Adrian Ballinger

Adrian Ballinger (born 1 January 1976) is a British-American 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 five continents. Ballinger, along with Himalayan Experience's founder, Russell Brice, has been featured on the Discovery Channel's Everest: Beyond the Limit series.[1] Ballinger worked for Himex until 2012.[2] Ballinger founded Alpenglow Expeditions and has worked as a guide for it.[2] Adrian is noted for pioneering the use of pre-acclimation for commercial expeditions as early as 2014, which can cut the amount of on-site time in half compared to a typical Everest summit bid expedition.[3] He has also gone on climbs sponsored by the Eddie Bauer company.[4] In 2016 and 2017 he went on Everest expeditions with Cory Richards, and in 2017 Adrian reached the summit from the Tibet/China/North route without using bottled oxygen.[5]

Adrian Ballinger
Personal information
Main disciplineMountain Guide
Born1 January 1976
United Kingdom
NationalityAmerican
British
Career
Starting disciplineMountain Guide
Notable ascentsEverest without supplemental oxygen, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, K2 without supplemental oxygen, First person to ski Manaslu
Famous partnershipsEddie Bauer, La Sportiva, Goal Zero
Family
PartnerEmily Harrington

About

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 three 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 climbing 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,[6] 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, Mont Blanc, 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 Pumori, 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 much 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.[7]

2016/17 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.[8] Mount Everest has had a 3G wireless data communication network since 2010.[9] This effort was repeated in 2017, Ballinger summitted without supplementary oxygen, but Richards had to resort to an oxygen tank for the final push to the summit.

Everest summits and other noted achievements
Ama Dablam of the Himalaya's tops out at 6,812 m (22,349 ft)  and has been summited by Adrian

Adrian has summited Mount Everest six times up prior to 2016,[10] and also made it almost to the top that year.[11]

Example Everest summitings:

Lhotse:

K2:

Ama Dablam summiting examples:

  • November 1, 2008[19]
  • November 1, 2012[20]
  • November 15, 2013[21]

Adrian also went on a record breaking expedition to Cho Oyu.[22]

See also

References
  1. Gianpaolo Pietri. "Interview with Alpinist Adrian Ballinger". Climbing.com. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  2. Schaffer, Grayson (2014-04-03). "The Guide Putting Everest Expeditions on a Fast Track". Outside Online. Retrieved 2015-07-23.
  3. Schaffer, Grayson (2014-04-03). "The Guide Putting Everest Expeditions on a Fast Track". Outside Online. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  4. "Tahoe alpinists look to conquer world's 6th-tallest mountain in less than 7 days".
  5. "How Adrian Ballinger Summited Everest Without Oxygen". Men's Journal. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
  6. Jordan. "Marmot Athlete Adrian Ballinger Returns to Everest's Summit". Campbell. SNEWS. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  7. Miller, Marissa. "Meet the Couple Who Met on Everest and Just Speed-Climbed the World's Sixth-Tallest Peak". Vogue. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
  8. "Two Mount Everest Climbers Are Documenting Their Entire Journey on Snapchat in the First Ever Snap-umentary".
  9. Shrestha, Manesh. "Mount Everest gets 3G mobile network". CNN. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  10. "Two Climbers Return to Everest to Snapchat the Summit". 2017-04-14. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  11. "Climbers Snapchat risky trek to Mount Everest summit". Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  12. "Himalayan Database Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley". www.himalayandatabase.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  13. "Himalayan Database Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley". www.himalayandatabase.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  14. http://www.himalayandatabase.com/2011%20Season%20Lists/2011%20Spring%20A6.html
  15. "Himalayan Database Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley". www.himalayandatabase.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  16. "Himalayan Database Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley". himalayandatabase.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  17. http://www.himalayandatabase.com/2011%20Season%20Lists/2011%20Spring%20A15.html
  18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvFt2Xcuois
  19. "Himalayan Database Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley". www.himalayandatabase.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  20. "Himalayan Database Expedition Archives of Elizabeth Hawley". www.himalayandatabase.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  22. "How Adrian Ballinger Demolished the Cho Oyu Summit Speed Record". 7 October 2016.
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