Jon Muir

Inspired by the BBC documentary Everest The Hard Way, Jon Muir began climbing as a teen. At the age of 16, he left school to learn the art of mountaineering on the glaciated mountains of New Zealand. In the years that followed, he made nine expeditions to the Himalaya and 33 to the Andes, climbing new routes and reaching the summit of Everest alone in 1988, making the first Sherpa-less ascent from the south. Muir has also travelled over 6,000 km by sea kayak, including a 50-day solo journey. As the first Australian to have climbed Everest and to trek to both poles, Muir was awarded the Order of Australia in 1989 and the Centenary Medal in 2001. The lifestyle of deep sustainability he built with his wife, Suzy Muir, is the story of the film Suzy & The Simple Man (Mountainfilm 2017).