Jon Christian Otto

Jon has been working for SummitClimb since 1995 and is a very friendly and well organized 37 year old expedition organizer and leader, technical climber, author, and travel consultant. He leads our climbs of 7546 metre Mustagata in Xinjiang province, China and organizes all of our Tibet climbs and treks. Jon has organized more than 25 Himalayan expeditions in China, Tibet, Xinjiang, East Turkistan, and Szechuan. He has made 7 successful ascents of Mustagata by the normal route as well as two other routes. Jon is a gifted rock, ice, and snow climber, and anyone would be honored to tie into a rope with him.

Jon is originally from New York, but now lives half the time in China and half in California. He speaks fluent Mandarin, and manages SummitClimb's China and Tibet offices. Jon is married to Xue Hua, a Stanford University environmental policy PhD student. Jon has led a new route to the summit of Mustagata and has traveled the length and breadth of China, Tibet, Xinjiang, East Turkistan, and knows Kathmandu and Lhasa well. Jon knows just about everyone at all of the mountain climbing, trekking and travel ministries in China and Tibet. He worked together with Betsy Damon to build the Living Water Garden, a community based environmental education project, in Chengdu, China. He wrote a guidebook to rock climbing in Beijing and has built climbing gyms in China. His organizational skills are superb, and he has extensive contacts throughout China.

Jon began organizing his first SummitClimb trips in 1995, with a trek and climb to the Chinese side of K2 and Gasherbrum 2. Jon has been developing leaders in Tibet and China since the early 1990's, when he was a student in Beijing. Recently, he has been training Chinese guides in mountaineering skills and the vagaries of dealing with Westerners through a climbing school in Chengdu, China that he helped start - Arête Alpine Instruction Center (AAIC). He has also been training our Chinese and Tibetan chefs and support workers for many years.

Jon has organized sponsorship for our expeditions from Liwaco. They produce most of the famous high-altitude tents in the world, including North Face and Mountain Hardwear under contract in China. We use their own tents, branded "Ozark", which our climbing team members think are strong and comfortable and get the job done.

CONTACT JON OTTO: send an email to info@SummitClimb.com with Jon Otto's name in the subject line and we will gladly pass your question or comment directly to him.