Greg Child
During Greg's 30-year climbing career, he has conquered 5.13 free routes, A5 big walls and the highest peaks in the Himalaya, namely Everest and K2.
Greg’s climbing roots lead back to his native Australia, where he was a teenage collector of snakes. When a deadly tiger snake bit him, he turned to safer activities – such as rock climbing.
As a teenager he did many first ascents of free climbs on the notoriously difficult cliffs of Mount Arapiles, and still today he maintains a high level of free climbing. In 2002 he established a spectacular multi-pitch 5.13 first ascent called “Excommunication” on a desert tower called The Priest.
After taking up residence in America in 1980 he made his mark in Yosemite with two new routes on El Capitan.
Big walls led to travels to the Himalaya, to which he has made 13 mountaineering expeditions. More recently he has turned to exploratory mountaineering. In 1999 he trekked through a remote jungle in Northeast India to seek out unclimbed peaks on the Indo-Tibet border, and his team became the first Westerners to encounter the Bungaroo people of the upper Kurung Valley.
His most recent adventure was a 120-mile lightweight backpacking traverse of Comb Ridge, a stretch of the Arizona-Utah desert that encompasses the heartlands of the ancient, and vanished, Anasazi Indian culture. He has recorded his career in books, photographs, TV documentaries and articles for magazines such as Outside, National Geographic and Climbing.
Career Highlights
Himalayan Successes include a new route on Shivling (21,500 Ft) in India (1981)
First ascent of Northwest Ridge of Gasherbrum IV (26,000 ft) in Pakistan (1986)
Oxygenless ascent of K2 North Ridge (1990)
New route on Trango Tower (20,500 ft) in Pakistan (1992)
Ascent of North Ridge of Everest (1995)
First ascent of Shipton Spire (19,750 ft) in Pakistan (1996)
Other walls and alpine routes include first ascent of "Wall of Shadows" on Mount Hunter in Alaska (1994), First ascent of Great Sail Peak in Baffin Island (1998), and two first ascents on El Capitan ("Aurora" and "Lost in America")
Winner of Banff Mountain Festival Book Award for Postcards From the Ledge (1997)
Winner of an Emmy for video in Hitting the Wall (1998)
Selected Books by Greg Child
Thin Air: Encounters in the Himalaya (1988)
Mixed Emotions (1994)
Postcards from the Ledge (1997)
Over the Edge (2001)
Films
One Foot on the Road to Everest (1995, Everest ascent)
The Face (1996, BBC, about climbing in Vietnam)
First Ascent (1997, National Geographic, a first ascent in Pakistan)
Hitting the Wall (1998, National Geographic, a first ascent in Baffin Island)
African Ascent (1999, National Geographic, a first ascent in Cameroon, Africa)