26 March

Born on this day

1945 Alain Thevenot, French climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1995.
1952 Koichi Ezaki, Japanese climber, who ascended Everest in 2000 and Manaslu RP in 2018.
1954 Herbert Blauensteiner, Austrian climber, who ascended Everest in 2010, where he also finished the Carstensz-version of the Seven Summits.
1956 Yves LaForest, Canadian climber, who ascended Everest in 1991. He died in the Selkirk Mountains in 2003, aged 47.
1957 Irina Vialenkova, Belarusian lady climber, who ascended Shisha Pangma Central-Peak in 1992, Dhaulagiri I in 1995 and Cho Oyu in 2004.
1962 Louis Carstens, South African climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2008, Everest in 2010, Manaslu RP in 2013 and Lhotse in 2018. He also finished the Carstensz-version of the Seven Summits in 2010.
1963 Kim Seok-Yeul, Korean climber, who ascended Everest in 2008.
1964 Hideki Inaba, Japanese climber, who ascended Gasherbrum I in 1994 and K2 in 1996.
1965 Sergei Lavrov, Kazakh climber, who ascended Everest in 1997, Gasherbrum I and II in 2001, Kangchenjunga in 2002, Nanga Parbat and Broad Peak in 2003 and Cho Oyu in 2007.
1966 Richard (Rick) Gray, British climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2004.
1968 Roman Mats, Uzbek climber, who ascended Everest in 1998.
1970 Araceli Segarra, Spanish Catalan lady climber, who ascended Shisha Pangma Central-Peak in 1992 and Everest in 1996.
1970 Pascal Debrouwer, Belgian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 1992 and Everest in 1999, where he died on descent, aged 29.
1970 François Legrand, French free-climber, who was World-Champion in 1991, 1993 and 1995 and World-Cup-winner from 1990 to 1993.
1973 Jaime Antón Albentosa, Spanish Valencian climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2009.
1974 Kishor Dattatraya Dhankude, Indian climber, who ascended Everest Twice (2014 and 2017).
1975 Michael (Mike) Norris, British climber, who ascended Cho Oyu in 2005.
1977 Santiago Fernando Pérez, American climber, who ascended Everest and Lhotse in 2017.
1978 Tamara Styś, Polish lady climber, who ascended Gasherbrum II in 2006.
1979 Tang Feng, Chinese climber, who ascended Manaslu RP in 2018 and Everest in 2019.
1981 Xabier Ormazabal, Spanish Basque climber, who ascended Shisha Pangma Central-Peak and probably Cho Oyu in 2004, where he died on descent, aged 23.
1981 Ursula Ornella Diaz, Argentinean lady climber, who ascended Everest in 2013.
1981 Denis Abuev, Russian climber, who ascended Everest in 2014.
1981 Robert James (Rob) Lea, American climber, who ascended Everest in 2019.
1983 Phu Rinji, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest three times (2019, 2022 and 2024).
1983 Hu Zhao-Hui, Chinese climber, who ascended Everest in 2025.
1984 Napassaporn Chumnarnsit, lady climber from Thailand, who ascended Everest in 2016.
1985 Dawa Jangbu (b), Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Manaslu M in 2024.
1987 Jenjen Lama Bhote, Nepalese Bhutia climber, who ascended Everest five times (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024).
1989 Anup Gurung, Nepalese climber, who ascended Everest six times (2013, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2024 and 2025), Manaslu RP twice (2018 and 2019), Lhotse three times (2019, 2021 and 2024) and Manaslu M twice (2024 and 2025).
1989 Sonam Tashi III, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest five times (2017, 2018, 2022, 2024 and 2025), Dhaulagiri I and K2 in 2022, Manaslu M in 2023 and Makalu in 2024.
1993 Ming Nurbu II, Nepalese Sherpa climber, who ascended Everest in 2024.
1997 Sujal Gurung, Nepalese climber, who ascended Manaslu M twice (2023 and 2025) and Everest twice (2024 and 2025).
1999 Pramesh Sitaram Ale, Indian climber, who ascended Everest in 2018.

Gone on this day

1975 Tetsu Imura and Yoshitaka Numao from Japan, Nepalese Sherpa climbers Pasang Kami, Dakiya and Dorje and an unnamed local porter were killed in an avalanche at the South buttress of Dhaulagiri I.
2016 Arved Lennard Lahti, Norwegian climber, who ascended Everest twice (2012 and 2013) and Makalu in 2014, died on Mt. Rainier, aged 58.
2018 Xabier Erro, Spanish Basque climber, who ascended Gasherbrum II in 1989, died, aged 72.