Viesturs Summits Nanga Parbat - One To Go...

American climber and altitude monster Ed Viesturs has succeeded in climbing Nanga Parbat making him the first US mountaineer to climb 13 of the 14 8,000-meter peaks and without supplementary oxygen too.

Climbing with renowned Frenchman Jean Christophe LaFaille, Viesturs took seven hours to reach the summit from Camp Four. On his website, Viesturs is quoted as saying that the climb was "one of the most difficult and physically challenging of my career" and that the final seven hours were like "climbing a sand dune of deep and unstable powdery snow".

Unusually for the high profile climber, the expedition has been conducted with minimum publicity due to security concerns in the area of Pakistan where he's been climbing.

One to go...

The Nanga Parbat climb means that only Annapurna now stands between him and his aim of becoming the first American to climb all 14 of the 8,000 metre plus peaks without using bottled oxygen.

Viesturs attempted Annapurna last year at the same time as British 8,000 metre aspirant Alan Hinkes, but whereas Hinkes climbed the mountain in record time in a straight push from low down, Viesturs decided that objective dangers were too high and backed off from a summit attempt.

Viesturs is renowned for his spectacularly high VO2 Max, which means he functions significantly better at altitude than most of his contemporaries and - at OM anyway - for his masterly guest appearance in the comedy Hollywood mountaineering film Vertical Limit, where he played himself in a slightly bemused, but highly realistic manner...

There's more information on Viestur's latest climb here on the National Geographic web site, which also explains some of his physiological advantages. For everything else you're ever likely to want to know about Ed, see his own website.