Adrian Ballinger (born February 25, 1976) is a British-American certified IFMGA/AMGA mountain guide, certified through the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA Rock, Alpine, and Ski Certifications) and a sponsored climber and skier. Ballinger is the founder and CEO of Alpenglow Expeditions, and has been guiding full-time for 25 years. He has led over 150 international climbing expeditions on six continents, and made 18 successful summits of 8,000m peaks. He is known for pioneering the use of pre-acclimatization for commercial expeditions as early as 2012, which can cut the amount of time typically spent on an expedition in half. Adrian is the only American to have made three successful ski descents of 8,000m peaks, including the first ski descent of Manaslu from its summit. He is also the fourth American to have summited both Mount Everest and K2 without the use of supplemental oxygen. About Ballinger worked as a guide for Himalayan Experience until 2012, and was featured with Himex founder, Russell Brice, on the Discovery Channel's Everest: Beyond the Limit series. In 2004, Adrian founded Alpenglow Expeditions, a mountain guiding company based out of Squaw Valley, CA, U.S.A, where he has served as the CEO and lead guide. Since 2008, he has achieved 18 successful 8,000m summits, reaching the summit of Everest 8 times, Manaslu 4 times, Cho Oyu 3 times, and both K2 and Lhotse once. He has also led three expeditions to Makalu, the world's fifth tallest peak. In 2011 he became the first person to summit three 8,000m peaks in just three weeks, reaching the summit of Everest twice and Lhotse once. Ballinger has led successful expeditions to more than 40 Himalayan summits over 6000 meters, including twelve ascents of Ama Dablam, a highly technical 6,812m peak next to Everest. In 2010, he led an Alpenglow Expeditions Clean Up Expedition on Ama Dablam. This team, along with climbing the mountain, removed thousands of feet of old fixed rope from the route and hundreds of pounds of trash from the camps. They also provided outreach to Sherpa and members of other climbing teams to teach the use of human waste disposal kits while on the mountain, and donated human waste disposal bags to many of those teams. Ballinger has also guided on Kilimanjaro (14 times by 4 different routes), Denali (by the West Rib), Alpamayo (14 times by 3 different routes), Huascarán Sur (3 times by 2 routes),