Dave Hahn is an American mountain guide and Taos ski patroller who has stood on the summit of Mount Everest 15 times, the record for a non-Sherpa climber from 2013 until Britain’s Kenton Cool passed it in 2022. As of October 2026 he ranks third among non-Nepali climbers and second among Americans, behind Garrett Madison, who reached his 16th summit in May 2026. Hahn is also known for his many Antarctic ascents of Vinson Massif and for being on the 1999 team that found George Mallory’s body.
Dave Hahn: key facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | David Allen Hahn |
| Born | 3 November 1961, Okinawa, Japan |
| Nationality | American |
| Home | Taos area, New Mexico (Arroyo Seco) |
| Education | BA in History, State University of New York at Buffalo (1984) |
| Main employer | RMI Expeditions (Rainier Mountaineering Inc.), senior guide since 1986 |
| Winter job | Ski patroller at Taos Ski Valley |
| Everest summits | 15, from 21 expeditions (15th in May 2013) |
| Vinson Massif summits | 38 to 39, depending on source; widely reported as the record |
| Denali summits | 25 |
| Mount Rainier summits | More than 300 |
| Best known for | Everest guiding, Antarctic guiding, the 1999 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition |
Is Dave Hahn still the Everest record holder?
No, although he held a genuine record for almost a decade. When Hahn summited for the 15th time in May 2013, no climber from outside the Sherpa community had more Everest ascents. That record stood until 2022, when the British guide Kenton Cool reached his 16th summit. Cool has since extended his tally to 20, reaching the top for the 20th time on 22 May 2026.
Hahn was still the American record holder until recently. Garrett Madison, the American founder of Madison Mountaineering, equalled Hahn’s 15 summits in 2025 and went one better in May 2026 with his 16th. That means older headlines calling Hahn “the American with the most Everest summits” are now out of date.
For perspective, the overall record belongs to Nepali climbers. Kami Rita Sherpa reached his 32nd summit in May 2026, and several other Sherpa climbers have more than 20. The women’s record is held by Lhakpa Sherpa.
Most Everest summits by non-Nepali climbers (October 2026)
| Climber | Country | Everest summits |
|---|---|---|
| Kenton Cool | United Kingdom | 20 |
| Garrett Madison | United States | 16 |
| Dave Hahn | United States | 15 |
| Willie Benegas | United States (born in Argentina) | 13 |
| Alexander Abramov | Russia | 12 |
Summit counts change every spring, and different record keepers sometimes disagree by one ascent. The figures above are drawn from 2026 news reports and public summit lists.
Early life and education
David Allen Hahn was born on 3 November 1961 in Okinawa, Japan, and grew up in the United States. He studied at the State University of New York at Buffalo, graduating in 1984 with a degree in history. The university inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
After college he moved west and found work in the ski industry in New Mexico. He has written about climbing with his father in an Outside magazine essay titled “How I Nearly Killed My Father” (2012), a candid piece about guiding a parent in the mountains.
From ski instructor to Rainier guide
Hahn’s career started on skis rather than ropes. According to a 2020 profile in the Santa Fe New Mexican, he began as a ski instructor at Angel Fire in 1985, moved to Taos Ski Valley as an instructor in 1986 and joined the Taos ski patrol in 1991. He has patrolled there every winter since.
In 1986 he also started guiding on Mount Rainier in Washington State for Rainier Mountaineering Inc., now RMI Expeditions. Rainier is where most American climbers learn glacier travel, and Hahn has summited it more than 300 times. RMI lists him as a senior guide, with medical (EMT), avalanche (A3 Pro 1), AMGA Alpine Skills, heli-ski and Leave No Trace qualifications.
The pattern set in those early years has lasted four decades: patrol in Taos in winter, then guide big mountains in spring, summer and autumn.
Everest career: 15 summits from 21 expeditions
RMI’s guide profile records that Hahn summited Everest “fifteen times out of 21 tries”. He climbed from both the Tibetan (north) side and the Nepali (south) side, the latter via the Khumbu Icefall and the route from Everest Base Camp. A turnaround rate of six expeditions without a summit is typical of a guide who prioritises safety over tallies.
Notable Everest moments
- 1999: Member of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition on the North Face, which found George Mallory’s body (see below). Hahn also shot high-altitude video for the PBS NOVA documentary Lost on Everest.
- 2001: Returned to the north side with a second Mallory and Irvine research expedition. Rescues of other climbers high on the mountain that May earned him the American Alpine Club’s David A. Sowles Award for unselfish valour in 2002.
- 2003: Guided former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson to the summit.
