Victor Saunders (born c. 1950) is a British climber,[1] mountain guide and author. He has summitted Mount Everest six times, and has climbed all the Seven Summits. His first book, Elusive Summits, won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 1991.
Saunders first gained recognition for his climbing in 1978 with his first ascent of Shield Direct, Ben Nevis. It was the first route on Ben Nevis to be graded VI.[4] Later that year, he climbed the north face of the Eiger in winter.
In the 1980s, he began to make expeditions to the Himalayas and the Karakoramwith fellow British climber Mick Fowler. The pair would continue to climb together for the next four decades.[5]
Across the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, Saunders would go on to make notable first ascents on the North Pillar of Spantik, the east face of Uzum Brak and the first winter ascent on Langtang.[6]
At age 44, he left architecture to become a professional mountain guide.[7] In 1996, he was certified as a UIAGM/IFMGA ski and mountain guide and joined the SNGM (National Syndicate of French Mountain Guides) in 2003. Saunders first reached the summit of Mount Everest in May 2004, and went on to climb it five more times.[8][9]
In 2015, writer Eric Vola published Les Tribulations de Mick et Vic, a collection of climbing stories from Saunders and Fowler. It encouraged the climbers to reunite to climb in the Himalayas once more.[4]
In 2016, he and Mick Fowler made the first ascent of Sersank Peak (6,100m) in the Indian Himalaya.[10] It was their first time climbing together since 1987. Saunders was 66 years old at the time.[11]
In 2024, he and Fowler made the first ascent of the NW face of Yawash Sar, a 6,258m peak in Pakistan. Climbed in alpine style, the ascent in Pakistan's Karakoram was made forty years after the pair's first climb in the region.[5] At the time of the climb, Fowler was 68 years old and Saunders was 74.[13]
Personal life
Saunders is the son of George Von Saloschin, a Jewish immigrant from Munich who fled Germany with his family in 1936. They immigrated to the United Kingdom where Saunders' father was given a place at Gordonstoun school. His father changed the family name to Saunders when he joined the Royal Marines.[14]
1984 - Bojohagur Duanisir - attempt with Phil Butler
1978 - Eiger - North Face in winter, with Stevie Haston[26]
1978 - Shield Direct, Ben Nevis - the first route on Ben Nevis to be graded VI
Publications
Elusive Summits: Four Expeditions in the Karakoram, 1990
Trekking and Climbing in the Andes (Trekking and Climbing Guides), 2002, by Kate Harper, Val Pitkethly and Victor Saunders
Alpes Occidentales: Trekking y Alpinismo, 2002, by Victor Saunders and Hilary Sharp
Himalaya: The Tribulations of Mick & Vic co-written with Mick Fowler, which won the Grand Prize at the Passy International Mountain Book Festival, 2015
No Place to Fall: Superalpinism in the High Himalaya, 2017
Structured Chaos: The Unusual Life of a Climber, Vertebrate Publishing, 2021[27]
