Anatoli Boukreev

Anatoli Boukreev (1958–1997) was a Kazakh mountaineer, one of the greatest high-altitude climbers of all time, famed for his solo alpine ascents and his role as guide on the 1996 Everest expedition immortalised in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. His book The Climb, written with Western writer, gave his testimony of the 1996 disaster that claimed eight lives.

A climbing instructor trained in the Soviet mountaineering school, Boukreev completed summit climbs of Everest numerous times without supplementary oxygen. He was posthumously awarded the American Alpine Club's David A. Sowles Memorial Award for saving lives during the 1996 storm, and he died on an attempt of Annapurna in 1997.