Peter Athans (born March 1, 1957) is one of the world's foremost high-altitude mountaineers.
Athans is one of several western Himalayan guides who have adopted Nepal as a second home, and who have taken up the cause of the Sherpa people and their culture.
[4] The next year, Athans removed the body of a friend - Bruce Herrod, a South African climber who had perished just weeks after the 1996 disaster, from the climbing route high up on the mountain.
He found Herrod hanging upside down by the climbing ropes that the photographer had been using to make his way down the dangerous Hillary Step section of the mountain, just below the summit.
[5] Athans returned the camera and ice axe of the dead climber to his family.