Renowned South Korean mountaineer Park Young-Seok would have turned 61 today. Park is the only person to have completed the true Explorers Grand Slam: He climbed all 14×8,000’ers, completed the Seven Summits, and did full-length manhauling treks to both the North and South Poles.
Close call on Everest
In 1991, Park had a close call on Everest. He was attempting the Southwest Face on the 1975 British route, leading at 7,000m, when he fell 150m but somehow survived.
Though he didn’t summit that year, Park ascended Everest three times: in 1993, 2006, and 2009. On the 2009 climb, he opened a new route on the left side of the Southwest Face.
Park’s new route on the Southwest Face of Everest. Photo: American Alpine Journal
Young-seok also ascended both Cho Oyu and Shisha Pangma Central twice. He finished both the Carstensz and Kosciuszko versions of the Seven Summits in 2002.
Disappearance on Annapurna I
In the autumn of 2011, Park was on the South Face of Annapurna I with Shin Dong-min and Kang Ki-seok. Their final communication with Base Camp was on October 18. The climbers were not heard from again. A search-and-rescue operation was unsuccessful.
Park was 47 at the time of his death. Before the climb, he wrote, “I’m getting more and more likely to die. I live each day with a grateful heart, but a mountaineer who settles down is not a mountaineer. If a tiger loses its wildness, is it still a tiger? I was born with the luck of an explorer, so I think I will explore and climb mountains until the day I die.”
No one else has completed the true Explorers Grand Slam. Since Park, the term itself has become watered down. It is simply too hard for those eager to claim such a flashy label, so they tweaked this unofficial term to fit what they accomplished. In particular, that is because of the full-length North Pole requirement. It was always the hardest of all, but for logistics and climate-change reasons, it is even harder today. A full-length North Pole expedition hasn’t been done in 10 years.
Below, you can watch a video homage to Park Young-seok.