- 2006: Guided a team of professional skiers attempting to ski the mountain.
- 2007: Took part in a rescue above 8,200 m (27,000 ft) on the south side, for which the Nepal Mountaineering Association honoured him in 2008.
- 2013: Reached his 15th summit, then the most by any non-Sherpa climber.
- 2014 and 2015: Led RMI teams during the two worst disasters in Everest’s history (see below).
The 1999 search for Mallory and Irvine
In June 1924 George Mallory and Andrew “Sandy” Irvine disappeared high on Everest’s North East Ridge. Whether they reached the summit, 29 years before Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, is still mountaineering’s most famous unanswered question.
In spring 1999 an American-led team organised by Eric Simonson went looking for answers. Hahn was one of the climbers on the search team. On 1 May 1999 the team found Mallory’s body at about 8,155 m (26,760 ft) on the North Face. The find was made by Conrad Anker during a spread-out search of the slopes, and the team identified Mallory from name tags sewn into his clothing.
The discovery did not settle whether Mallory summited; his camera, which might hold the answer, has never been found. The expedition’s story is told in the book Ghosts of Everest (1999) by Jochen Hemmleb, Larry Johnson and Eric Simonson, and in the NOVA film for which Hahn filmed at altitude. Hahn returned in 2001, an expedition later described in Hemmleb and Simonson’s Detectives on Everest.
2014 avalanche, 2015 earthquake and a change of approach
On 18 April 2014 an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall killed 16 Nepali climbing workers, and the season on the Nepal side effectively ended. A year later, on 25 April 2015, the Gorkha earthquake triggered an avalanche that struck Everest Base Camp, the deadliest day in the mountain’s history. Hahn was leading RMI teams on both occasions.
The 2015 expedition is the subject of Shook: An Earthquake, a Legendary Mountain Guide, and Everest’s Deadliest Day by Jennifer Hull (University of New Mexico Press, 2020). It follows Hahn’s team of guides, Sherpa staff and eight clients through the quake and its aftermath.
In a 2016 interview with the Everest commentator Alan Arnette, Hahn said leading large teams through those two seasons had been extremely hard and that the responsibility weighed heavily. Spring 2016 was his first spring in almost 20 years without a Himalayan expedition. He said he would keep guiding for RMI but would focus on taking a single well-prepared client at a time, and he was unsure whether he would return to Everest. His summit count has stayed at 15 since 2013.
Antarctica: the Vinson Massif record
Hahn’s most remarkable statistic may not be on Everest at all. Vinson Massif (4,892 m) in Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountains is the highest peak on the continent and one of the Seven Summits. Few people climb it more than once, because simply reaching the mountain requires a flight to Union Glacier.
Hahn has guided it dozens of times. RMI’s profile lists 38 Vinson summits, the figure the Santa Fe New Mexican reported as a record in 2020; Wikipedia lists 39. Either way, he is widely reported to have climbed Vinson more often than anyone else.
His Antarctic work extends beyond Vinson. He guided the film crew in the Ellsworth Mountains for the Emmy-winning NOVA documentary Mountain of Ice. He has also made seven expeditions to South Georgia, leading the “Shackleton Traverse” that follows Ernest Shackleton’s 1916 crossing of the island. Outside magazine named it Trip of the Year in 2004.
Other mountains
| Mountain | Location | Height | Hahn’s summits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Rainier | Washington, USA | 4,392 m | 300+ |
| Vinson Massif | Antarctica | 4,892 m | 38 to 39 |
| Denali | Alaska, USA | 6,190 m | 25 |
| Mount Everest | Nepal/Tibet | 8,849 m | 15 |
| Kilimanjaro | Tanzania | 5,895 m | 10+ |
| Cho Oyu | Nepal/Tibet | 8,188 m | 2 |
| Aconcagua | Argentina | 6,961 m | 1 |
| Alps (Mont Blanc, Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, Jungfrau) | Europe | Various | Multiple |
Counts are taken from RMI’s climbing résumé for Hahn. On Denali he had made 37 expeditions to reach 25 summits, according to Wikipedia’s summary of his record.
Rescues and awards
Many of Hahn’s honours are for rescues rather than summits:
- 2001: Denali Pro Mountaineer of the Year, from the US National Park Service, for rescues on Denali.
- 2002: David A. Sowles Award for unselfish valour, from the American Alpine Club, for rescues on Everest’s north side in 2001.
- 2008: Honoured by the Nepal Mountaineering Association for the 2007 rescue on Everest’s south side.
- 2008: Nominated for an ESPY award as Best Outdoor Athlete.
