Mark Synnott

JACKSON, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Mark Synnott is a New York Times bestselling author, a pioneering big wall first ascensionist and one of the most prolific exploratory climbers of his generation. His search for new frontiers has taken him on more than three dozen expeditions to places like Alaska, Baffin Island, Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland, Patagonia, Guyana, Venezuela, Pakistan, Nepal, India, China, Tibet, Uzbekistan, Russia, Cameroon, Chad, Borneo, Oman and Pitcairn Island. Closer to home, Mark has climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan 24 times, including several one-day ascents

In Arctic Canada, Mark was one of the first climbers to explore the remote east coast of Baffin Island, where he pioneered four big wall first ascents on the island, including a grade VII on the 4700-foot north face of Polar Sun Spire. This epic route, called The Great and Secret Show, required the team to spend 36 nights in portaledges. In Baffin’s Auyuittuq National Park, Mark completed the first ski descent of the South Face of Mt. Odin, via a 5,000-foot couloir. In Pakistan’s Karakoram mountains, he established two grade VII big wall first ascents—The Ship of Fools on Shipton Spire and Parallel Worlds on Great Trango Tower. The latter, a 6,000-foot wall topping out over 20,000 feet, is one of the longest rock climbs in the world. In the spring of 2019, Mark summited Mount Everest via the Northeast Ridge, an adventure chronicled in his book, The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession and Death on Mount Everest. More recently, Mark completed a 7,000 mile voyage through the Northwest Passage aboard his 47-foot fiberglass sailboat SV Polar Sun. A television special documenting this epic journey called “Lost in the Arctic” is currently streaming on Disney+.

Mark has been a member of The North Face Global Athlete Team since 1997 and over the course of his career has worked extensively in the film and television industry, both in front of and behind the camera. His credits include work for National Geographic Television, NBC Sports, ABC, Warren Miller Entertainment, Teton Gravity Research and Red Bull Media House. Long regarded as one of the best storytellers in the business, Mark is highly sought after as a motivational speaker and presents regularly in performing arts centers across the country and for clients like General Motors, the Bank of New York, and the X Prize Foundation. An accomplished journalist, he’s also a go-to writer for National Geographic magazine and the author of the international bestseller, The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan and the Climbing Life.

When he’s not off leading expeditions, Mark works as an IFMGA mountain guide and as a trainer for the pararescuemen of the US Air Force. He’s a long time time SAR member and first responder and has served on the boards of many non-profit organizations including the Access Fund, Friends of the Ledges and the Mountain Rescue Service. Most of the time though, you’ll find him at home where he lives on a dead-end dirt road in northern New Hampshire with his wife and four children.

Accomplishments

First Ascent – The Great and Secret Show, Polar Sun Spire, Baffin Island

First Ascent - The Ship of Fools, Shipton Spire, Karakoram

First Ascent – Parallel Worlds, Great Trango Tower, Karakoram

2 first ascents on Mount Roraima in the Amazon Jungle, Guyana

First Ascent – Th Sloth Wall, Weiassipu Tepui, Guyana 

First Ascent – The Donkey’s Ears, Borneo – big wall ascending from Low’s Gully

Led first exploratory expedition to the Ennedi Desert in Chad resulting in 20 or so first ascents

Led a scientist into a sinkhole inside a tepui in Venezuela which led to the discovery of a new species of frog

Led an exploratory climbing expedition to the Musandam Peninsula in Oman, documented in a feature article in National Geographic Magazine

Collaborated with Renan Ozturk as the writer for The Last Honey Hunter story for National Geographic

Led an expedition to the north face of Mt. Everest which sought to solve the Mallory and Irvine mystery

Sailed his boat Polar Sun from Maine to Alaska via the Northwest Passage.

Author of nine feature articles for National Geographic magazine including four cover stories

Father of four, with an age range spanning 18 years

Currently attempting to sail around the world with his family (https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_PolarSun/)