David Breashears

Biography

David Finlay Breashears, born December 20, 1955, in Fort Benning, Georgia, and died March 14, 2024, in Marblehead, Massachusetts, was an American mountaineer, filmmaker, author, and lecturer. The son of an army officer, he grew up moving regularly, eventually settling in Denver with his mother, where he developed a passion for climbing and the mountains at an early age. As a young man, he spent long hours at the Denver library, learning about great mountaineers to plan his own adventures.

In 1983, Breashears made history by broadcasting the first live television images from the summit of Mount Everest. In 1985, he became the first American to reach the summit twice, during the expedition wi...