Benoni alpinist Warren Eva cemented his place as one of the world’s elite mountaineers when he became the first South African to summit the Annapurna in Nepal.

Benoni City Times reports that Eva reached the summit of Annapurna 1 on April 7 at 05:23 SA time. He started the climb with his lifelong friend and climbing partner John Black, who is from Roodepoort but is now a UK citizen.

They set out for the summit on April 6, pushing through challenging weather and the threat of avalanches. However, in the early hours of their ascent, Black called off his climb and returned to Camp 3 in the interests of safety.

Eva pushed on and, despite constant threats, he made it to the top of the mountain.

“We are immensely proud of his achievement on one of the world’s most challenging 8 000m peaks,” shared the Pioneer Expeditions and Annapurna 2025.

The Annapurna stands at 8 091m above sea level and is the 10th highest summit in the world. It is one of the most dangerous eight-thousander summits in the world, infamous for its dreadful death climber rate.

He made it safely back to base camp on April 8.

Eva and Black also did the summit for a good cause. They are raising funds for Food 4 Hope, which helps children in rural areas with food, clothing, school fees and medical needs.

They raised over R180 000 for the organisation in 2022 after their summit of the world’s second-highest peak, the K2, in Pakistan.

“It’s a real privilege to take a charity along with us. We are just going for the love of it. If we can do something good with that, it makes it 10 times better.”

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