Thomas hornbein biography

Thomas Frederic Hornbein (November 6, 1930 – May 6, 2023) was an.
Thomas Frederic Hornbein was an American mountaineer and anesthesiologist who made the first ascent of Mount Everest via the west ridge; the Hornbein Couloir on Everest was named in his honor.
Tom Hornbein is known for one of mountaineering's epic achievements: the 1963 climb of Mount Everest's West Ridge with Willi Unsoeld (1926-1979).

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“This is going to take some time.”

I asked if this happened often when they were out on the trail.

“Oh yes.”

We were able to see but not hear the conversation from our perch– and what struck me is that it wasn't Tom doing all the talking. He had clearly been asking them questions. He was listening, attentive, and genuinely interested. I felt certain that in meeting one of their heroes, they left feeling not only inspired by his accomplishments– but with their own sense of purpose notched up a rung.

In May 2016, Tom and Kathy boarded the M/V Discovery vessel with eight fellow travelers along with Captain Dean Rand. They experienced a multi-day expedition in Prince William Sound exploring the glaciers, fjords, mountains, forests, and wildlife of this vast, wild coastal landscape. All of the funds from the trip participants were donated by Discovery Voyages for the production of a Braided River book A Wild Promise: Prince William Sound to help protect a rare coastal wilderness in Chugach National Forest at the heart of Alaska’s Prince William Sound that has been in l

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Tom Hornbein is known for one of mountaineering's epic achievements: the 1963 climb of Mount Everest's West Ridge with Willi Unsoeld (1926-1979), in which the two men traversed the 29,028-foot summit of the earth and spent a night exposed at 27,900 feet. He wrote a celebrated book, Everest: The West Ridge, reissued in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of the climb. But Hornbein never returned to the Khumbu region of Nepal, explaining simply, "It was a once in a lifetime event. Life goes forward" (Interview, April 24, 2013). Mountains shaped Hornbein's life but, in the words of climber friend Bill Sumner, "He is far from a one-dimensional famous climber" (Interview, January 7, 2014). Hornbein spent his career as a physician and medical researcher, much of it in Seattle, where he joined the faculty of the University of Washington Medical School shortly after his historic climb and later served for 16 years as chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology. After retiring he moved with his wife Kathy to Estes Park, Colorado, within sight of Long's Peak where his climbing began nearl

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A well-known American Mountaineer”In 1963 Tom and Willi Unsoeld made the first ascent of Everest’s West Ridge; traversed the mountain (another first), ran out of oxygen, spent a night in the open at 28,000 feet – legendary!

Jon Krakauer writes in Into Thin Air : “Hornbein’s and Unsoeld’s ascent was, and continues to be – deservedly – hailed as one of the great feats in the annals of mountaineering”.

Tom wrote in “Everest: The West Ridge”: “The night was overwhelming empty. The black silhouette of Lhotse was lurking there, half to see, half to assume, and below us. In general there was nothing – simply nothing. We hung in a timeless gap, pained by an intensive cold air – and had the idea not to be able to do anything but to shiver and to wait for the sun arising”.

Tom was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, where he studied human physiological limits and performance at high altitude – his life was (is) a link o