Juanito Oiarzãbal

About Juanito Oiarzãbal

Juanito Oiarzábal was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country) in 1956. He is one of Spains most experienced alpinist. He is the sixth man who reached the 14 summits of more than 8.000 metres and, at the same time, he is the third man in history who accomplished these challenges without oxygen supplies. Currently, Oiarzábal has to his credit 26 eight-thousands due to the world records in climbing that he has achieved.

Oiarzábal started his expeditions by firstly climbing mountains closest to home – the Spanish summits and continued with the Pyrenees, the Alps and finished by climbing various peaks in North America, South America, Africa and the Himalayas.

The Basque population consider Oiarzábal to be one of the more influential men. This, due to his courageous adventurous expeditions. He is part of several committees associated with mountains and alpinism and in 1999, he received a Gold Medal for Sports Merit.

While accomplishing the challenges on the mountain, he filmed his climbs. He has been part of 20 audiovisual projects with the aim of promoting alpinism. Additionally, he has written six books, all of them regarding the summits, its difficulties and how to deal with them.

Nowadays, Oiarzábal combines his passion for mountaineer climbing and speaking publicly about his experiences. He offers motivational speeches and also participates in debates and conversations with sports clubs, organizations and sports federations.