21 January

Born on this day

1929 Peter Diener, German pioneer, who was one of the first ascenders of Dhaulagiri I in 1960.
1948 Mark W. Luscher, American climber, who ascended Everest in 2008, where he also finished the Carstensz-version of the Seven Summits.
1949 Shin Kashu, Japanese climber, who ascended Masherbrum and Broad Peak in 1985 and Nanga Parbat in 1997.
1956 Walter Treibel, German climber, who ascended Gasherbrum II in 2000.
1958 Csaba Tóth, Hungarian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1990.
1960 Søren Allan Smidt, Danish climber, who ascended Dhaulagiri I in 1991 and Everest in 2008.
1961 Douglas Cote, American climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2005.
1961 Marie-Hélene Rougeron, French lady climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2011.
1961 Josef Hechenberger, Austrian climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2013.
1967 Wataru Atsuta, Japanese climber, who ascended Everest in 1994 and finished the Kosciuszko-version of the Seven Summits in 2000.
1968 Phurba Lakpa, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest in 2016.
1972 Artur Kaźmierczak, Polish climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2005.
1972 Jean-Christophe Ludot, French climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2006 and Everest in 2012.
1975 Markus Bernhard Seidel, German climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2019.
1976 Karma Rita, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest eleven times (2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021), Cho Oyu five times (2004, 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2016) and Gurla Mandhata in 2006.
1978 Pasang Tenzing I, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest nine times (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, twice in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009) and Cho Oyu in 2003.
1979 Pemba Nurbu II, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascencded Everest twice (2011 and 2018).
1980 Christoph-Daniel Bartsch, German climber, who ascended Makalu in 2013.
1980 Nurbu III, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest twice (2016 and 2018).
1982 Alina Gamsakhurdia, Georgian lady climber, who ascended Manaslu M in 2024 and Everest in 2025.
1983 Zheng Yu, Chinese climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2019.
1984 Finn Alexander Stanton Ghent, Australian climber, who ascended Everest in 2024.
1987 Sigurdur Bjarni Sveinsson, Icelandic climber, who ascended Everest in 2021.
1989 Harshad Kamalaksha Rao, Indian climber, who ascended Everest in 2016, Kangchenjunga in 2018 and Manaslu RP in 2021.
1992 Anastasiia Sharapova, Russian lady climber, who ascended Manaslu M in 2025.
2005 Dawa Tenjen III, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest twice (2024 and 2025) and Manaslu M in 2025.

Event on this day

1985 First (calendar) winter ascent of Dhaulagiri I by Polish climbers Jerzy Kukuczka and Andrzej Czok.

Gone on this day

1979 José María Montfort, Spanish Catalan climber, who ascended Tirich Mir in 1973, died in the Sierra del Cadi, aged 39.
2004 Mirko Minuzzo, Italian climber, who ascended Everest in 1973, died from the injuries of a car crash, aged 57.