Vladas Vitkauskas


Vladas Vitkauskas became the first Lithuanian and the first mountaineer from the Baltic states to climb the world‘s highest mountain, Mount Everest.
Between 1993 and 1996 Vitkauskas climbed the Seven Summits, the highest peaks of all the continents including Mount Everest, Mount McKinley, Vinson Massif, Kilimanjaro, Mount Kosciuszko, Aconcagua ; also Elbrus and Mont Blanc in Europe. He was the first to raise the same national flag on each of them, in his case the Lithuanian flag. He organised his own trip to the Himalaya and climbed Mount Everest alone, having registered as a photographer of the Nepalese Women Everest Expedition. He also made solo climbs to the peaks of Mount McKinley and Aconcagua.
Vitkauskas has also climbed the highest peaks in the former Soviet Union: Mount Communism and Korzhenevskaya in 1989 and Lenin and Khan Tengri in 1990. He participated and organised expeditions to the mountains in the Caucasus, Tien Shan, Altay, Siberia, and Pamir, and skiing expeditions in the Khibins, the Arctic Circle, and the Bering Strait.
He arranged a cultural research expedition to Chile and the Andes in commemoration of the bicentenary anniversary of the birth of Ignacy Domeyko, a distinguished scientist of Lithuanian origin. He ascended the highest peak Donja Ines in the Cordillera de Domeyko and Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano on the earth. He also organised the first Lithuanian expedition to the Karakoram, Himalaya and Hindu Kush mountain ranges in Pakistan. He was a member of the hot air balloon flight for the absolute altitude record, the distance and duration records in Lithuania.
Vitkauskas gives many seminars and lectures, arranges meetings with the public. He also gives lectures at business management courses at Lithuanian and foreign companies. He arranges and promotes cultural and health and natural lifestyles events.
Vladas Vitkauskas graduated from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute with a diploma in electronic engineering in 1975. He is a member of the Lithuanian Art Photography Union; he held 54 photography exhibitions, a prize winner at the international photography competition “World Wide Tour Photo ’99” and “Thoughts of the Live Earth”. He is the author of photography exhibitions at the National Gallery, the Lithuanian National Museum, at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and video documentaries.
Vitkauskas is the founder and first president of the Lithuanian Mountaineering Association ; founder and chairman of the Everest Foundation, head of the Naturavita health centre; a member of the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee, member of the advisory board of the magazine Santara.
He is the first mountain climber to be awarded the diploma of honour of the international Fair Play Committee for participating in the rescue of the body of Pasang Lhamu, the leader of the Nepalese Women Everest Expedition from Mount Everest.

Awards