Everest Today(@EverestToday):On this day, 18.10.2011; 🇰🇷 South Korean mountaineer and explorer Park Young-Seok disappeared on the South Face of Annapurna I (8,091 m), together with teammates Shin Dong-min and Kang Ki-seok. The three were attempting to establish a new route on Annapurna’s South Face when conditions deteriorated. At around 4:00 pm on 18 October, Park made his final radio contact with Base Camp, reporting bad weather and heavy rockfall above them. The team was believed to be around 6,300–6,400 metres and preparing to retreat. When no further communication came, a major search operation was launched involving Korean climbers, Sherpas and helicopters. Equipment believed to belong to the team was located, but despite days of searching the mountain, no trace of the three climbers was ever found. Park Young-Seok was far more than an accomplished Himalayan climber. Between 1993 and 2001, he completed all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks, beginning with Everest on 16 May 1993 and finishing with K2 in July 2001. His list included Annapurna I in 1996, Dhaulagiri I, Gasherbrum I and II and Cho Oyu in 1997, Nanga Parbat and Manaslu in 1998, Kangchenjunga in 1999, Makalu and Broad Peak in 2000, and Lhotse and K2 in 2001. He then turned his attention beyond the Himalaya. Park climbed the Seven Summits, including both Carstensz Pyramid and Mount Kosciuszko versions, and undertook full-length polar journeys. He reached the South Pole in 2004 and the North Pole on 30 April 2005. With that achievement, Guinness World Records recognises him as the first person to complete the Explorers’ Grand Slam incorporating all 14 eight-thousanders, the Seven Summits and both geographical poles. Park also returned repeatedly to Everest. After his first summit in 1993, he climbed the mountain again in 2006 and, in 2009, opened a new route on the Southwest Face. Fourteen years after his disappearance, Park Young-Seok remains one of the most all-round explorers of the modern era, a mountaineer whose journeys stretched from the highest mountains on Earth to both ends of the planet. Photo ©: Park Young-Seok Archives.

2026.10.18 14:38

On this day, 18.10.2011; 🇰🇷 South Korean mountaineer and explorer Park Young-Seok disappeared on the South Face of Annapurna I (8,091 m), together with teammates Shin Dong-min and Kang Ki-seok. The three were attempting to establish a new route on Annapurna’s South Face when conditions deteriorated. At around 4:00 pm on 18 October, Park made his final radio contact with Base Camp, reporting bad weather and heavy rockfall above them. The team was believed to be around 6,300–6,400 metres and preparing to retreat. When no further communication came, a major search operation was launched involving Korean climbers, Sherpas and helicopters. Equipment believed to belong to the team was located, but despite days of searching the mountain, no trace of the three climbers was ever found. Park Young-Seok was far more than an accomplished Himalayan climber. Between 1993 and 2001, he completed all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks, beginning with Everest on 16 May 1993 and finishing with K2 in July 2001. His list included Annapurna I in 1996, Dhaulagiri I, Gasherbrum I and II and Cho Oyu in 1997, Nanga Parbat and Manaslu in 1998, Kangchenjunga in 1999, Makalu and Broad Peak in 2000, and Lhotse and K2 in 2001. He then turned his attention beyond the Himalaya. Park climbed the Seven Summits, including both Carstensz Pyramid and Mount Kosciuszko versions, and undertook full-length polar journeys. He reached the South Pole in 2004 and the North Pole on 30 April 2005. With that achievement, Guinness World Records recognises him as the first person to complete the Explorers’ Grand Slam incorporating all 14 eight-thousanders, the Seven Summits and both geographical poles. Park also returned repeatedly to Everest. After his first summit in 1993, he climbed the mountain again in 2006 and, in 2009, opened a new route on the Southwest Face. Fourteen years after his disappearance, Park Young-Seok remains one of the most all-round explorers of the modern era, a mountaineer whose journeys stretched from the highest mountains on Earth to both ends of the planet. Photo ©: Park Young-Seok Archives.