#92: Constantin Lacatusu

Carstensz · Completed 2001-12-10

Romania · Male

Born 21 Feb 1961

Constantin "Ticu" Lăcătuşu was born on 21 February 1961 in Piatra Neamţ, Romania. He studied at Petru Rareş High School in Piatra Neamţ before enrolling in the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Bucharest, graduating in 1986.

Climbing career

Lăcătuşu came to high-altitude mountaineering after giving up competitive handball. In 1992 he became the first Romanian to reach the summit of an 8,000-metre peak, Broad Peak in Pakistan. On 17 May 1995 he reached the summit of Mount Everest via the North Col-North Ridge-NE ridge route, becoming the first Romanian to climb the mountain. He summited without supplemental oxygen above 8,250 metres and without a Sherpa on the final stretch, on an expedition led by Russell Brice; his ascent was sponsored by the Romanian firm Rifil. In 1998 he added Cho Oyu, again a first Romanian ascent of that peak, climbed in self-supported style.

Lăcătuşu was the first Romanian to complete the Reinhold Messner version of the 7 summits, which includes Carstensz Pyramid rather than Kosciuszko. He finished the round on 10 December 2001 on Vinson Massif, having taken 8 years and 166 days between his first and last ascents. Along the way he made the first Romanian ascent of Denali on 4 June 1997, climbing the West Buttress route with Cornel Gălescu, and the first Romanian ascent of Carstensz Pyramid on 25 April 2000, via the Messner route on the East Ridge.

In May-June 2009 he and Cornel Coman travelled to the Watkins Mountains in east Greenland, where they climbed the three highest peaks of the Arctic region. Lăcătuşu has recorded more than thirty ascents abroad, several of them Romanian firsts, and more than ten Himalayan expeditions; documentary footage he filmed on these trips has won several awards.

Later career

Lăcătuşu founded and later served as president of the Romanian Mountain Club, through which he has continued to organise and guide commercial expeditions to the Himalayas, including introductory trips to peaks such as Mera Peak, Island Peak and Lobuche in the Solu-Khumbu district of Nepal. He also works as a motivational speaker. In 2019 he reopened the mountaineering course in Piatra Neamţ that he had first run three decades earlier, returning to it as an instructor.

He is married to television personality and journalist Irina Păcurariu, and the couple have two daughters, born in 2000 and 2008.