Ed Viesturs' Quest for the 8,000 meter peaks

Interview Segments:
[Annapurna] [Shishapangma] [Filming Vertical Limit] [Slideshow]

On his 10-city slideshow tour
Ed Viesturs has just returned from a 10-city slideshow around North America, a traveling circus that will resume after the Annapurna climb. Viesturs jokingly called it the Grateful Ed Tour. Sponsored by MountainZone.com, JanSport, Mountain Hardwear and Outside magazine, the slideshow was a way for people around the country to meet America's most famous climber. For Viesturs, a pretty private guy, the slideshow tour was hard evidence as to just how popular he's become.

	AUDIO "Three, four years ago we'd be happy to have 50 people show up at a slideshow. But now the public awareness, or the popularity of climbing, has just exploded..." HEAR/READ

"The receptions were amazing. Whatever theater or venue we had rented, typically they were sold out. Whether it was 600, or 800, or a thousand people, it was no problem to sell out these venues. It was really nice to go and have huge crowds like that. Three, four years ago we'd be happy to have 50 people show up at a slideshow. But now the public awareness or the popularity of climbing has just exploded."

After each appearance, the audience peppered Viesturs with questions: "Most people want to know how I function relatively well at altitude; how I train," he said. "I got a lot of questions about 1996, you know, the IMAX filming, the tragedy, what happened, and that sort of thing. And then a lot of questions also about guiding high-altitude mountains, you know, what I do I think about that, what do I think about the accessibility, and the numbers of people that are going."

To the latter question, Viesturs response is measured. He is, after all, one of the best high-altitude guides to take on the job.

"I think it can be done," he said, "as long as the guides are very experienced at what they're doing and if they know the quality of the person that they're guiding. Clients must realize you're not guaranteeing a summit when you take somebody into the mountains, whether it's on Mount Rainier or Mount Everest, and price has nothing to do with success. You need to be very safe, and conservative, and assess your client day in and day out and see how far they might be able to get."

—Peter Potterfield, MountainZone.com Staff