31 December

Born on this day

1917 Cuthbert Wilfrid Frank Noyce, British pioneer, who participated in the first ascent of Trivor in 1960. He died on Pik Garmo in 1962, aged 44.
1937 Gerry F. Owens, British climber, who ascended Tirich Mir in 1969 and Annapurna I in 1970. He died on Nuptse in 1975, aged 37.
1941 Walter Heimbach, German climber, who ascended Manaslu M in 1981.
1951 Roland Brand, German climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1995 and Broad Peak Foresummit in 1997.
1962 Karlheinz Schmid, German climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1998.
1962 Neil William Beard, British climber, who ascended Everest in 2012.
1967 Mingma Dorje (a), Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2002.
1968 Andreas Karrer, German climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2000.
1970 Takanobu Kajiyama, Japanese climber, who ascended Manaslu RP twice (2011 and 2012) and Everest and Lhotse in 2017.
1970 Maria Uxue Murolas, Spanish Basque lady climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2013 and Lhotse in 2022.
1975 Dong Ying, Chinese lady climber, who ascended Manaslu M in 2023.
1979 Anshu Jamsenpa, Indian lady climber, who ascended Everest five times (twice in 2011, once in 2013 and twice in 2017).
1979 Milan Kumar Rai, Nepalese climber, who ascended Everest in 2017.
1980 Han Sang-Woo, Korean climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2008.
1980 Swiatlana Kuzkova, Belarusian lady climber, who ascended Everest in 2021.
1981 Raj Kumar Magar, Nepalese climber, who ascended Everest four times (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2023).
1983 Phura Gelgen (Fur Gyeljan), Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest twice in 2019.
1985 Caroline Louise Gleich, American lady climber, who ascended Everest in 2019.
1988 Azim Afif Ishak, Malaysian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2014 and Everest in 2016.
1990 Cui Lian-Hui, Chinese climber, who ascended Everest in 2023.
1991 Shota Mori, Japanese climber, who ascended Manaslu M in 2024.
1994 Kendall Douglas Haggard, American climber, who ascended Manaslu M in 2023.
1997 Liu Rui-Qi, Chinese lady climber, who ascended Manaslu M in 2024 and Everest in 2025.

Event on this day

1988 First winter ascent of Lhotse (8516 m) by the Polish climber Krzysztof Wielicki.

First ascent on this day

1966 Mount Gardner (4573 m) by an American party.

Gone on this day

2003 David Hiddleston, climber from New Zealand, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1997, Shisha Pangma Central-Peak in 1999 and Everest in 2002, died in an avalanche on Mount Tasman, aged 34.
2014 Ladislav Drda, Czech climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1995, Gasherbrum II in 1997 and Shisha Pangma Central-Peak in 2004, died, aged 60.