Ben Clark

Who is Ben Clark?

Ben Clark is a mountaineer and native of Clarksville, Tennessee, though he resides in Telluride, Colorado. He starting rock climbing in his late teens and progressed to larger, more challenging mountains in his early twenties, eventually spending 10 years pioneering alpine and ski mountaineering routes in the Nepali and Tibetan Himalayas. On May 22, 2003, at the age of 23, Ben became the second youngest American to summit Mount Everest, via the North-Northeast Ridge Route.

Clark's 2003 expedition to Mount Everest was captured by filmmaker and friend, Jon Miller, and made into a documentary written and directed by Ben Clark and titled, Everest: The Other Side. The film premiered on Dish Network Pay-Per-View in May 2005. Additional footage that did not make it into the final product was released in a series of video podcasts, entitled The Rest of Everest. 'The Rest of Everest' received positive reviews from critics and viewers alike. Within Apple Computer's iTunes Store, the video podcast garnered comments including "the best and most complete documentary on Everest," "totally fascinating" and "the jewel of web content creation for 2006." That December, iTunes editors declared The Rest of Everest as a "Best of 2006" podcast, beginning a run of nominations and awards that lasted 4 years.