Mark Synnott

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(opens in new tab). 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 New York Times bestseller, The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan and the Climbing Life(opens in new tab). When he’s not off leading expeditions, Mark works as an IFMGA mountain guide(opens in new tab) 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 family.