| Park Young-seok | |||||||||||
| Birth Name: | Park Young-seok | ||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 2 November 1963 | ||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Seoul, South Korea | ||||||||||
| Death Place: | Annapurna, Nepal | ||||||||||
| Occupation: | Mountaineer | ||||||||||
| Known For: | First person to complete the True Explorers Grand Slam | ||||||||||
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Park Young-seok (; November 2, 1963 – October 2011) was a South Korean mountaineer.
In May 2005, he became the first person in the world to complete a True Explorers Grand Slam.[1] He climbed the world's 14 eight-thousanders, the Seven Summits, and trekked to both poles. He holds the world's fifth fastest time (behind Kristin Harila of Norway, Nirmal Purja of Nepal, Kim Chang-ho[2] of South Korea, and Jerzy Kukuczka of Poland) for ascending the 14 eight-thousanders, he climbed six of the 8,000-meter Himalayan peaks within one year, and gained another record for reaching the South Pole on foot in 44 days, self-sufficient and without any food re-supplies.[3]
| Name of Peak | Elevation (m) | Date of summit | ||
| 1. | 8,848 | 1993-05-16 | ||
| 2. | 8,611 | 2001-07-22 | ||
| 3. | 8,586 | 1999-05-12 | ||
| 4. | 8,516 | 2001-04-29 | ||
| 5. | 8,463 | 2000-05-15 | ||
| 6. | 8,201 | 1997-09-27 | ||
| 7. | 8,167 | 1997-04-27 | ||
| 8. | 8,163 | 1998-12-06 | ||
| 9. | 8,125 | 1998-07-21 | ||
| 10. | 8,091 | 1996-05-04 | ||
| 11. | 8,068 | 1997-07-09 | ||
| 12. | 8,047 | 2000-07-30 | ||
| 13. | 8,035 | 1997-07-19 | ||
| 14. | 8,027 | 2000-10-02 | ||
| 15. | 6,959 | 2002-01-11 | ||
| 16. | 6,195 | 1994-06-02 | ||
| 17. | 5,895 | 1997-02-17 | ||
| 18. | 5,642 | 2002-07-07 | ||
| 19. | 4,897 | 2002-11-25 | ||
| 20. | 4,884 | 2002-05-11 | ||
| 21. | 2,280 | 2001-09-21 | ||
| 22. | 2,835 | 2004 | ||
| 23. | Sea level | 2005-04-30 | ||
| 24. | Everest North-South Traverse | 8,848 | 2006-05-11 |
Park and his other team members went missing after their last communications on October 18, 2011 while attempting a new route on Annapurna.[4] Park Young-seok, Shin Dong-min, and Gang Gi-seok decided to abort the climb at around 6400 meters due to heavy rockfall and went missing during the descent. The Korean Alpine Federation immediately launched a search and rescue operation. In the ten-day long rescue operation to find the missing climbers, no signs of Park, Shin or Gang were found. Presuming that the team had perished due to rockfall, the Federation decided to call off the operation on October 28, 2011 and expressed their condolences.[5] [6]