Marco Siffredi

Marco Siffredi (22 May 1979 – 8 September 2002) was a French snowboarder and mountaineer. Siffredi was the first to descend Mount Everest on a snowboard, completing this feat in 2001 via the Norton Couloir.

Life Siffredi was born in Chamonix, France in 1979 and hailed from a climbing family; his father was a mountain guide, and his older brother Pierre had died in an avalanche in their hometown of Chamonix, France. In 1998, he headed to Peru where he summited and successfully descended Tocllaraju (6,032 m) with Philippe Forte and René Robert.

In June 2000, he summited Bolivia's Huayna Potosi (6,088 meters) and that fall, he summited and snowboarded his first eight-thousander, Cho Oyu. He was forced to choose an alternative route to the one he considered the "Holy Grail" of snowboarding, as the Hornbein Couloir did not have enough snow. Instead, he rode down the Norton Couloir back to Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at the foot of the North Col. Then he began the descent down the Norton Couloir of the north face, but after a fastening strap on his snowboard broke due to the cold. After repairing it with help from a sherpa, Siffredi continued the descent to in two hours.

The day before, on 22 May Austrian climber Stefan Gatt reached the summit alone and without using oxygen. He went on a snowboard up to along the north wall, but at that altitude he found very hard snow and decided to continue without snowboarding. There were disputes about who would be awarded the first snowboard descent of Everest, as Gatt got out first, but did not use a snowboard for about . The site everestnews.com attributed primacy to Siffredi but the Transworld Snowboarding magazine recognised merits and demerits to both, so the record was shared.

Shishapangma attempt

In autumn 2001, Siffredi climbed Shishapangma in the Himalayas with the intention of making the entire descent by snowboard, but strong winds prevented the attempt. The ascent had taken 13 hours.

After weather conditions began to change, the Sherpas urged Siffredi not to go. Siffredi ignored their warnings and after an hour's rest, began making his way towards the Hornbein just after 3 p.m. His sherpa companions lost sight of him periodically. At the North Col, about below Camp Three, both Sherpas reported seeing the distant image of a man stand up, then slide silently down the mountain. As they reached the point of the sighting, Siffredi's snowboard tracks were not to be seen. His body has not been found.