Expedition Team Member
Tom
McMillan, Expedition Leader
Everest Summiteer
A
native of North Carolina, Tom (49 yrs) has
enjoyed rock climbing and mountaineering in the US and abroad for
over 35 years. He has experience in all types of climbing: high
altitude mountaineering in the Great Ranges, general alpinism, technical
rock climbing, big wall climbing, ice climbing, mixed climbing,
and ski mountaineering.
With
friends around the world, he has enjoyed such climbs as the Cassin
Ridge of Denali (Alaska), the North Face of the Matterhorn (Switzerland),
Bonatti Pillar (France), Central Pillar of Freney (Italy to France),
peaks in the Cordillera Blanca (Peru), Mustagh Ata (China), the
Canadian Rockies, and big walls in Yosemite (El Capitan in-a-day,
Tempest, Tribal Rite, etc.).
Tom
works as a Senior Software Developer for AMB
Property Corporation in San Francisco. He lives with his wife,
Linda (also a climber) in San Rafael, California, just north of
San Francisco.
See
more team member information...
In
preparation for climbing Mount Everest in 2004, Tom climbed Mustagh
Ata (7546 meters; 24757 feet) in the Xinjiang Province of western
China in July 2003 with two friends from Colorado. Chad
McFadden took this photo of Tom on the upper part of the mountain,
showing the dramatic
backdrop of the high peaks of northern Pakistan in the distance.
Tom
and Linda McMillan (right) have enjoyed climbing together on some
of the highest peaks of four continents, as here in the Cordillera
Blanca of Peru in the Andes. Most of the year, they enjoy rock climbing
closer to home in Yosemite and other parts of the Sierra Nevada
of California.
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This almost never happens: Tom and our team enjoyed crystal
clear, windless weather on the morning they reached the summit
of Mount Everest on May 16, 2004. The
usually fierce resident Goddess of Everest, Chomolungma, was
obviously pleased with their humanitarian reasons for climbing
the mountain.
In
1998, Tom led an American expedition to climb the South Face of
Annapurna in the western part of Nepal, looming here in the background
behind Tom. It was on that expedition that Tom met Nawang, who served
as our Sirdar/trekking guide for the group. That was the start of
their "Friendship Beyond Borders".
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