Vitor Negrete

Who was Vitor Negrete?

Vítor Negrete was a prominent mountaineer and the first Brazilian to reach the summit of Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen.

Negrete was also a prominent adventure racer beginning in 2001. Among many other adventures, he had crossed the Amazon Rainforest and traveled from São Paulo state to the southernmost part of South America– Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia– on a bicycle. As a UNICAMP researcher in food engineering, he helped to introduce pre-industrialized food to poor communities in the Vale do Ribeira, south of São Paulo. Negrete first reached the summit of Mount Everest on June 2, 2005. He reached it again on May 18, 2006, this time without supplementary oxygen, but died on the climb down from the summit. He was 38 years old.