The Seven Summits are composed of each of the highest mountain peaks of each of seven continents. Different lists include slight variations, but generally the same core is maintained. The seven summits depend on the definition used for a continent, in particular where the border of that continent is. This results in two points of variation: the first is Mont Blanc or Mount Elbrus for the continent of Europe; and the second depends on whether one includes all of Oceania or mainland Australia as the continent, which results in either Mount Kosciuszko or Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid).
This creates several possible versions of the seven summits, and has also given rise to some completing all nine peaks.
- Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Puncak Jaya, Vinson (the "Messner version")
- Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Kosciuszko, Vinson (the "Bass version")
- Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, Kosciuszko, Vinson
- Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, Puncak Jaya, Vinson
The concept Bass and his climbing buddy Frank Wells were pursuing was to be the first to stand atop the highest mountain on each continent. They pursued this goal as they defined it, climbing Aconcagua for South America, Denali for North America, Kilimanjaro for Africa, Elbrus for Europe, Vinson for Antarctica, Kosciuszko for Australia, and finally Everest for Asia.
The highest mountain in the Australian mainland is Mount Kosciuszko, 2,228 metres (7,310 ft) above sea level. However, the highest mountain in the Australian continent which includes Australia and New Guinea is Puncak Jaya, 4,884 m (16,024 ft) above sea level,[a] in the Indonesian province of Papua on the island of New Guinea which lies on the Australian continental shelf. Puncak Jaya is also known as Carstensz Pyramid. Mount Kosciuszko is very easy to climb, while Puncak Jaya is difficult.
Some sources claim Mount Wilhelm (4,509 m (14,793 ft)) in Papua New Guinea's Bismarck Range as the highest mountain peak in Australia, on account of Indonesia being part of Asia and Southeast Asia. (See List of Southeast Asian mountains, which includes Puncak Jaya and other mountains in Papua, Indonesia.) However, such a definition is political, not geophysical, and would mean that Papua changed continent in 1969.
- Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Wilhelm, Vinson
- Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, Wilhelm, Vinson
Using the largest tectonic plates, Europe and Asia could be grouped as Eurasia, and the very large Pacific plate with Mauna Kea.
- Africa - Kilimanjaro
- Antarctica - Vinson
- Australia Plate – Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya)
- Eurasia - Mount Everest
- North America – Denali
- Pacific Plate – Mauna Kea
- South America – Aconcagua
- Africa - Kilimanjaro
- Antarctica - Vinson
- Australia Plate – Kosciuszko
- Eurasia - Mount Everest
- North America – Denali
- Pacific Plate – Mauna Kea
- South America – Aconcagua
In terms of Australia as a country, Mawson Peak (2,745 m (9,006 ft)) is higher than Kosciuszko; Mawson is an active volcano on Heard island, a small island territory in the southern Indian Ocean. Another approach is not to group islands with the large above-sea-level continents for climbing purposes, but the reality is that any climbing list with just seven peaks but making the claim of including all "continents" is not only intellectually dependent on what constitutes a "mountain" but also what defines a "continent".
The generally accepted highest summit in Europe is Mount Elbrus (5,642 m or 18,510 ft) in the Caucasus, appearing on both the Bass and Messner lists. However, because the location of the boundary between Asia and Europe is not universally agreed upon, its inclusion in Europe is disputed: if the Kuma–Manych Depression is used as the geological border between Asia and Europe, the Caucasus and Elbrus lie wholly in Asia. If the Greater Caucasus watershed is used instead, Elbrus' peaks are wholly in Europe, albeit close to the border with Asia. Mont Blanc (4,810 m or 15,781 ft), lying on the border between France and Italy in the Graian Alps, is seen by some to be the highest mountain in Europe.
North and South America have Denali and Aconcagua respectively. Looking again at plate tectonics there is also the possibility of summiting the high points on the smaller plates.
