Mountain Madness
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| Industry | Mountaineering guides |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1984 |
| Founders | Scott Fischer, Wes Krause, and Michael Allison |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington |
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Key people
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Christine Boskoff, Anatoli Boukreev, Charlie Fowler |
| Services | Adventure travel, Rock climbing |
| Owner | Mark Gunlogson |
| Website | mountainmadness |
Mountain Madness is a Seattle-based mountaineering and trekking company. The company specializes in mountain adventure travel and a training school for mountain and rock climbing.
In 1984, Scott Fischer, Wes Krause, and Michael Allison, each a mountaineering guide, founded Mountain Madness. Although Fischer had decided in the early 1970s that he would one day have a guide service by the name of Mountain Madness, they did not incorporate the company until 1984. Fischer anchored the Seattle operations while Krause concentrated his efforts in Africa. Allison soon sold his share to his partners so that he could pursue other interests.
While leading Mountain Madness, Fischer became renowned for his ascents of the world's highest mountains made without the use of supplemental oxygen. Fischer and Wally Berg were the first Americans to summit Lhotse, the world's fourth highest mountain (27,940 feet / 8516 m), located next to Mount Everest. He and Ed Viesturs were the first Americans to summit K2, (28,251 feet / 8611m) in the Karakoram of Pakistan without supplemental oxygen. During his stewardship of Mountain Madness, Fischer led social and environmental initiatives to help people in the countries in which Mountain Madness traveled. As the leaders of the 1994 Sagarmatha Environmental Expedition, Fischer and Rob Hess both summited Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. Later that year, the American Alpine Club awarded the David Brower Conservation Award, “an annual award recognizing leadership and commitment to preserving mountain regions worldwide,” to all members of the expedition. Fischer also led the 1996 Climb for CARE expedition on Mount Kilimanjaro (19,341 feet / 5,895 m) in Africa. This endeavor raised nearly a million dollars for the relief organization.
After 23 years of mountaineering and 12 years of guiding Mountain Madness, Scott Fisher died in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster while leading an expedition and descending from his second summit.
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