20th Anniversary
Join us in celebrating 20 years of Alpenglow Expeditions.
The Beginning
Adrian Ballinger and Ian Boyer name Alpenglow Expeditions during a cold bivy on the side of Ranrapalca in Peru.
Alpenglow is founded in June 2004 and runs international expeditions while based out of Aspen, CO.
Begin offering 8000m peaks in partnership with Russell Brice
Alpenglow clients on an 8000m peak, Cho Oyu, for the first time. We expands offerings into Tibet, and additional expeditions in Nepal.
Begin guiding Everest in partnership with Himalayan Experience
Adrian receives his IFMGA certification
Guides that have passed AMGA exams in all three disciplines: rock, alpine, and ski mountaineering obtain the title of American Mountain Guide and IFMGA mountain guide. This achievement is the highest level of credential attainable by a mountain guide and takes many years of full-time guiding and climbing to attain. Today, there are approximately 170 IFMGA certified guides in the USA and they represent the pinnacle of American mountain guiding.
Alpenglow moves from Aspen, CO to North Lake Tahoe, CA
Adrian summits Everest for first time
In the same year, Adrian guides Aaron Ollivier on Manaslu in Nepal. Aaron quickly becomes a friend and trusted advisor.
Alpenglow hires its first office employee, Emily Turner.
The “office” wasn’t really an office: AEX was being run out of AB’s condo.
Aaron Ollivier becomes a partner of Alpenglow
The relationship between Adrian and Aaron evolved from a friendship to a business partnership, with Aaron offering his business and financial expertise to help Alpenglow continue to grow.
Adrian makes first complete ski descent while guiding Manaslu
Ballinger Claims First Complete Ski Descent of Manaslu
“With the help of Namgil Sherpa, I made a platform just below the summit cornice, removed my overboots, and stepped into my Sportiva GT skis. It was a wild place to be perched on skis—a knife edge corniced ridge with 8,000 feet of air below me, leading back to basecamp in one direction and to Annapurna in the other. Conditions off the top were steep 55-degree terrain and almost ice, so I made the decision to be backed up with a rope. After a short sideslip and a few turns, I rejoined Sergey at the plateau, totally stoked and ready to ski. The turns off the plateau were hard work, with breakable crust mixed with sastrugi, and firm windswept steeps. I’ve never breathed so hard while making jump turns through these conditions.” –Adrian Ballinger for Powder Magazine
Three Weeks, Three Climbers, Three 8000-Meter Summits
Our clients make possible everything we do in the mountains. While guiding a team on Mt. Everest, Adrian was able to make history:
“In the spring of 2011, local mountain guide Adrian Ballinger became the first person to summit three 8000-meter peaks within a three-week period. Adrian summited Mt. Everest (29,029 ft.) twice in two weeks, first while fixing ropes to the summit with an elite group of the world’s strongest Sherpa, and then again while guiding a group of climbers to the top of the world’s largest peak. With one week left in the season, Adrian, Phurba, and Tashi again left basecamp to guide and summit Lhotse (27,940 ft.), Mt. Everest’s neighbor and the fourth highest mountain in the world. From deep within the Himalaya, this story is one for the climbing history books.” – Unofficial Networks
Alpenglow runs industry’s first Rapid Ascent™ 8000m peak Expedition
Our Rapid Ascent™ Expedition of Makalu marked the first commercial use of pre-acclimatization with a hypoxic tent. Other companies have attempted to replicate it but with lesser results. Over the past decade, we’ve perfected our regimen, which combines cutting-edge hypoxic training techniques with precise logistics and small team sizes to reliably increase chances of summit success. Rapid Ascent™ teams spend 30 to 50% less time away from home and arrive at base camp well-rested, energized, and prepared to take full advantage of every weather window.
A big year of ‘firsts’ for the Alpenglow team on 8,000m peaks
Alpenglow runs the first Rapid Ascent™ Expedition to Everest
The Alpenglow team summits Everest in less than 30 days total in Nepal. It is the first time this has been done.
Esteban ‘Topo’ Mena becomes the youngest non-sherpa to summit Everest without supplemental O2 nor high-altitude porter support (age 23).
Alpenglow becomes the first American operation to guide 8,000m peak ski descents, with a successful summit and ski of Cho Oyu.
After Celebrating 10 Years In Business, Adrian begins to reconsider the safety and ethics of climbing Everest from the South Side.
“Flying out of Kathmandu has never felt so incomplete. Not simply for the lack of #everest summit. That’s happened before and will happen again. This year I leave with a deep uncertainty of what future seasons may look like on Everest and throughout the Nepal Himalaya. I fear that regardless of how forward-thinking our Alpenglow Expeditions team is on issues of safety and compensation, we may be affected, as this year, by anger directed (rightly) at the unethical low end of the industry. The Nepal government needs to act now to regulate Everest – require previous 8000 meter peak experience of clients; require Khumbu Climbing Center experience or equivalent of high altitude workers; dramatically increase minimum wages for all mountain workers; dramatically increase minimum disability and life insurance requirements; establish a legitimate high altitude rescue team with helicopter support funded by permit fees; modernize the icefall fixing system, team, and equipment; allow helicopters to carry equipment (and, if teams choose, members and Sherpa) to Camp 1; require teams to have legitimate communications, medical, and rescue infrastructure; limit team size. What am I missing?” – Adrian Ballinger
Alpenglow moves Everest operations to North Side
Mount Everest North Side Expedition
Due to safety, sanitation, and overcrowding, Adrian chooses to move operations to the North Side of Everest for a cleaner and safer expedition for clients, guides, and sherpas alike.
