Dan Mazur, Expedition Leader
Age: 36

Mazur is a building designer from Seattle who has reached the summits of five 8,000-meter peaks:  Everest, K2, Lhotse, Makalu and Gasherbrum I.   Climbing magazine named Mazur the "most successful American to ever mount an expedition."  He has been leading and organizing successful Himalayan mountaineering expeditions for nine years. His written, photographic, and cinematic works have been featured in the London Alpine Journal, American Alpine Journal, Ito-Yuki Journal of the Japanese Alpine Club, Climbing, NBC Television, and The Discovery Channel. 


Jon Otto
Age: 29

Otto, a physicist and author from Washington State, is a gifted technical climber. He speaks fluent Mandarin, has written a guide book to rock climbing in Beijing and climbed Mustagh Ata and surrounding peaks several times.  Otto's organizational skills are superb, and he has developed extensive contacts throughout Asia.  He worked together with Betsy Damon to build the Living Water Garden, a community-based environmental education project in China, which won an award from the United Nations Environmental Agency.


Walter Keller
Age: 32

Keller is an electronic engineer and Himalayan mountaineer from Pennsylvania. He specializes in remote climbs of extreme challenge. To his credit are first and second ascents of routes on Lobuje West (6145 meters), Kutskulin (6,450 meters) and of the 7,200-meter Pumori, located near Mount Everest.


Andrew Hilton
Age: 29

Hilton is a physician and Himalayan mountain climber from Newcastle, Great Britain. He has climbed extensively in the Himalayas, and is a gifted ice climber, having spent several seasons climbing routes in Chamonix and Ouray, CO. He was part of a first ascent team on the North Ridge of Hidden Peak, and has climbed multiple first ascents in the Tien Shan mountains near to Alma Ata. Hilton will be leading the toughest ice routes during the expedition.