- 2009: US Department of the Interior Citizen’s Award for Bravery, for a 2002 rescue on Mount Rainier. The helicopter carrying him crashed on the mountain; he helped the pilot out of the wreck before going on to reach the injured climber.
- 2014: University at Buffalo Athletics Hall of Fame.
Writing, film and media
Hahn is as well known to many climbers for his writing as for his climbing. For years his expedition dispatches, first for MountainZone.com and later for the RMI blog and Eddie Bauer, were how many people followed Everest seasons in real time. They are dry, funny and unusually honest about weather, doubt and turning around.
He has written features for Outside magazine, including “Aces High” (2008) and “How I Nearly Killed My Father” (2012). We could not find a book written by Hahn himself; the main books about his work are Ghosts of Everest and Detectives on Everest (the Mallory searches) and Jennifer Hull’s Shook (the 2015 earthquake).
On screen, he shot high-altitude footage for NOVA’s Lost on Everest, guided the crew for NOVA’s Mountain of Ice in Antarctica, and has talked about guiding and the Everest industry on podcasts such as Blister’s and in interviews with Alan Arnette.
He has been a member of Eddie Bauer’s First Ascent team, with ski equipment from Salomon and climbing equipment from Whittaker Mountaineering in Ashford, Washington.
What is Dave Hahn doing now?
Now in his mid-60s, Hahn remains a senior guide with RMI Expeditions and is still writing dispatches. In October 2026 he led an RMI trekking group in Nepal’s Everest region, from Namche Bazaar via Thame and the Renjo La pass towards the Gokyo Lakes before returning to Lukla.
In winter he continues to patrol at Taos Ski Valley, where he has worked for more than three decades. Interviews from 2020 describe him mentoring younger guides and choosing less risk than in his Everest years, while showing no sign of giving up the mountains.
Lessons from Dave Hahn’s career for trekkers
Very few readers will climb Everest, but Hahn’s approach carries over to anyone heading to the Himalaya:
- Turning around is part of the job. Fifteen summits from 21 expeditions means six times he went home without the top. The same applies on a trek: if altitude symptoms get worse, go down. Our guide to altitude sickness on Everest treks explains the warning signs.
- Base fitness matters. Hahn’s winters on ski patrol keep him in mountain shape year round. For a trek, see how to train for Everest Base Camp.
- Insurance and rescue planning are not optional. Many of Hahn’s awards are for rescues. Check that your policy covers helicopter evacuation at the altitude you are going to; read do I need travel insurance for trekking?
If you want to see the mountain that defined his career, the Everest Base Camp trek follows the same trail to the foot of the Khumbu Icefall. For more Everest personalities, read our profiles of Melissa Arnot Reid and Kami Rita Sherpa, and our round-up of Mount Everest facts.
Frequently asked questions
How many times has Dave Hahn climbed Everest?
Dave Hahn has reached the summit of Mount Everest 15 times from 21 expeditions. His 15th summit was in May 2013, and his tally has not changed since.
Does Dave Hahn hold the record for most Everest summits?
Not any more. He held the record for a non-Sherpa climber from 2013 until 2022, when Kenton Cool passed him. In May 2026 American Garrett Madison also passed him with a 16th summit. The overall record belongs to Kami Rita Sherpa, with 32 summits as of May 2026.
Who is the American with the most Everest summits?
As of October 2026 it is Garrett Madison, with 16 summits. Dave Hahn is second among Americans with 15, followed by Willie Benegas with 13.
Did Dave Hahn find George Mallory?
Hahn was a member of the 1999 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition that found Mallory’s body on 1 May 1999. The body itself was spotted by teammate Conrad Anker during the search. Hahn also filmed at altitude for the NOVA documentary about the expedition.
How many times has Dave Hahn climbed Vinson Massif?
RMI lists 38 Vinson summits and Wikipedia lists 39. He is widely reported to hold the record for the most ascents of Antarctica’s highest mountain.
Is Dave Hahn still guiding?
Yes. He is a senior guide with RMI Expeditions and led an RMI trek in Nepal’s Everest region, over the Renjo La towards Gokyo, in October 2026. He also continues to work as a ski patroller at Taos Ski Valley in winter.
How old is Dave Hahn?
Dave Hahn was born on 3 November 1961, so he is 64 in October 2026 and turns 65 in November 2026.
Has Dave Hahn written a book?
We could not find a book written by Hahn himself. He writes magazine features and expedition dispatches. Books about his expeditions include Ghosts of Everest (1999), Detectives on Everest (2002) and Jennifer Hull’s Shook (2020), about his 2015 Everest team and the earthquake.
