Eight-Thousanders

Our Explorers Issue celebrates triumphs and bold ascents, whether they come on course, in business or in that ultimate setting for testing human limits: the mountains. Petrarch, the 14th century Italian poet, wrote of scaling Mont Ventoux in 1336, but many trace mountaineering’s emergence as a sport to 1786, when a French duo climbed Mont Blanc in response to an offer of a reward for doing so. Since then a number of climbers have made a name for themselves, but few have done more than Ed Viesturs, who summited all 14 of the peaks in the world of 8,000 meters or more—without supplemental oxygen. He’s the only American (and one of only a very few climbers in history) to have achieved this, making it no wonder that’s he’s a Rolex Ambassador and the subject of a profile in our Explorers Issue. Breathe easy and enjoy his story even as you plan adventures of your own.