Daniel Mazur

Daniel Lee Mazur was born on 15 October 1960 in Illinois. His family came from Złotów, Poland, and Bristol, England, where his ancestor Humphrey Hooke was a Merchant Venturer and Alderman during the 16th century. As a boy he spent his summers exploring the wilderness waterways of Canada by canoe with a YMCA group. Each summer the family would load the Ford station wagon with the kids and the dog and visit the national parks for a two-week camping trip. He was an active Boy Scout for many years and was taught to ski by his father Robert. At age 12 his mother Mary started bringing Chinese students home to live in the house, so he learned his first words of Chinese around the dinner table and while doing chores. He first tasted the high peaks at age 17, while a student at the University of Montana, climbing Gunsight Peak and the Sperry Glacier in Glacier National Park.

Mazur's recent successful expeditions include Mount Everest, K2, Gasherbrum, Ama Dablam and Baruntse.[2] Not only has Mazur climbed 9 of our world's >8000 metre (>26,000 foot) high peaks, but he has also been involved in rescues of fellow climbers from high altitudes. For his services to mountaineering, to mountain peoples and environments, Mazur received the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal on United Nations Mountain Day, presented by Dr. Seth Sicroff of Mountain Legacy and Nepal Mountaineering Association President Dr. Santa Bir Lama in Pokhara, Nepal.

Mazur has subsequently climbed seven more of the world's 8,000-meter peaks and led expeditions more than 15 times to the world's highest, including Everest 12 times (x), K2 3x, Lhotse 3x, Makalu, Kangchenjunga 2x, Cho Oyu 5x, Manaslu 2x, Gasherbrum 1, Gasherbrum 2 and Broad Peak, Dhaulaghirii, and Shishapangma 2x. His employer, SummitClimb are now in their sixteenth year of organizing expeditions to Tibet, Nepal, China, Africa, Pakistan, Central Asia, South and North America.

He lives in Bristol, England, and Olympia, Washington. He is a member of the Alpine Club, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the American Alpine Club, a fellow of the Explorers Club, Pacific Northwest Chapter, a member of the British Mountaineering Council, the AMGA, Mountain Leader Training Board, Certified Guide Federation, Access Fund, member of the Mountaineers Club, holds a certification in Diesel Mechanics, a PhD in Social Policy Analysis from the Heller School at Brandeis University, read for the PhD at the University of the West of England in Bristol, and holds a BSW from the University of Montana.

Mazur has lived in England, Asia, and North America, but spends more and more of his time lecturing and raising funds for the Mount Everest Foundation for Sustainable Development in Nepal and Tibet, or the Mountain Fund, building hospitals, schools, and environmental projects with the low-income families who live around Mt. Everest, in both Nepal and Tibet. He leads "ServiceTrek" for the MEFSD. In 1993, Climbing magazine named Mazur the "most successful to ever launch an expedition".

Mazur's written, photographic, cinematic, audio, and cyber works are featured in The Times, The New York Times, The Bristol Evening Post, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, Associated Press, Reuters, BBC Television, NBC Television, The Discovery Channel, The Seattle Times, The Olympian, The Independent, The Guardian, People, Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest, National Geographic Adventure, London Alpine Journal, American Alpine Journal, Ito-Yuki Journal of the Japanese Alpine Club, Himalayan Journal, High Magazine, Climb Magazine, Climbing Magazine, Climber Magazine, On the Edge, Outside, Rock and Ice, Vertical, Explore Magazine, EverestNews website, Mountainzone website, BBC Radio and National Public Radio.

Having reached the summit of Mount Everest on an expedition together with Anatoli Boukreev in 1991, Mazur was involved in an early rescue of Georgian climber Roman Giutashvili from just below the summit of Everest.[3]

In 1992 on K2, Mazur and his team worked together to rescue Gary Ball from 8300 metres. Gary was struck down by a pulmonary embolism. The rescue took several days, descending technical ground, and rescuers included Rob Hall, Scott Fischer, Ed Viesturs, Neal Beidleman and Jon Pratt [4]

At 7:30 am on May 26, 2006, Mazur and his fellow ascending climbers Andrew Brash (Canada), Myles Osborne (UK) and Jangbu Sherpa (Nepal) were eight hours into their planned ascent to the summit up the North Ridge of Mount Everest, located along a severe ridge line, dropping off 10,000 feet to one side and 7,000 feet to the other. Two hours below the summit, conditions seemed perfect. There was no wind and no clouds and they were feeling strong and healthy.

When rounding a corner on the trail to the summit the team encountered Lincoln Hall, an Australian climber at an altitude of approximately 28,000 feet. Hall had been 'left for dead' by his own expedition team on the descent from the summit the previous day at around 8600 meters on Everest after collapsing, failing to respond to prolonged treatment and being unable to walk. He was now sitting alone on the trail with his jacket around his waist, no hat and no gloves, and without any of the proper equipment for survival in such conditions. The group found he was suffering from symptoms of cerebral oedema, frostbite and dehydration as he was hallucinating, mumbling deliriously and appeared generally incoherent in his responses to offers of help.

The rescuers replaced the hat, jacket and gloves Mr. Hall had discarded, anchored him to the mountain, and gave him their own oxygen, food and water. They radioed Hall's team, who had given him up for dead, and convinced them he was still alive and must be saved. Mr. Hall's team leader had already called his wife the night before to tell her that Hall was dead. The rescuers arranged for Sherpas from Mr. Hall's team to ascend and help with the rescue. For four hours, Mazur's team stayed to care for Mr. Hall. Phil Crampton coordinated the rescue from the high camp at 26,000 feet, and Kipa Sherpa was the liaison to Lincoln Hall's team at advance base camp at 21,000 feet.

Extended stays at extreme altitude are risky even when planned in advance and when climbers have all the supplies they need. By using their own survival supplies to sustain Hall, going to the summit after so many hours spent helping Hall was out of the question. Staying there to care for Hall, they took a risk the weather would turn for the worse and they might even not have sufficient oxygen and food to support themselves on the way down. In abandoning their own attempt on the summit in order to save Hall's life, epitomized the noblest traditions of mountaineering. Mazur said of his team abandoning their summit attempt, "The summit is still there and we can go back. Lincoln only has one life."[5]

Several print [6] as well as television documentaries [7] [8] tell the story in detail. Their actions were underscored by the death of British climber David Sharp a few days earlier, who had been abandoned by his team and other mountaineers who passed by him on their way to the summit.

During the 2018 Broad Peak Expedition, Mazur and his team rescued Rick Allen, a British climber who disappeared at night near the summit and whose team mates reported him dead and descended with Rick's satellite phone. Mazur and team found Rick Allen alive and brought him down to base camp 3 days later.[9]

Each year Mazur leads and organizes groups of volunteers to visit, bring supplies, medicines, health care and education to the himalayas.[10]

Mazur presents his slide video show live and in aid of the Mount Everest Foundation [11] [12]

• List of Mount Everest guides
• List of Mount Everest summiters by number of times to the summit

• Olympia news article re 2006 rescue
• Summit Climb Biop

• NBC Dateline: Left for Dead on Mt. Everest
• Mount Everest Foundation
• EverestNews.com
• Mount Everest Foundation

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