Environmental Coordinator and Climber
Portland, OR
Age: 31

Hansen, 31, of Portland, Oregon, plans to oversee the environmental cleanup at Base Camp and provide "grunt" support on the lower reaches of the mountain for the summit team. He grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, and after high school traveled and moved West on the suggestion of a friend who had taken a National Outdoor Leadership School course. He began climbing in Colorado, fascinated with the outdoors, and then moved to Oregon where he took up rock climbing. He enjoys his work, cutting and "propagating" plants, and has an unbridled enthusiasm for being part of the K2 team.

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He has climbed several routes on mountains from Rainier to Shasta, Hood's Luethold's Glacier to Shuksan's North Face. But instead of going to Argentina or Alaska, which he says would have been a more logical step, he had the opportunity to go to K2, where he hopes to get at least partway up. It was through a chance meeting with Wayne Wallace that Hansen came to be on the expedition. "I'm stoked," Hansen says. "I can't believe it! It's K2, man! I can hardly think of anything else. I used to think of women 90 percent of the time, now I think of K2 90 percent of the time." His girlfriend, Erica, who he is devoted to and thinks of often, also is a climber.