Jaime Viñals

Jaime Viñals Mazanet (born November 17, 1961) is a Guatemalan mountaineer, the first Central American ever to climb the earth's highest peak, Mount Everest, and the only person from that region to have reached the Seven Summits, the highest mountains of each of the seven (sub-)continents.cite web |url=http://7summits.com/info/stats2/index2.php?_=d&familyname=Vinals | author=7summits.com | publisher=Harry Kikstra, 7summits.com | title=Details of 7 summits climber Vinals | accessdate=2007-01-03]

Biography

Born in Guatemala City, Viñals studied biology at the Universidad de San Carlos. He began climbing locally in 1987, aged 26. Since then, he has climbed over 300 mountains in 42 countries.

Viñals first attempted to get to the top of Mount Everest in the spring of 1994. After having passed the 8,000 meters mark, the expedition was unsuccessful at reaching the summit due to the inclement weather, and had to return. The group, however, succeeded at establishing a new ascending route. Viñals returned to the Everest in the spring of 1999, climbing through the South Col route. While escalating, he injured himself, again unable to complete the ascent.es icon cite web |url=http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/domingo/archivo/revistad/2006/febrero06/120206/dfrente.shtml | author=Francisco Mauricio Martínez | publisher="Prensa Libre"| title="Jaime Viñals: En la cima, dan ganas de llorar y gritar" | accessdate=2007-01-03]

Viñals had climbed all the other peaks of the Seven Summits challenge, including the ones listed on alternate definitions of the summit list, but still had not reached the peak of Everest. In 2001, he attempted the ascent for the third time. Using the less frequented North Col as the climbing route, he and others reached the summit of the Everest on May 23. Viñals became the third Latin American person to climb to the peak of Everest and to complete the ascent to the Seven Summits, and the first from Central America or the Caribbean to achieve such feats. [cite web |url=http://www.everestnews.com/seven.htm | author=www.everestnews.com | publisher=www.everestnews.com | title=List of Climbers who have reached the Seven Summits | accessdate=2007-01-03]

In 2002, Viñals embarked on an attempt to climb the highest peak of each of the seven largest islands in the world. [es icon cite web |url=http://www.aventurarse.com/red/fichas/vinals.html | author=www.aventurarse.com | publisher="Aventurarse S.A." | title=Jaime Viñals | accessdate=2007-01-03] This project involves climbing the highest summit of the seven largest islands of the world:

Honours

In 1995, Viñals was condecorated with the "Orden del Quetzal" from Guatemalan President Ramiro de León.

ee also

*List of climbers

References

External links

*es icon [http://www.jaimevinals.net/ Official Web Site]
*es icon [http://www.terra.com.gt/jaimevinals/ Terra.com Dedicated web site]