- North America – Denali
- South America – Aconcagua
- Panama Plate – Cerro Chirripó (3,819 m 12,530 ft)
- Caribbean Plate – Pico Duarte (3,098 m 10,164 ft))
- North Andes Plate – Pico Cristóbal Colón (5,700 m 18,700 ft)
- Altiplano Plate – probably Nevado Sajama (6,542 m 21,463 ft)
The Bass and Messner lists
The first Seven Summits list as postulated by Bass (The Bass or Kosciusko list) chose the highest mountain of mainland Australia, Mount Kosciuszko (2,228 m or 7,310 ft), to represent the Australian continent's highest summit. Reinhold Messner postulated another list (the Messner or Carstensz list) replacing Mount Kosciuszko with Indonesia's Puncak Jaya, or Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 m or 16,024 ft). Neither the Bass nor the Messner list includes Mont Blanc. From a mountaineering point of view the Messner list is the more challenging one. Climbing Carstensz Pyramid has the character of an expedition, whereas the ascent of Kosciuszko is an easy hike. Indeed, Patrick Morrow used this argument to defend his choice to adhere to the Messner list. "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."
|Image||Peak||Bass list||Messner list||Elevation||Prominence||Continent||Range||Country||First ascent|
|Mount Everest||✔||✔||8,848 m (29,029 ft)||8,848 m (29,029 ft)||Asia||Himalaya||Nepal / China||1953|
|Aconcagua||✔||✔||6,961 m (22,838 ft)||6,961 m (22,838 ft)||South America||Andes||Argentina||1897|
|Denali||✔||✔||6,194 m (20,322 ft)||6,144 m (20,157 ft)||North America||Alaska Range||United States||1913|
|Kilimanjaro||✔||✔||5,895 m (19,341 ft)||5,885 m (19,308 ft)||Africa||–||Tanzania||1889|
|Mount Elbrus||✔||✔||5,642 m (18,510 ft)||4,741 m (15,554 ft)||Europe||Caucasus Mountains||Russia||1874|
|Mount Vinson||✔||✔||4,892 m (16,050 ft)||4,892 m (16,050 ft)||Antarctica||Sentinel Range||–||1966|
|Puncak Jaya||✔||4,884 m (16,024 ft)||4,884 m (16,024 ft)||Australasia (continent)||Sudirman Range||Indonesia||1962|
|Mount Kosciuszko||✔||2,228 m (7,310 ft)||2,228 m (7,310 ft)||Australia||Great Dividing Range||Australia||1840|
The mountaineering challenge to climb the Seven Summits is traditionally based on either the Bass or the Messner list. (It is assumed that most of the mountaineers who have completed the Seven Summits would have climbed Mont Blanc as well.) As of January 2010, approximately 275 climbers climbed all seven of the peaks from either the Bass or the Messner list; about 30% of those have climbed all of the eight peaks required to complete both lists.
In 1956 William D. Hackett (1918–1999), an American mountaineer, reached the top of five continents. He climbed Denali (1947), Aconcagua (1949), Kilimanjaro (1950), Kosciuszko (1956) and Mont Blanc (1956). In that time, the Mont Blanc was considered to be the highest mountain of the European continent. Hackett made an attempt to climb Mt. Vinson and obtained a permit for the Mt. Everest in 1960 but due to several circumstances (frostbite, lack of funds, etc.) he never made it more than five.
In 1970 the Japanese mountaineer and adventurer Naomi Uemura (1941-1984) was the first person to reach five of the Seven Summits including Mount Everest. He climbed Mont Blanc (1966), Kilimanjaro (1966), Aconcagua (1968), Mount Everest (1970 solo) and Mount McKinley (1970 solo). After the first solo trip to the North Pole (1978) he planned to go on his own to Antarctica to climb Mount Vinson. In preparation for the Antarctica expedition he did a solo winter ascent of the Mount McKinley (1984). On the descent he disappeared in a winter storm.
In 1978 the Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner was the first person to reach six of the Seven Summits (1971 Puncak Jaya, 1974 Aconcagua, 1976 Mt. McKinley, 1978 Kilimanjaro, 1978 Mt. Everest). For Messner the Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya) was the highest peak in Australia (Messner list), but in 1983 he climbed Mt. Kosciuszko to satisfy also the other geographic definition of Australia. In the same year Messner climbed Mt. Elbrus and declared that this is the true highest peak of Europe. This definition was quickly accepted by others in the mountaineering community. Finally in 1986 he climbed Mt. Vinson. At that time he was only the fifth person to reach the Seven Summits.
