Ian Woodall (born 17 August 1956) is a British mountain climber who has climbed Mount Everest several times. In 1996 Woodall was the leader of the controversial first South African Mount Everest expedition, during which one member of the party died. The expedition reached Camp IV – the last camp before the summit, and 923m below it – on 10 May, but were not directly involved in the disaster that unfolded that day. Following the tragedy the expedition returned to base camp and made a second attempt after a few days rest, achieving the summit on 28 May. Woodall reached the peak by 10 am, four other members of the expedition had done so by 11 am, but Bruce Herrod lagged behind and was the last to reach the peak; from there, at 5 pm, he spoke to the others by radio, but was never heard from again. The expedition was sponsored by Johannesburg newspaper The Sunday Times, but its support of the expedition was later withdrawn. In late May 1998 Woodall together with his climbing partner Cathy O'Dowd were again on Everest when they encountered Francys Arsentiev, half-conscious and unable to move independently. They called off their own attempt to reach the summit and tried to help her for more than one hour but because of her condition, the location, and the cold weather they were finally forced to abandon her and begin descending. Arsentiev later died on the mountain, with climbers who encountered her unable to help. In 2007 Woodall initiated and led an expedition, The Tao of Everest, with the purpose of burying the bodies of Arsentiev and also of Green Boots, who had died during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Bad weather delayed the attempt, and on 23 May 2007, Woodall and Phuri Sherpa were only able to recover Arsentiev's body, and after a brief ceremony, drop her body off the North Face to join others in their mountain grave. Woodall and O'Dowd were married in 2001. They later separated, and Woodall now lives in the south east of England. Controversy regarding the 1996 expedition American journalist Jon Krakauer, who was a member in New Zealander Rob Hall's commercial Everest expedition in 1996, was extremely critical of Woodall's personality and behaviour in his best-selling book Into Thin Air. His criticisms of Woodall include: His dictatorial and manipulative character that had caused three experienced South African climbers