Sandy Hill

Sandra Hill (born April 12, 1955, formerly Sandra Hill Pittman) is a socialite, mountaineer, author, and former fashion editor.

In July 1979, Hill married MTV co-founder and media executive Robert Pittman; who was a radio disc jockey and the Program Director of WNBC in New York when they met.

They have one son, Robert T. "Bo" Pittman.

Hill then served until 1986 as president of a division of RJR Nabisco called "In Fashion" where she produced television shows about fashion and style.

One of those shows was Fashion America, which was the first TV program to feature fashion commentary, videos and runway footage.

Hill has also been a contributing editor to Vogue and Condé Nast Traveler, and written feature articles for other publications.

Hill was briefly married to Jerry Solomon, who worked in the sport business and was a graduate student of Columbia at the time; the couple were divorced by the time she was 23.

Solomon later went on to marry figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.

In 1992 she began a quest to become the first American woman to scale the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on each continent.

She summitted Aconcagua (1992), Denali (1992), Vinson Massif (1993), Mount Elbrus (1993), Mount Kilimanjaro (1993), Mount Kosciuszko (1994), and Puncak Jaya (1995).

In 1993, she reached 23500 ft on a guided expedition following the traditional South Col route.

On this expedition, she wore a cross necklace custom-made by jeweler Barry Kieselstein-Cord to bury on the summit, but this ceremony did not take place.

Then in 1994 she raised corporate sponsorship with $250,000 from Chesebrough-Ponds for an attempt climbing the difficult Kangshung Face, with her film production partner at the time, filmmaker David Breashears, and climbers Alex Lowe, Barry Blanchard and Steve Swenson but the expedition was turned back by avalanche danger above 25,000 feet.

She survived the 1996 Mount Everest disaster shortly after becoming the 34th woman to reach the Mount Everest summit and the second American woman to climb the Seven Summits.

Sandy Hill grew up in Los Gatos, California.

Her father ran a successful business that rented portable toilets to construction sites.

She graduated from UCLA before moving to New York for her first job, working as a buyer for the now defunct Bonwit Teller.

After meeting an editor at Mademoiselle, she landed her second job as Merchandising Editor of the magazine, and, a few years later, she became Beauty Editor of Brides magazine.

Hill met snowboarder Stephen Koch while climbing Mount Everest in April 1996, and they lived together in New York until 1997.

Hill finally reached the Mount Everest summit in 1996, thus becoming the second American woman to scale the Seven Summits, following Mary "Dolly" Lefever.

Hill had attempted Everest twice before her successful ascent in 1996.

Hill was one of the survivors of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.

As part of the Mountain Madness expedition headed by Scott Fischer, during what was her third attempt to climb Mount Everest, she made an agreement with NBC Interactive Media, to stream journalistic dispatches from Base Camp to schoolchildren in the United States.

The technology required to transmit this blog included a laptop computer and a 20-pound satphone.

The phone was carried as high on the mountain as Camp IV, but it didn't work there.

Online, the website was referred to as The "NBC Everest Assault.” On May 10, 1996, at roughly 2:30 pm, Hill summitted and exchanged high fives with others on the peak before descending Hillary Step. Hill had been short-roped up the mountain by Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa for five to six hours at the outset of the ascent. Eighteen hours later, one of the Mountain Madness guides, Neil Beidleman descended Hillary Step with Hill and her teammates, including Tim Madsen and Charlotte Fox, to find camp. Descending, “Sandy got her crampons tangled in the ropes,” Beidleman recalls. Stopping to check on others, Beidleman then noticed Fox giving Hill a shot of dexamethasone that Hill had asked for. Beidleman asked teammate Lene Gammelgaard to trade oxygen tanks with Hill, as Gammelgaard's tank had more oxygen left and unlike Hill, she was able to walk on her own.

On the way to a saddle called the South Col, Hill and others slid down the fixed lines.

At the bottom, the group joined with Mike Groom, a guide from Adventure Consultants, and his clients Yasuko Namba, who was brought down the lines by Beidleman, and Beck Weathers, who had not summitted due to poor eyesight, but had been waiting for Rob Hall, an Adventure Consultants guide, to return, along with Klev Schoening from Mountain Madness and two sherpa.

Groom tethered himself to Weathers after Hall had not returned from higher up the mountain.

Not knowing which direction to go due to the storm, they huddled in the snow.

Around midnight, stars came out as the storm subsided, prompting Beidleman, Schoening, Gammelgaard, and Groom to make it to camp and find help, leaving Namba and Weathers, who were unconscious, and Fox and Hill, who were too exhausted to continue with Madsen.

Upon reaching Camp IV, the group alerted Anatoli Boukreev, a guide for Hill's team, Mountain Madness, on the location of the rest of the climbers.

Reaching the group, Boukreev brought Hill tea, leaving her with Madsen, and assisted Fox to the camp before returning to Madsen who walked while Boukreev carried Hill to Camp IV.

After returning, Boukreev collapsed with exhaustion, leaving the unconscious climbers, Namba and Weathers in the snow.

The couple divorced in 1997, and Hill received a settlement of $20 million from Pittman.

In 1998, Hill attended the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in New York to study architectural preservation and restoration.

She graduated in 2000.

Hill married commodities trader Thomas Dittmer in April 2001, and they purchased a ranch and vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Hill filed for divorce in 2008, and attempted unsuccessfully to legally invalidate the couple's prenuptial agreement.

Hill began mountaineering as a teenager; her first summit at age 13 was Disappointment Peak in the Teton Range.