Ian Woodall

Ian Woodall (born August 17, 1956) is a British mountain climber who has climbed Mount Everest several times.

In 1996 Woodall was the leader of the controversial first South African Mount Everest expedition, during which one member of the party died. The expedition reached Camp IV - the last camp before the summit, and 923m below it - on May 10th, but were not directly involved in the disaster that unfolded that day. Following the tragedy the expedition returned to base camp and made a second attempt after a few days rest, achieving the summit on the 28th May. Woodall reached the peak by 10am, four other members of the expedition had done so by 11am, but Bruce Herrod lagged behind and was the last to reach the peak; from there, at 5pm, he spoke to the others by radio, but was never heard from again. The expedition was sponsored by Johannesburg newspaper The Sunday Times, but its support of the expedition was later withdrawn.

In late May 1998 Woodall together with his climbing partner Cathy O'Dowd were again on Everest when they encountered their friend Francys Arsentiev during her last hours in life. They called off their own attempt to reach the summit and tried to help her for more than one hour but because of her condition, the location, and the cold weather they were finally forced to abandon her and to start descending.

In 2007 Woodall initiated and led an expedition, The Tao of Everest, with the purpose of burying the bodies of Arsentiev and also of Tsewang "Green Boots" Paljor, who had died during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Bad weather delayed the attempt, and on May 23, 2007, Woodall and Phuri Sherpa were only able to recover Arsentiev's body, and after a brief ceremony, drop her body off the North Face to join others in their mountain grave. Woodall and O'Dowd were married in 2001, and are currently living in Andorra in the Pyrenees.