Rob Hall

Robert Edwin Hall (14 January 1961 – 11 May 1996) was a New Zealand mountaineer. He was the head guide of a 1996 Mount Everest expedition during which he, a fellow guide, and two clients died. A best-selling account of the expedition was given in Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air and the expedition was dramatised in the 2015 film Everest. At the time of his death, Hall had just completed his fifth ascent to the summit of Everest, more at that time than any other non-Sherpa mountaineer.

Hall met his future wife, physician Jan Arnold, during his Everest summit attempt in 1990. Hall and Arnold climbed Denali for their first date and later married. In 1993, Hall and Arnold climbed to the summit of Everest together. In the catastrophic 1996 season, Arnold would have accompanied Hall on his Everest expedition, but she was pregnant.

Mountaineering

Hall grew up in New Zealand where he climbed extensively in the Southern Alps. In 1989, he met Gary Ball, who became his climbing partner and close friend. Together they climbed the Seven Summits, including ascents of all seven in seven months. Eventually they quit professional climbing and formed a high-altitude guiding business, Hall and Ball Adventure Consultants. In 1992, they guided six clients to the top of Everest.

In October 1993, Ball died of pulmonary edema on Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh-highest mountain. Hall continued to run Adventure Consultants on his own. By 1996, he had guided thirty-nine climbers to the top of Everest. Although the price of a guided summit attempt – US$65,000 – was considerably higher than that of other expeditions, Hall's reputation for reliability and safety attracted clients from all over the world.

In the 1994 Queen's Birthday Honours, Hall was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to mountaineering.