Mick Parker

Michael Francis Parker (10 March 1973 – 4 June 2009) was an Australian mountaineer. He successfully climbed the Seven Summits and five of the fourteen eight-thousanders. After ascending Makalu in 2009, he fell ill due to dissipated pulmonary and cerebral oedema and subsequently died in Kathmandu on 4 June, aged 36.

Early life Mick Parker was born in Box Hill, a suburb of Melbourne, to Gail and Bruce Parker. He attended Donburn Primary School and Wesley College, where he took up cross country running and rock climbing, before leaving school to study graphic arts at Box Hill Senior Secondary College.

Climbing career Parker's passion for climbing began in 1996 when he took an ice climbing course in New Zealand. He summited Broad Peak for the first time in Pakistan in 2004 (he made a second unsuccessful attempt in 2006). He also made a solo attempt on Dhaulagiri I in 2007, but abandoned the expedition after falling into a crevasse. Suffering from dissipated pulmonary and cerebral oedema, he fell unconscious several times on the return journey from Makalu to Kathmandu and ultimately died in Kathmandu on 4 June, aged 36. His father travelled to Nepal to retrieve Parker's body and bring it back to Melbourne, where Parker was buried in Lilydale Memorial Park.

By the time of his death, Parker had attempted to climb nine of the fourteen peaks over 8,000 metres high, and had summited five—Cho Oyu, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum I, Manaslu, and Makalu —all without the assistance of Sherpa guides or bottled oxygen.