Norman Dyhrenfurth | Mountaineer and filmmaker, 99

Norman Dyhrenfurth, 99, a Swiss American mountaineer and filmmaker who organized the successful American expedition in 1963 to Mount Everest that put six climbers on the summit, died Sunday of natural causes in an Austrian hospital, according to Ditta Vogt, the sister of his longtime partner, Maria Sernetz.

Mr. Dyhrenfurth assembled the historic team of 19 mountaineers and scientists for the 1963 Everest Expedition that practically launched the modern U.S. mountaineering and outdoor industry by putting the first Americans on top of the world's highest peak. The expedition he led included 900 porters carrying about 26 tons of food, clothing, equipment, and scientific instruments.

He also was an accomplished cameraman and director who was head of the UCLA Film School in the 1950s and worked on movies such as Five Days One Summer and The Eiger Sanction, plus TV shows such as Americans on Everest.

Mr. Dyhrenfurth was born in Germany to Himalayan explorers Gunter Oskar and Hettie Dyhrenfurth, who were awarded a gold medal in alpinism at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

The family left for Austria and then settled in Switzerland in the 1920s, where they became citizens, then emigrated to the United States before the onset of World War II.

During the war, Mr. Dyhrenfurth's Army service won him U.S. citizenship. - AP