Ed Viesturs Climbs World's 14 Highest Mountains

An American climber has reached the top of the world's 10th highest mountain, becoming one of only 12 people to climb all of the world's tallest peaks.

Edmund Viesturs, a 45-year-old climber from Bainsbridge, Washington, reached the summit of the 8,091-meter (26,545-ft) Annapurna on Thursday to attain his goal of climbing all 14 mountains that are higher than 8,000 meters, Wongchu Sherpa, chief of Peak Promotion trekking agency said on Saturday.

In 1986, Italian Reinhold Messner became the first person to climb all 14 peaks.

Viesturs, who climbed Annapurna without oxygen, climbed his first 8,000-meter mountain in 1989 when he reached the top of the world's third highest mountain, Kanchenjunga, which is 8,586 meters (28,169 feet) high.

He has climbed Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, six times, most recently in May last year. Viesturs was on Everest in May 1996 when nine climbers died in one day when a ferocious blizzard hit the summit.

Nepal has thousands of mountain peaks of which 356 are open to climbers. It is home to eight of the world's 14 mountains that are higher than 8,000 meters.

Mount Everest has not lost its allure for foreign climbers despite Nepal's Maoist revolt and King Gyanendra's seizure of power on Feb. 1.

Overall tourism to Nepal has fallen a third this year but Nepal's tourism ministry says it has issued 19 permits to foreign expeditions to climb Everest in the spring season, up from 13 last year.

Source yahoo.com.