Iván Vallejo

Iván Vallejo (born 1959) is a high-altitude mountaineer from Ecuador, born in Ambato, who on 1 May 2008 became the 14th person to reach the summit of all 14 eight-thousanders and the 7th without supplemental oxygen, and the first and still the only Southern Hemisphere climber to complete them without it. A chemical engineer who taught mathematics at university from 1988 to 2000, he then became a full-time climber. He reached the summit of Chimborazo, his country's highest peak, on 23 October 1978, climbed in the Cordillera Blanca and in Bolivia, and stood on his first eight-thousander, Manaslu, in 1997. In 1999 he became the first Ecuadorian to reach the top of Everest, and in 2006 he climbed Kangchenjunga with João Garcia of Portugal.