Michael Groom

Michael Graeme Groom (born 1959) is an Australian mountain climber.

In 1987 he lost the front third of his feet to frostbite after descending from the summit of Kangchenjunga.

In 1987 Groom summited Kanchenjunga (the world's third-highest mountain at 8598m) but on descending developed frostbite in the toes of both feet, later resulting in partial amputation of both feet.

He attempted twice in 1991, the second time ending in a 900 m fall down the Lhotse Face in an avalanche; he received only a broken nose and a few cracked ribs and was lucky to have survived the ordeal.

Despite this, he later managed to summit Mount Everest in 1993 and again in 1996.

On his third attempt at summiting the tallest mountain in the world in 1993, Groom finally completed Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen.

In 1995, Groom became the fourth person ever to reach the summits of the four highest mountains in the world (Lhotse, Kangchenjunga, K2 and Everest) without using bottled oxygen.

In 1995, Groom unknowingly turned around just 40 m shy of the summit of K2 after taking the more difficult and technically demanding SSE Spur route.

During the descent, he sprained his knee and was belayed down the chimney by another climber, Steve Untch, who fell to his death while repelling down after him, but likely saving Groom's life.

Groom returned weeks later and successfully summited the mountain via the easier Abruzzi ridge with Veikka Gustafsson.

Groom acted as a guide for Adventure Consultants during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, which he survived and subsequently described in his 1997 autobiography.

He proceeded to climb the fifth-highest, Makalu, in 1999.

In 1999 he climbed Makalu (8463 m), the world's fifth-highest mountain.

In the 2000 Australia Day Honours Groom was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for "service to mountaineering".

In the 2015 film Everest, Groom was portrayed by actor Tom Wright.