About Jason Weiss

Jason Weiss is an international award-winning mountain landscape and adventure photographer based in Telluride, Colorado. He specializes in high-altitude imagery, photographing from the summits of the world’s highest peaks rather than from below. Carrying his own climbing and camera gear and working without drones, his approach offers a rare and authentic perspective of the mountains.

Climbing for hours through the night during month-long expeditions above 20,000 feet, Weiss seeks out fleeting, sublime moments in the most extreme environments on Earth. In May 2025, he realized a lifelong dream by photographing sunrise from the summit of Mount Everest—the top of the world.

At the age of 30, Weiss’s work has already earned multiple “Best in Show” awards, and his journey is only beginning. A short film accompanying his work offers a behind-the-scenes look into this process.

You can stay connected to his latest expeditions and new work through his newsletter.

High Altitude Peaks & Passes Climbed:

Every single peak on this list was either climbed up/down in the dark so that I could photograph sunrise/sunset from the summit.

  • Mount Everest (29,032 ft.) (Tibet/Nepal, 2025) (highest peak on Earth)
  • Ama Dablam (22,349 ft.) (Nepal, 2023)
  • Denali (20,310 ft.) (Alaska, 2024) (highest peak in North America)
  • Mera Peak (21,246 ft.) (Nepal, 2023)
  • Island Peak (20,305 ft.) (Nepal, 2022)
  • Lobuche East Peak (20,075 ft.) (Nepal, 2022)
  • Amphu Labsta Pass (19,200 ft.) (Nepal, 2023)
  • Nevado Pisco (18,871 ft.) (Peru, 2023)
  • Kala Patthar (18,519 ft.) (Nepal, 2022)
  • Ngozumpa Tse (18,219 ft.) (Nepal, 2022)
  • Kongma La Pass (18,209 ft.) (Nepal, 2022)
  • Chukhung Ri (18,196 ft.) (Nepal, 2022)
  • Yanapaccha (17,913 ft.) (Peru, 2023)
  • Cho La Pass (17,782 ft.) (Nepal, 2022)
  • Gokyo Ri (17,575 ft.) (Nepal, 2022) (Climbed 2x)
  • Renjo La Pass (17,560 ft.) (Nepal, 2022)
  • Maparaju (17,474 ft.) (Peru, 2023)
  • Unnamed 17er in Hongu Valley (17,100 ft.) (Nepal, 2023)

Nature First

I am a proud member of the Nature First Photography Alliance. With outdoor spaces increasing in popularity, we must do our best to conserve these incredible environments we love and photograph responsibly. Please join us if you want to help leave the world in a better place than we found it.

“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.” - René Daumal

“Although I deeply love oceans, deserts, and other wild landscapes, it is only mountains that beckon me with that sort of painful magnetic pull to walk deeper and deeper into their beauty." - V. Erickson

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” - John Muir

"Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence." - Hermann Buhl

“Treat the earth well… It was not given to you by your parents… It was lent to you by your children.” - Kenyan Proverb