Adrian Ballinger

Adrian Ballinger a world-class mountaineer, big mountain skier, and a IFMGA/AMGA certified mountain guide. He is the founder and CEO of Lake Tahoe based Alpenglow Expeditions and has been professionally guiding teams on the world’s tallest mountains for over 25 years.

As a guide, Adrian is known for pioneering the use of pre-acclimatization for commercial expeditions (sleeping in a pressurized tent at home to physically prepare for an expedition at high elevation). This innovative approach can cut the amount of time spent on an expedition in half.  He has guided over 150 international climbing expeditions on six continents, and made 17 successful summits of 8,000m peaks, including 8 summits of Mt. Everest.   Along the way, he’s become the go-to resource for major media outlets looking for thought leadership on safe and ethical climbing practices.

As an athlete, Adrian is the only American to have made four successful ski descents of 8,000m peaks, including the first ski descents of both Makalu (4th tallest mountain in the world) and Manaslu (8th tallest mountain in the world. He is also the fourth American to have summited both Mount Everest and K2 without the use of supplemental oxygen.  

Adrian is married to professional climber and The North Face athlete Emily Harrington. Together, they adventure around the world and love chronicling their escapades in vlog format on their popular Youtube channel called DangerStikTV.