Andrew James Lock OAM (born 26 December 1961) is Australia’s most accomplished high altitude mountaineer. He completed his personal mountaineering project to be the first Australian to climb all fourteen "eight-thousanders" (peaks over 8,000 metres above sea level) in October 2009. In all he has climbed all 14 8000m peaks, with 18 personal 8000 metre summits, having climbed several twice. Andrew also has climbed to both summits of Shishapangma (most climb to the false summit and only very few have completed the 14 x 8000m by climbing to the true summit of Shishapangma)
His preferred climbing style is in small teams, climbing without sherpa support or auxiliary oxygen and along the way he has achieved five first Australian ascents (Dhaulagiri, Nanga Parbat, Hidden Peak, Manaslu and Annapurna) and three solo ascents (Lhotse, Broad Peak and Cho Oyu). He has summited Mt Everest, twice.
His first 8000 metre summit was of K2, which he climbed in 1993 with a small team that included Anatoli Boukreev. The mountain lived up to its fearsome reputation when two of his climbing partners were killed in separate falls and Lock rescued a Swedish climber. In 2004, he was a climber and cinematographer for the Discovery Channel six part mini series, Ultimate Survival – Everest, which has been broadcast on multiple occasions throughout North America. On that expedition, Lock personally rescued 3 members of other teams coming down from the summit, giving up his own oxygen along the way.
Lock has climbed with many of the world’s best, including Anatoli Boukreev (K2 in 1993), Göran Kropp (Broad Peak in 1994), Doug Scott and Wojciech Kurtyka (Nanga Parbat Mazeno Ridge in 1995) & Ivan Vallejo and Inaki Ochoa (Annapurna 2007).
In 2009 Andrew Lock was awarded the Australian Geographic Society's Adventurer of the year award.
In May 2011 Lock's attempt to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen reportedly was unsuccessful due to high winds and blizzard conditions.[1]
On 13 June 2011, Lock was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to mountaineering.[2]