California program founded
Alpenglow begins guiding rock climbing, backcountry skiing and teaching avalanche education in Lake Tahoe, CA. Logan Talbott joins Alpenglow as Director of Operations.
Alpenglow Guides Break records on Everest, K2, and Cho Oyu
Adrian and Emily Harrington summit and ski Cho Oyu on less than 2 weeks door-to-door from USA, the fastest an 8000-meter peak has ever been climbed.
“On May 20, Adrian Ballinger, owner and head guide of Alpenglow Expeditions, reached the summit of Mount Everest along with nine other members of his team—one other guide, five Sherpas, and three clients, including his wife and North Face athlete, Emily Harrington. What’s notable about Ballinger’s climb is that his team summited two 8,000-meter peaks, Everest and Cho Oyu, during a Himalayan trip that lasted only 23 days.” –Climbing.com
Alpenglow Guide Carla Perez Becomes the First Woman From the Americas to Climb Everest and K2 Without Supplemental Oxygen
“On July 24, 2019, when Ecuadorian climber Carla Perez stood on K2’s 28,251-foot summit, she became the first woman from the Americas to climb both K2 and Everest without supplemental oxygen. Perez has achieved what only three other women in the world have done—Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Italian Nives Meroi, and Brit Alison Hargreaves, who died on her way down from the summit of K2. A guide for Tahoe-based AlpenGlow Expeditions, Perez climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen in 2016 and summited on the same day as Melissa Arnot, from the United States, who also climbed without oxygen. Nearly 9,000 people have summited Everest, yet only seven have been women without supplemental oxygen.” –Men’s Journal
Alpenglow opens first public-facing office in Olympic Valley, CA (no more working out of Adrian’s living room!)
Adrian summits Everest without supplemental oxygen
“On May 27, Adrian Ballinger stood on the summit of Mount Everest — 29,029 feet — for the first time with just the air in his own lungs. He used no supplemental oxygen to help get him there. It’s a feat that less than 200 people in the world have ever achieved. Though Ballinger is a seasoned climber who’s summited Everest six times already, this was the first time he hadn’t relied on cans of O2 to get him there. The moment has been years in the making, with a painful failure last May. The 41-year-old was tantalizingly close to the summit without relying on supplemental oxygen, but was forced to turn back at he last second. To ensure this year went well, he underwent a complete nutrition and training overhaul. Compare this year’s “no O” success to last season’s letdown, and you get something unique: an alpine science experiment. What did it take to turn a veteran alpinist into an even fitter climbing machine?” –Men’s Journal
Logan Talbott receives his IFMGA certification
Palisades Tahoe Backcountry program opens
“Legendary [Olympic Valley], California is home to some of the most jaw-dropping terrain in the country. From any vista point at Squaw, it’s clear that the rugged beauty of the Sierras continues well past the ski resort. Many a skier has dreamt of dipping into the incredible terrain that lay just outside the Squaw boundary… As you ride up [Palisades’] skyscraping lifts, it’s hard not to imagine what that untouched powder (that lasts long after a storm) and world-class – just out of reach – region would ski like… Thanks to Alpenglow Expeditions, an international mountain guiding company based in Lake Tahoe, these epic areas are now accessible by Squaw Valley lift-accessed ski touring. These [Palisades] tours are available to Alpenglow Expeditions clients and Alpenglow Expeditions clients only.” –Snow Brains
Alpenglow moves into the Village at Palisades Tahoe.
Tahoe Via Ferrata opens
as one of the first Via Ferratas in the United States.
“Alpenglow Expeditions, a North Lake Tahoe area-based guide service, will open Tahoe’s only Via Ferrata, located on Tram Face at [Palisades Tahoe] Resort. Beginning October 1, Alpenglow Expeditions’ experienced team of AMGA (American Mountain Guide Association) trained guides will take participants up the iconic rock face on the first completed route.” –Snow Industry News
Logan Talbott becomes an Alpenglow partner.
Alpenglow begins guiding throughout the Sierra Nevada
From Lake Tahoe to throughout the Eastern Sierra, Alpenglow now offers rock climbing, mountaineering, backcountry ski guiding, and AIARE courses.
