- Who
- Gary Guller
- What
- / first
- Where
- Nepal ()
- When
The first person with one arm to summit the 8,848-m (29,029-ft) Mount Everest (aka Sagarmāthā or Chomolungma) was Gary Guller (USA) on 23 May 2003. He scaled the world's highest mountain from the south side in Nepal; it was his second bid to climb Everest after a failed attempt in 2001.
Guller had to have his left amputated after a spinal cord injury resulting from a mountaineering accident in 1986.
Prior to the climb in April 2003, in a bid to show the true abilities of people with disabilities, Guller led a cross-disability team on a 16-day trek to Everest Basecamp at 17,600 ft (5,364 m); the team included people with amputations, paraplegia and cerebral palsy.
The first amputee overall to climb Everest was Tom Whittaker (UK), whose right foot was amputated after a car accident in 1979; he reached the summit from the south side on 27 May 1998. Many consider Whittaker to be the first person with any physical disability to conquer Everest.
The first double amputee to climb Everest was Mark Inglis (New Zealand), who lost both his legs beneath the knee to frostbite in 1982. He reached the summit from the north side on 15 May 2006.
The first female amputee to scale Everest was former national volleyball and football player Arunima Sinha (India), who lost a leg in 2011 as the result of a robbery attack. She reached the summit from the south side on 21 May 2013.
