Scott Fischer

Scott Fischer
Scott Fischer on Annapurna in 1984
Born	(1955-12-24)December 24, 1955 Muskegon, Michigan, United States
Died	May 11, 1996(1996-05-11) (aged 40) Mount Everest, Nepal
Cause of death	Exposure, AMS
Nationality	American
Occupation	Mountain guide
Known for	First American to summit Lhotse
Spouse(s)	Jeannie Price
Children	Andy Fischer-Price Katie Rose Fischer-Price

Scott Eugene Fischer (December 24, 1955 – May 11, 1996) was an American mountaineer and mountain guide. He was 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 (27,940 feet / 8516 m), the world's fourth highest peak. Fischer and Ed Viesturs were the first Americans to summit K2 (28,251 feet/ 8611m) without supplemental oxygen. Fischer first climbed Mount Everest (29,029 feet / 8,848 m) in 1994 and later died during the 1996 blizzard on Everest while descending from the peak.

Fischer was the son of Shirley and Gene Fischer, and was of German, Dutch, and Hungarian ancestry. He spent his early life in Michigan and New Jersey. After watching a TV documentary in 1970 about the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) with his father, he headed to the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming for the summer. While in high school, he spent his summers in the mountains with NOLS, eventually becoming a full-time senior NOLS instructor.

In 1977 Fischer attended an ice climbing seminar by Jeff Lowe in Utah. A group of climbers scaled the frozen Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. During the climb Scott began to climb solo on the near vertical ice formation when his ice axe broke leaving him stranded. The others managed to get him a new axe but when he began ascending again the tool now popped out and he fell hundreds of feet. Somehow he survived and did not have serious injury, but he did take a chunk out of his foot with the ice axe because he swung it during his fall but hit his own foot (he swung to hold to the ice).

In 1984, Fischer and Wes Krause became the second ever team to scale the Breach Icicle on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa after Reinhold Messner and Konrad Renzler in 1978.