In 1985 Richard Bass, a businessman and amateur mountaineer, was the first man to climb all the Seven Summits. In only one year, 1983, he climbed six peaks: Aconcagua, Mt. McKinley, Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elbrus, Mt. Vinson and Mt. Kosciuszko. All of these climbs he did together with his companion Frank Wells and different mountain guides. From 1983 Bass and Wells made various guided attempts to climb the Mt. Everest, the highest and most difficult peak in the list. Bass reached the summit of Mt. Everest in a party without Wells, guided by the American professional mountaineer David Breashears, on April 30, 1985. He then co-authored the book Seven Summits, which covered the undertaking.
In 1986 the Canadian mountaineer Patrick Morrow became the first man to climb the Seven Summits in the "Carstensz-Version" (Messner list). He climbed Mt. McKinley (1977), Aconcagua (1981), Mt. Everest (1982), Kilimanjaro (1983), Mt. Kosciuszko (1983), Mt. Vinson (1985), Mt. Elbrus (1985) and finally the Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid) on May 7, 1986. Morrow was also the first to complete both lists (Bass and Messner).
In 1990, Rob Hall and Gary Ball became the first to complete the "Seven Summits" in seven months. Using the Bass list, they started with Everest on May 10, 1990, and finished with Vinson on December 12, 1990, hours before the seven-month deadline.
Mary "Dolly" Lefever became the first American woman to climb the "Seven Summits" on March 11, 1993, when she climbed Australia's Mount Kosciuszko. She had previously climbed the others. Earlier in 1993 she had become the oldest surviving woman to have reached the summit of Mt. Everest; she was 47 years old.
Yasuko Namba was famous in her native Japan for becoming the second Japanese woman to reach all of the Seven Summits including Everest, where she died during the storm of May 1996 during her descent.
In May 2002, Susan Ershler and her husband, Phil, became the first married couple to climb the "Seven Summits" together. The first person to complete Seven Summits without the use of supplemental oxygen on Mount Everest is Reinhold Messner. Miroslav Caban is probably the only other climber (besides Messner) as of October 2005 to finish the project without supplemental oxygen on Everest (finished in 2005 with Carstensz) (Ed Viesturs also summitted all peaks without supplemental oxygen.). Between 2002 and 2007, Austrian climber Christian Stangl completed the Seven Summits (Messner list), climbing alone and without supplemental oxygen, and reported a record total ascent time from respective base camp to summit of 58 hours and 45 minutes.
On 17 May 2006 Rhys Jones became the youngest person to complete the 7 summits (Bass list) at the age of exactly 20 years. In May 2007, Samantha Larson completed the seven when she was 18 years and 220 days (she is still the youngest woman to have climbed the Seven Summits). Johnny Strange climbed the summits when he was 17 years and 161 days in June 2009. On May 26, 2011 at 6:45 Nepali time, Geordie Stewart became the youngest Briton to complete the 7 summits at the age of 22 years and 21 days. In 2009-10, Indian mountaineer Krushnaa Patil made a bid for the fastest woman to complete the challenge; she fell short of the challenge when, in May 2009, her seventh and final summit bid on Mt. McKinley was halted by her guide's illness.
 George Atkinson then became the youngest person in the world to complete the round aged 16 years 362 days. On December 24, 2011, the record was once again beaten, by American Jordan Romero, who completed the challenge at the age of 15 years, 5 months and 12 days by climbing Vinson.
In October 2006 Kit Deslauriers became the first person to have skied down (parts of) all seven peaks (Bass list). Three months later, in January 2007, Swedes Olof Sundström and Martin Letzter completed their Seven Summits skiing project by skiing down (parts of) Carstensz Pyramid, thus becoming the first and only people to have skied both lists.
The world record for completion of the Messner and Bass list was 136 days, by Danish climber Henrik Kristiansen in 2008. Indian mountaineer Malli Mastan Babu also had the eminence of setting a Guinness Book record by surmounting seven summits in 172 days in 2006, which made it to the fastest seven summiteers eventually. Kristiansen completed the summits in the following order: Vinson on Jan 21st, Aconcagua on Feb 6, Kosciuszko on Feb 13, Kilimanjaro on Mar 1, Carstensz Pyramid on Mar 14, Elbrus on May 8, Everest on May 25, spending just 22 days on the mountain (normally, expeditions take up to 2 months acclimatizing, laying ropes etc...) and finally McKinley on June 5, beating Ian McKeever's previous record by 20 days. Vern Tejas set the new record for the same, in 134 days. Tejas began with summiting Vinson on Jan 18 2010 and completing with McKinley on May 31. This was Vern's 9th time to complete the "Bass" Seven Summits.
