Daniel Mazur - Biography

Biography

Daniel Lee Mazur was born in Illinois. His family came from Złotów, Poland, and Bristol, England, where his ancestor Humphrey Hooke was a Merchant Venturer and Alderman during the 16th century. As a boy he spent his summers exploring the wilderness waterways of Canada by canoe with a YMCA group. Each summer the family would load the Ford station wagon with the kids and the dog and visit the national parks for a two week camping trip. He was an active Boy Scout for many years and was taught to ski by his father Robert. At age 12 his mother Mary started bringing Chinese students home to live in the house, so he learned his first words of Chinese around the dinner table and while doing chores. He first tasted the high peaks at age 17, while a student at the University of Montana, climbing Gunsight Peak and the Sperry Glacier in Glacier National Park.

When he is not climbing Everest and Himalayan Peaks, or traveling the world giving slideshows to raise money for charities such as Mount Everest Foundation for Sustainable Development of Nepal and Tibet, or the Mountain Fund, he lives in Bristol, England, and Olympia, Washington. He is a member of the Alpine Club, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the American Alpine Club, a fellow of the Explorers Club, Pacific Northwest Chapter, a member of the British Mountaineering Council, the AMGA, Mountain Leader Training Board, Certified Guide Federation, Access Fund, member of the Mountaineers Club, holds a certification in Diesel Mechanics, a PhD in Social Policy Analysis from the Heller School at Brandeis University, read for the PhD at the University of the West of England in Bristol, and holds a BSW from the University of Montana.

Having reached the summit of Mount Everest on an expedition together with Anatoli Boukreev in 1991, he has subsequently climbed six more of the world's 8,000-meter peaks and led expeditions more than 15 times to the world's highest, including Everest 7 times (x), K2 2x, Lhotse2x, Makalu, Kangchenjunga 2x, Cho Oyu 2x, Manaslu, Gasherbrum 1, Gasherbrum 2 and Shishapangma. His current employer, www.SummitClimb.com, are now in their sixteenth year of organizing expeditions to Tibet, Nepal, China, Africa, Pakistan, Tajikistan, India, and North America.

Dan has lived in England, Asia, and North America, but spends more and more of his time lecturing and raising funds for the Mount Everest Foundation for Sustainable Development in Nepal and Tibet, or the Mountain Fund, building hospitals, schools, and environmental projects with the low-income families who live around Mt. Everest, in both Nepal and Tibet. He leads "www.ServiceTrek.org" for the MEFSD. In 1993, Climbing magazine named Dan the "most successful to ever launch an expedition". As an articulate but humble Himalayan explorer and scholar, he has been active in climbing the highest peaks of the Himalaya for many years. His personal link with the region and its peoples began in 1986 when he traveled, trekked, and climbed throughout Tibet and Nepal with friends. Since then, he has been personally leading and organizing successful overland, trekking, and mountaineering expeditions for 18 years.

In a May 2003 article written by John Climaco, Climbing magazine said: "How has Dan Mazur become one of the most successful Himalayan mountaineers?" When you meet him in person, Dan comes across as humble and unassuming. But take him to a high mountain, and Dan becomes the true and naturally gifted mountaineer that he is. His style has won him plaudits from the professional mountaineering fraternity, and it wins high praise from all who are privileged enough to climb with him on his expeditions."

Dan's written, photographic, cinematic, audio, and cyber works are featured in The Times, The New York Times, The Bristol Evening Post, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, Associated Press, Reuters, BBC Television, NBC Television, The Discovery Channel, The Seattle Times, The Olympian, The Independent, The Guardian, People, Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest, National Geographic Adventure, London Alpine Journal, American Alpine Journal, Ito-Yuki Journal of the Japanese Alpine Club, Himalayan Journal, High Magazine, Climb Magazine, Climbing Magazine, Climber, On the Edge, Outside, Rock and Ice, Vertical, Explore Magazine, EverestNews website, Mountainzone website, BBC Radio and National Public Radio.