Mark Synnott is an American professional rock climber and author. He is an internationally certified mountain guide and member of The North Face athlete team.[1] Synnott specializes in remote first ascents of big wall climbs.[2]
Synnott has climbed frequently with fellow The North Face athlete Alex Honnold, who is famous for free solo climbing El Capitan in 2017. Honnold's daring ascent inspired Synnott's best-selling book The Impossible Climb, a part memoir, part historical account of climbing history and the ground-breaking first free solo of El Capitan.[3]
In 2021, Synnott published The Third Pole, documenting his 2019 expedition with Renan Ozturk to search for the body of Sandy Irvine on Mount Everest.[4]
Synnott is known for groundbreaking first ascents around the world. He often documents these trips for National Geographic and The North Face.[5] One such first ascent was climbing Mount Weiassipu, Guyana on an expedition where he led a team of climbers including Alex Honnold to the top of the tepui to help Dr Bruce Means find new species of frogs. Their journey was documented in Explorer: The Last Tepui by National Geographic and was released on Disney+ on Friday 22 April 2022.[6]