Damien Gildea

Over the last seven Antarctic summers Damien has climbed many of Antarctica’s highest peaks, several by new routes and made a number of first ascents. Most of these have been resurveyed with GPS by Damien and his team and in 2007 they produced the definitive new topographical map of the area around Vinson Massif.

In 2000-01 Damien worked as a guide for ANI on a 1130 km ski journey to the South Pole. He is the youngest Australian to ski to the South Pole and the first Australian to have guided a client to the South Pole. Damien has also climbed on the Antarctic Peninsula, both as a guide and doing GPS work.

In 1998 he wrote the Antarctic Mountaineering Chronology, the first and only reference book on climbing in Antarctica and South Georgia. Since then Damien has written numerous journal and magazine articles on climbing ‘down south’. He is the Antarctic correspondent for the American Alpine Journal, Alpinist magazine (USA) and Climb magazine (UK).

Since 1995 Damien has done several trips to the Himalaya and Karakoram, mainly to lesser-known areas. He has summited solo on popular peaks like Aconcagua, Sajama and Denali and climbed technical ice routes in New Zealand, Canada and the Alps.

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