In January 2010, the Spanish climber Carlos Soria Fontán completed the seven summits (Messner list), at the age of 71, after reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro. He had climbed the first one in 1968.
On 23 May 2010, AC Sherpa summited Mt. Everest as his last and final conquest of the Seven Summits (Bass list). In doing this, he set a new record by climbing the seven summits within 42 climbing days. Additionally, when climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro (via Marangu) he summited in just 16 hours and 37 minutes, easily beating the previous record of 18 hours.
As of 24 December 2011, it is reported that only 118 people have climbed the Seven Summits if one assumes "full" completion of the quest requires climbing the "Eight Summits" across both the Bass and Messner lists (climbing both Carstensz Pyramid and Kosciusko in addition to the other six "undisputed" summits such as Everest). 231 persons have climbed the Messner list, while 234 have completed the Bass list. 348 have done either the Bass or Messner list.
In 2013, Vanessa O'Brien became the fastest female to complete the Seven Summits (including Carstensz Pyramid), finishing in 10 months. Cason Crane became the first openly gay man to climb the Seven Summits.
On November 21, 2013 Werner Berger (Canada, ex-South African), at age of 76 years 129 days, became the oldest person in the world to complete the Seven Summits after a 6-day jungle trek to Carstensz Pyramid, Indonesia (the "Messner-7" which incl. Mt. Kosciusko). On 16 December 2014, Tashi Malik and Nungshi Malik became world's first twins and siblings to complete the Seven Summits(the "Messner-7")
Alpinism author Jon Krakauer (1997) wrote in Into Thin Air that it would be a bigger challenge to climb the second-highest peak of each continent, known as the Seven Second Summits—a feat that was not accomplished until January 2012. This is especially true for Asia, as K2 (8,611 m) demands greater technical climbing skills than Everest (8,848 m), while altitude-related factors such as the thinness of the atmosphere, high winds and low temperatures remain much the same. Some of those completing the seven ascents are aware of the magnitude of the challenge. In 2000, in a foreword to Steve Bell et al., Seven Summits, Morrow opined with humility "[t]he only reason Reinhold [Messner] wasn’t the first person to complete the seven was that he was too busy gambolling up the 14 tallest mountains in the world."
Related climbing list concepts
Some have now gone further to a "eight summits" concept that includes both the "Messner" and "Bass" peaks.
- Everest (29,035 feet) – Asia
- Aconcagua (22,834 feet) – South America
- Denali (20,310 feet) – North America
- Kilimanjaro (19,339 feet) – Africa
- Elbrus (18,510 feet)
- Vinson (16,067 feet) – Antarctica
- Carstensz (16,023 feet)
- Kosciuszko (7,310 feet)
- Explorers Grand Slam, also known as The Adventurers Grand Slam
- Extreme points of Earth
- Extremes on Earth
- List of highest mountains
- List of islands by highest point
- Lists of mountains (for other climbing lists)
- Seven Second Summits
- Seven Third Summits
- Territorial claims of Antarctica
- Three Poles Challenge
- Volcanic Seven Summits
- A higher elevation of 5,030 m (16,503 ft) still appears on some maps and sites, but is accepted by neither Indonesia nor the mountaineering community, nor is it supported by modern surveys. High resolution IFSAR data supplied by Intermap shows no cell higher than 4,863 m (15,955 ft). See also Australian Universities' Expedition (section 2, page 4).
- "The Adventurer: Dick Bass' Many Summits".
- Statistical Yearbook of Croatia, 2007
- Seven Summits: Defining the Continents
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- Hamill 2012, p. 284.
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- abc-of-mountaineering.com "History of the Quest for the Seven Summits (2004)" Retrieved 2 January 2015.
- British Mountaineering Council: "60 years of Seven Summits peak bagging (29/08/2013)" by Lindsay Griffin, thebmc.co.uk, Retrieved 2 January 2015.
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- Carlos Soria culmina las "Siete Cumbres" casi a los 71 años (Spanish)
- Harry Kikstra's 7Summits database at http://www.7summits.com
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- Eight Summits
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