Anatoli Boukreev

Anatoli Boukreev (1958 to 1997) was a Russian-born Kazakh mountaineer who made ascents of ten of the 14 eight-thousander peaks without supplemental oxygen, and from 1989 to 1997 made 18 successful ascents of peaks above 8,000 metres. He had a reputation as an elite mountaineer in international climbing circles for summiting K2 in 1993 and Mount Everest by the North Ridge in 1995, and for solo speed ascents of some of the world's highest mountains. He became even more widely known for saving the lives of three climbers during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, although his actions there were tinged with controversy, and he co-wrote The Climb about the disaster. He was killed in an avalanche during a winter ascent of Annapurna in Nepal in 1997, and his companion Linda Wylie edited his diaries, published in 2002 as Above the Clouds.