Pat Morrow "Seven Summits"

Pat Morrow is one of the world’s foremost adventure photographers who, with his wife Baiba, is the recipient of eight national magazine awards in Canada. Together the couple live by the motto, "f.8 … and be there!", traveling regularly to the world’s wild places in search of natural beauty and the ancient wisdom that is proffered by mountain cultures. In 1987, they completed a 10,000-kilometre circumnavigation of the entire Himalayan mountain range, traveling on foot, mountain bike and local transport. Seven years later, they undertook a 600-kilometre, 80-day trek along the spine of the Himalaya from Annapurna to Everest. And in Antarctica, the Morrows were founding partners in Adventure Network International, which offers air access to adventurers wishing to visit the interior of that continent. To date, Pat has worked as a photographer or filmmaker on 21 high altitude expeditions, with an equal number of overland journeys on foot, ski and bicycle. In addition, he has been a stills photographer for the Hollywood movies K2, Heinrich Harrer’s Seven Years in Tibet, and The Vertical Limit. His work has been published in numerous books, including Beyond Everest: Quest for the Seven Summits (1986) and more recently Footsteps in the Clouds – Kangchenjunga a Century Later (1999).

Inspired as much by the title of Lionel Terray’s book, Conquistadors of the Useless, as by its contents, Pat started climbing in his hometown of Kimberley, British Columbia. Soon he joined the Calgary Mountain Club, where the bohemian influences of top climbers like Bugs McKeith and Brian Greenwood inspired his future career direction. In 1981, he joined John Amatt, Lloyd Gallagher and Stephen Bezruchka on a lightweight ski ascent of the 7546-metre Mt. Muztagata in the Chinese Pamir, an intensive cultural experience that set the tone of many his subsequent projects.

Pat climbed the mountain on Nordic skis and delighted in cutting telemark turns right off the summit. The following year, he was the second Canadian to climb Everest and subsequently became one of the first to complete the "Seven Summits", climbing the highest peak on each of the seven continents, an achievement for which he received the Order of Canada in 1987.