Chad Kellogg

Chad Kellogg (September 22, 1971 – February 14, 2014) was an American mountain climber, best known for his numerous speed climbing records and first ascents.

Kellogg was born in Omak, Washington in 1971. His parents, Ric and Peggy Kellogg, were missionaries, and as a result his family moved to Kenya for seven years before returning to the United States to settle in Seattle. He enrolled at the University of Washington in 1989 when he was 17 and graduated with a degree in economics. He trained with the U.S. national luge team for seven years in Lake Placid, New York, but gave up the sport after failing to qualify for the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Kellogg began climbing in 1984 in the North Cascades but it was not until he left the national luge team that he began to pursue mountaineering as a career. He worked as a climbing ranger in Mount Rainier National Park in 1997–1998 and later ran a Seattle-based construction business to support his climbs. He became well known in the climbing community in 1998 as he began to break records for speed ascents.

In 1998 Kellogg became the first person to climb and descend Mount Rainier in under five hours. He repeated the feat in 2004 when he ran from Paradise, Washington to the summit in 4 hours, 59 minutes. His record for the fastest climb has since been surpassed. Kellogg entered the 2003 Khan Tengri speed climbing competition in Kazakhstan, a race to climb the mountain, and won. He once held the record for the fastest ascent and descent on Mount McKinley's West Buttress route, making the round trip to the summit and back in 23 hours, 55 minutes; he was the first known person to ascend and descend in less than 24 hours. Kellogg made three attempts to break speed record on Mount Everest in 2010, 2011 and 2013, but never succeeded.

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