British Adventurer of the Year Killed on Mt. Blanc

Rob Gauntlett, a 21-year-old British climber who was a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for 2008, and climbing partner James Atkinson, also 21 years old, were killed last Friday afternoon, January 9, after a 1,500-foot fall while climbing the classic Gervasutti Couloir on the East Face of 13,937-foot Mont Blanc du Tacul. It’s unknown why the pair, who were roped together, fell but rescuers say they might have been knocked off their feet when a serac or hanging ice block broke off high on the mountain and swept down the couloir. Another scenario is that one slipped, pulling the other climber off his feet. Equipment failure played no part in the tragedy.

Gauntlett, from a long British tradition of adventurers, packed a lot into his remarkable short life. As a teenager he became a skilled mountaineer and, coupled with friend and climbing partner 21-year-old James Hooper, became the youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 2006. Then in 2007 Gauntlett and Hooper began a 14-month adventure from the North Pole to the South Pole, traveling 26,000 miles on non-motorized, human-powered transport including skis, bicycles, and boat through North, Central, and South Americas and across the South Atlantic Ocean. For this feat, National Geographic Adventure Magazine named the pair 2008 Adventurers of the Year.

James Hooper, who was also on the two-week climbing trip to the French Alps, had backed off another route with a less experience partner, citing bad weather that morning. “Then the weather suddenly cleared up,” Hooper told reporters, “but by that time it was too late for us to start our route and we decided to come down. Then Rob and James stayed up there and they were trying to do a big route yesterday morning and fell.”

French rescuers recovered the pair’s camera and gave the developed images to Hooper, who said, “Rob and James looked really, really happy. They are wonderfully happy pictures. Just great. It was warming to see them and has given us all great comfort. They obviously were having a fantastic time and we have to take strength from that.”

Then this last Monday, Hooper told the Telegraph, “Rob and I were both very much of the opinion that you can’t wait around and you have to take every opportunity that you have got. To use a cliché—you could get run over by a bus. You have to make use of every second of your life. And that’s how James lived his life. He made use of every second.” Indeed he did. Rob and James will be missed.

Photograph above: Rob Gauntlett on top of Mount Everest at age 19 in 2006.

Photos courtesy RobGauntlett.com.