Park Young-seok is one of the most popular and richest Mountaineer who was born on November 2, 1963 in Seoul, South Korea.
In May 2005, he became the first person in the world to complete an Explorers Grand Slam. He climbed the world’s 14 Eight-thousanders, the Seven Summits, and trekked to both poles. He holds the world’s fourth fastest time (behind Nirmal Purja (Nepal) Kim Chang-ho 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.
Park and his other team members went missing after their last communications on October 18, 2011 while attempting a new route on Annapurna. Park Young-Seok, Shin Dong-Min and Gang Gi-Seok decided to abort the climb at around 6400 meters due to heavy rock fall and went missing during the descent. Despite a dangerous and daring rescue operation to find the missing climbers, no signs of Park, Shin or Gang were found. The Korean Alpine Federation called off the rescue operation for Park and his team at 12:00 on October 28, 2011.
