Leadership Team:

Eric Simonson
IMG Director

Eric has been a professional mountain guide since 1973 and has personally conducted over 85 major expeditions around the globe, including over 25 to the Himalayas. He has become recognized internationally as one of the world's premiere mountaineering expedition leaders, specializing in climbs of Mt. Everest and the other classic 8,000m peaks of the Himalayas. During his thirty-year professional career he has spent over 5,000 days of active guiding, and is a Senior Certified Alpine Guide and Ski Mountaineering Guide. His international guiding and climbing resume includes expeditions on every continent of the globe, including ascents of the "Seven Summits" and eleven expeditions to Mt. Everest, reaching the summit in 1991 via the North Ridge.

Eric co-authored Ghosts of Everest, published by The Mountaineers Books in October 1999, sharing the story of his 1999 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition and recently named as one of the 20th Century's 50 best mountaineering books by the American Alpine Club. He also co-authored Detectives on Everest, published by The Mountaineers Books in July 2002, recapping the 2001 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition which conducted the world's highest archeology project and culminated with the accomplishment of the highest mountaineering rescue in history.

Mark Tucker
Expedition Leader

Mark Tucker has been guiding since 1985, with Mt. Rainier as the starting point. Since then, he has climbed and guided classic peaks on seven continents, with the summit of Mt. Everest as his high point. Mark's extensive experience in South America, Africa and the Himalayas, combined with his lengthy career guiding on Rainier and Denali in the US, makes him a super member of our guide team. When not in the hills, he leads a fun-filled Other Life. Passions by land include mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, motorcycle riding, and gardening (he's still working on the golf game.) By water, he enjoys surfing, kayaking, wind surfing , scuba diving , water skiing, and fishing, and by air, hang gliding.

Ang Jangbu Sherpa
Assistant Expedition Leader

Jangbu is a partner and director of Great Escapes, a premier trekking and climbing agency in Nepal. Jangbu grew up in the village of Phortse where he attended the Hillary school until the age of 18. In 1981 he moved to Pokhara and lived there for seven years and trained under the legendary Colonel Jimmy Roberts, the founder of Nepal's first trekking company and the trekking industry in the Nepal Himalaya. He then moved to Kathmandu and started Great Escapes with his two other partners in the spring of 1993. Jangbu is married and has two children. He has been on dozens of expeditions, including summitting Everest on the 1990 American Everest Expedition. Jangbu has climbed Europe's Mt. Blanc and most of the 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado, and has served as assistant instructor for Colorado Outward Bound.

Ang Passang Sherpa
Climbing Sirdar

Ang Passang has been working for IMG as a climbing sirdar since 1997. Ang Passang has been on a dozen expeditions to Everest alone and has summited four times. He has also summited Cho Oyu three times and has climbed on Dhaulagiri, Makalu, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam. Ang Passang is from the village of Pangboche and is married with four children.