National Geographic Announces 2019 Adventurers of the Year

EVERY YEAR, NATIONAL Geographic honors trailblazers in the adventure community. From athletes to explorers, humanitarians to conservationists, these adventurers embody the spirit of bold innovation and are taking leaps forward in their field. They’re pushing boundaries, smashing stereotypes, and overcoming obstacles. Each one is helping lead the world in a new and thrilling direction.

To find our Adventurers of the Year, we asked photographers, writers, filmmakers, and athletes to tell us who is inspiring them to reach further, go higher, and dream bigger. Here are their stories.

National Geographic’s 2019 Adventurers of the Year:

Learn how a one-handed rock climber is reinventing the sport.

Meet the super climbers who put their lives in danger to rescue a couple stranded on thesecond highest mountain in the world, K2.

This skier became the first person to make the impossible solo descent down the “Killer Mountain,” K2.

Coming off the heels of the Academy Award winning film "Free Solo", which profiles climber Alex Honnold’s iconic ropeless ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, meet the self-described "female Alex Honnold" who is taking the rock climbing world by storm.

Meet the first woman to complete the Triple Crown of thru-hiking in North America. In one calendar year, she covered over 8,000 miles!

This team of unassuming heroes were pivotal in rescuing the Thai soccer team from a cave in July of last year. National Geographic Documentary Films has just announced a feature documentary on the rescue with exclusive access and never-before-seen footage.