The 7 Summits

The Seven Summits are the highest peaks on each of the seven continents.

American Dick Bass, an amateur mountaineer, adventurer, and businessman, and Frank Wells came up with the idea of climbing the Seven Summits. Bass became the first to reach the top of all the continents in 1985. Bass selected to hike Mount Kosciuszko as the summit of Australia.

The great European mountaineer Reinhold Messner then created his own Seven Summits list and included New Guinea's rugged challenging limestone peak Carstensz Pyramid, also known as Puncack Jaya, as the high point of Australasia or Oceania rather than Mount Kosciuszko. In 1986 Canadian Pat Morrow, using the Messner list, was the first climber to ascend those seven peaks. Later he said, “Being a climber first and a collector second, I felt strongly that Carstensz Pyramid, the highest mountain in Australasia…was a true mountaineer’s objective.” Messner himself summitted all seven peaks on his list a few months later in December 1986.

The Seven Summits are:

1. Antarctica: Mount Vinson 16,067 feet JR Summit Date: January 12, 2009
2. Europe: Mount Elbrus 18,510 feet JR Summit Date: June 16, 2007
3. Africa: Kilimanjaro 19,340 feet JR Summit Date: June 6, 2008
4. North America: Mount McKinley - Denali 20,320 feet JR Summit Date: July 6, 2006
5. South America: Aconcagua 22,829 feet
6a. Australasia/Oceania: Carstensz Pyramid 16,023 feet (Messner list)
OR
6b. Australia: Mount Kosciusko 7,310 feet (Bass list) JR Summit Date: April 10, 2009
7. Asia: Mount Everest 29,035 feet

Statistics:

Richard Bass completed the first on April 30, 1985 (Bass)

Pat Morrow completed Messner's list by climbing Carstensz Pyramid on May 7, 1986

Reinhold Messner followed shortly by climbing Vinson on December 3, 1986. He was also the first person to accomplish this without the use of supplemental oxygen.

Between 2002 and 2007, Austrian climber Christian Stangl completed the Seven Summits (Messner list), climbing alone and without oxygen.

In October 2006 Kit Deslauriers became the first person to have skied down all seven peaks (Bass)

Swedes Olof Sundström and Martin Letzter completed their Seven Summits skiing project in January 2007 (Messner)

As of March 2007, more than 198 climbers have climbed all seven of the peaks from either the Bass or the Messner list; about 60 of those have climbed all of the eight peaks required to complete both lists.