascended K2 in 2000.
1975 Mingma Tshering IV, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest four times (2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008).
1975 Dawa Gelji, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Cho Oyu twice (2003 and 2006) and Everest twice (2007 and 2008).
1975 Gyaluk (aka Gyalu Lama), Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest six times (2004, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2019), Cho Oyu in 2009, Manaslu RP four times (2011, 2016, 2018 and 2019) and Kangchenjunga in 2018.
1975 Roi Negri, Israeli climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2019 and Everest in 2022.
1979 Tashi I, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Cho Oyu twice (1998 and 2014) and Everest nine times (2001, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016).
1979 Pemba Tshering IV (aka Maila), Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest nine times (2005, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023), Lhotse in 2008, Makalu and Cho Oyu in 2014, Kangchenjunga in 2018, Manaslu RP twice (2018 and 2019) and Manaslu M twice (2023 and 2024).
1979 Lakpa Chhiri (a), Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2011.
1979 Hilde Orderud, Norwegian lady climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2014.
1981 Dallas Wilson Glass, American climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2016 and Everest in 2017.
1982 Nima Dorchi II, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest in 2010.
1982 Pemba Thinduk I, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest four times (2011, 2012, 2021 and 2022), Manaslu RP four times (2014, 2015, 2017 and 2020), Annapurna I twice (2016 and 2023), Makalu and K2 in 2018, Manaslu M three times (2022, 2023 and 2024) and Lhotse and Kangchenjunga in 2023.
1983 Wang Yuan, Chinese climber, who ascended Everest in 2016.
1987 Dawa Tashi II, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest eight times (2010, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022) and Manaslu RP three times (2017, 2018 and 2019).
1987 Lhakpa Tendu, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Manaslu RP twice (2011 and 2021) and Everest twice (2012 and 2013).
1987 Nur Yusrina Ya'akob, Singaporean lady climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2014 and Everest in 2017.
1987 Pasang Phurba, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest in 2022.
1988 Andrzej Leszek Bargiel, Polish climber, who ascended Shisha Pangma Central-Peak in 2013, Manaslu RP in 2014, K2 in 2018 and Gasherbrum II in 2023.
1988 Kamil Konrad Kozłowski, Polish climber, who ascended Broad Peak in 2022.
1996 Anand Kumar Sadhanapalli, Indian climber, who ascended Everest in 2014.
1998 Sonam II, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2017, Everest twice (2018 and 2019) and Lhotse in 2019.
2006 Nima Rinji, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Manaslu M in 2022, Everest, Lhotse, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, Broad Peak, K2, Dhaulagiri I and Cho Oyu in 2023 and Annapurna I, Makalu, Kangchenjunga and Shisha Pangma in 2024, where he finished the 14 8K Main-Peaks and is the youngest climber to do so.

First ascent on this day

1955 Parchamo (6279 m) by a British party.

Gone on this day

2014 Ang Kazi, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2006 and Everest five times (2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012), died in an avalanche on Everest, aged 35.
2014 Dorje Khatri, Nepalese Chhetri climber, who ascended Everest seven times (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013) and Cho Oyu in 2011, died in an avalanche on Everest, aged 45.
2014 Phurba Ongyal, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest in 2012, died in an avalanche on Everest, aged 25.
2014 Then Dorje, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest six times (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010) and Manaslu RP in 2006, died in an avalanche on Everest, aged 30.
2014 Twelve other Nepalese climbers died in the same avalanche and one more in a hospital 13 days later after injuries from this avalanche. Sadly these were the most collective deaths on Everest of all time.