John Bagnulo, 36, Freeman Township

The first Mainer to summit Mount Everest this year, on May 11, his 36th birthday, climbing the North Face route from Tibet. Along with Bill Yeo, 40, of Durham, the team consisted of Dave Watson of Burlington, Vt., George Dijmarescu and his wife, Lakpa Sherpa, both of Connecticut, and a Nepalese Sherpa relative of Lakpa’s. Bagnulo has a doctorate in nutrition and a master’s in public health with a concentration in exercise physiology. He previously taught at the University of Maine at Farmington. He’s summited Aconcagua on the Chilean-Argentine border, at 22,840 feet the highest peak in the Americas, and Mount McKinley – Denali – in Alaska, the highest in North America. This summer, he’ll lead a trip high in the Grand Tetons and a climb in the Cascades. In the fall, he plans to cross Patagonia in South America, going from the Pacific to the Atlantic via a route over mountains and glaciers. That will be followed by leading an expedition up Aconcagua. Bagnulo says his next goal is to complete the Seven Summits – the highest peak on each continent. He already has three on his resume. He’s offering talks about his experiences and putting together a slide show.

Bill Yeo, 40, Durham

Yeo works for L.L. Bean in Freeport, specializing in bicycles and skis. He was Bagnulo’s climbing partner, together forming the Maine to Everest 2006 Expedition. Yeo was less than 2,000 vertical feet from Everest’s summit at the North Face high camp on May 10 when he called off his ascent because of health concerns. Blood from his lungs was streaking mucus. That could have signaled the onset on high-altitude pulmonary edema, a potentially fatal condition. He has no lingering effects. Yeo also has summited Denali and Aconcagua and has bicycled across much of Africa. His next adventure will likely be a six-week bike trek across Italy with his wife. In two years, he hopes to do a multiweek ski traverse across the high Arctic. Yeo will be showing photos from the Everest expedition in an art exhibit set to open in mid-July at the Frank Brockman Studio in Brunswick. He’s also editing photos from 36 rolls of film shot on Everest, along with three hours of video to put together a multimedia presentation. He’s available as a speaker for school groups and functions.

Dan Mazur, 45, Olympia, Wash.

Mazur is a professional climber with multiple Everest summits and also has climbed Pakistan’s K2 – the world’s second-highest peak and considered by many to be the deadliest. Mazur, along with nine partners, owns SummitClimb, an outfit that organizes mountaineering expeditions around the world. Bagnulo and Yeo climbed under Mazur’s Tibetan-issued Everest permit and got to know Mazur well. On May 26, Mazur and his climbing team found Lincoln Hall high on Everest, disoriented and suffering from frostbite. They abandoned their summit attempt to help in Hall’s rescue.

Dave Watson, 30, Burlington, Vt.

Watson, a professional ski patroller at Smuggler’s Notch, scored his second Everest summit on May 11 when he became the first Westerner to reach the peak this climbing season, along with Bagnulo. He initially summited Everest in 2004 “in a horrible storm” that saw six climbers die. Watson had planned to climb Everest via the Fantasy Ridge this season, but called that approach off due to poor conditions along the route. He’s getting married next year and planning to climb K2 in 2008.

George Dijmarescu, 45, Hartford, Conn.

Dijmarescu, something of a legend in mountaineering circles, stood on the summit of Everest for the eighth time when he joined Watson and Bagnulo there on May 11. His life is a movie waiting to be made. He fled communist Romania as a youth by swimming across the Danube River to Yugoslavia, his brother holding onto a telephone wire tied around Dijamrescu’s waist so his body could be hauled back if he were shot during the crossing. Once in Yugoslavia, he was arrested. Authorities suspected he may have killed someone. They mistook rust on a bayonet carried in his belt for blood. Freed, he eventually made his way to America, where he landed a job as a Yugo mechanic. Almost on a whim, his first ascent was to climb Mount Washington in New Hampshire in the winter, without equipment. He liked it so much he said he’d climb Everest – and did.

Lakpa Sherpa, age uncertain, Hartford, Conn.

Dijamrescu’s wife, Lakpa, made her sixth ascent of Everest with Bagnulo and Watson, setting an all-time record for the most summits of the mountain by a woman. In the offseason, she teaches mountaineering. Lakpa has already announced plans to summit Everest again next year, ascending from Tibet, then traversing to descend into Nepal.

Ed Webster, 51, Topsham

Webster climbed Everest three times during the mid-1980s, each time with small, unsupported teams that declined the use of oxygen and climbed with radios for communication. While Webster never reached the summit of Everest, he got to within 300 vertical feet of it and helped to put two team members on the roof of the world. Webster pioneered a route on Everest that to this day features a rock and ice face known as Webster Wall. He consulted with Bill Yeo about this year’s Maine to Everest Expedition and followed the climbing season. Webster is the author of “Snow in the Kingdom,” which tells of his Himalayan expeditions. He also owns a photography business, Mountain Imagery.