How a physician’s DIY device got Americans to the top of Everest
The world’s most intrepid mountaineers breathed a little easier thanks to a young anesthesiologist’s chance encounter.
On his first climb in the Himalaya, in 1960, Thomas Hornbein was left gasping for air. The 30-year-old American and future National Geographic Explorer was a fit, capable climber. The problem was his clunky, multivalve oxygen mask. Hornbein, an anesthesiologist, set out to design a better one. By chance, he met a man who could manufacture it: Fred Maytag, appliance magnate and a patient at the hospital where Hornbein was a fellow. The result was made from a single piece of rubber, with just one valve, and it was simple to de-ice. Hornbein breathed easier with it in 1963, when he joined the National Geographic–sponsored first American expedition to summit Everest. He died in 2023, having watched his “Maytag mask” catch on and help a generation of mountaineers reach new heights.
A version of this story appears in the April 2026 issue of National Geographic magazine.