Alpenglow guides the first Lightning Ascent of Everest
Roxanne Vogel Achieves Lightning Ascent of Mt. Everest, Guided by Alpenglow Expeditions
“A new kind of Everest record now belongs to Roxanne Vogel. She departed her coastal California home on May 10, summited the world’s highest peak on May 22, and returned to California on May 24. Roxanne Vogel, a nutrition and performance research manager at GU Energy Labs, just set a new world record climbing Everest. The 33-year-old San Diego native departed California on May 10, climbed the world’s highest peak via the North route from Tibet, then returned to California on May 24. No other climber has reached the mountain’s 29,029-foot summit in such a short window of time. Lydia Bradey of Alpenglow Expeditions guided Vogel’s climb. Vogel chose Bradey — the first woman to summit Everest without oxygen and a five-time Everest summit veteran — because she wanted to climb with a female guide.” –Gear Junkie
Adrian and Carla Perez Summit K2 Without Supplemental Oxygen
“Mountaineers Adrian Ballinger and Carla Perez reached the top of the world’s second-highest peak without supplemental oxygen. Breathtaking, a film from Eddie Bauer, chronicles what it took to make that happen.” – Outside
Guide Esteban ‘Topo’ Mena attempts to establish a new route on Mt. Everest with Cory Richards
“Next month, Cory Richards and Esteban ‘Topo’ Mena will attempt to summit Everest along a route that has ‘never been touched by humans before.’ The world has not seen a new route up Earth’s highest peak in a decade. That could change this year if National Geographic photographer Cory Richards, of Colorado, and climbing partner Esteban “Topo” Mena, of Ecuador, attempt to summit Mt. Everest from a path no one has set foot on before.” – Gear Junkie
Alpenglow begins operating expeditions in Pakistan.
COVID inspires us to create our Hybrid avalanche program.
During the 20/21 season, it only made sense to alter our Lake Tahoe avalanche education program. The hybrid online + field days itinerary worked well, and we decided to keep it as an option for our AIARE 1 courses moving forward.
We invested in creating our very own AIARE 1 online format with videos, quizzes, and interactive classwork with the intention of maintaining the same learning outcomes while completely eliminating the need to spend extended periods of time in a confined classroom. Not only does our new hybrid AIARE course offer customized coursework with better, more in-depth content, but you’ll still get two full days in the field with your instructors.
Alpenglow begins operating on Mount Shasta
One of the most common questions we get is this: how do I make the leap from the U.S. to an international expedition, like the Ecuador or Peru Climbing School? How do I prepare?
The answer: Mt. Shasta.
Located just over 4 hours north of Lake Tahoe, Mt. Shasta is a glaciated stratovolcano topping out at just over 14,000’. It looms high over the surrounding landscape, bursting over 7,000 vertical feet from base to summit. With plenty of vert, technical terrain, and moderate altitude, Mt. Shasta is the perfect stepping stone to go from local adventures to international expeditions.
Alpenglow also begins operating in South Lake Tahoe
with rock climbing, backcountry skiing, and avalanche education courses.
Alpenglow Teams Summit Makalu in Style
Adrian Makes First Ski Descent of Makalu
“Alpinist Adrian Ballinger completed the first recorded ski descent from the true summit of 27,766-foot Makalu, the world’s fifth-highest mountain.
Ballinger, along with his climbing partners Dorji Sonam Sherpa and Pasang Sherpa, reached the peak’s summit on Monday at 9 A.M. amid whiteout conditions. They were the first team to reach Makalu’s summit this year, and they topped out after Dorji Sonam fixed ropes on the final exposed and technical ridge. Ballinger didn’t spend much time on top; after resting for ten minutes or so to snap a few photos, he climbed down the exposed ridge, past a handful of climbers making their way up, and then stepped into his skis and pointed them downhill.
In the steadily evolving game of high-altitude mountaineering, elite climbers are always looking for new ways to set records and push the limits of exploration. Ballinger believes that skiing the high peaks presents the ultimate challenge.” – Outside Magazine
Carla Perez & Topo Mena Summit Makalu Without Supplemental Oxygen
Alpenglow Guide “Carla Perez of Ecuador summited Makalu without supplementary O2. At her side were her partner Topo Mena, who also climbed no-O2, and Pemba Gelje Sherpa of Alpenglow.” – ExplorersWeb
Alpenglow begins guiding on Gasherbrum II
Alpenglow begins guiding on Gasherbrum I
During our first expedition to Gasherbrum I, Alpenglow client Evan Miller set records by not only becoming the youngest American in history to summit Gasherbrum I, but the youngest American to summit Gasherbrum I & Gasherbrum II within a week.
Alpenglow guides 6000+ people climbing, skiing and trekking in 12 countries, on 6 continents
We’re Celebrating 20 years with 100% Success On Mount Everest
Alpenglow returns to Everest North Side after a 5-year hiatus with a 100% success rate between six clients, five guides, and twelve Sherpa and high-altitude workers.
“For the first time since the pandemic, China is allowing foreign climbers to access Mount Everest via Tibet. Adrian Ballinger, who has summited Everest eight times, is one of the Western guides who prefers the Tibet route to the top of the world’s tallest mountain (from the north), as opposed to the more well-known Nepal route (from the south). This year, he will lead a group of climbers through his company, Alpenglow Expeditions.” – CNN
