History

To climb the Seven Summits is to ascend the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. The Seven Summits are defined as Everest (Asia) 8,850m, Aconcagua (South America) 6,961m, Denali (North America) 6,194m, Kilimanjaro (Africa) 5,895m, Elbrus (Europe) 5,642m, Vinson (Antarctica) 4,892m, Carstensz Pyramid (Australasia) or Kosciuszko (Australia) 2,228m.

Though several experienced mountaineers had reached the summit of five or six of these mountains in various versions as early as 1956, it was not until the American Richard Bass successfully climbed all seven of the Kosciuszko version in 1985. He later would co-author the popular book Seven Summits, which greatly increased the interest in the endeavor and opened a path for the commercial guiding industry to climb the Seven Summits.

In 1986 the Canadian Pat Morrow became the first person to complete the Carstensz Pyramid version of the Seven Summits. This is commonly referred to as the Messner version, because after Morrow in 1986, Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner reached the summit of Mt. Vinson on Antarctica and had previously climbed the other six with Carstensz Pyramid and declared this the real list as compared to the easier Kosciuszko version.

The first female to complete the Seven Summits project was Japanese climber Junko Tabei in 1992.

From here we have seen a myriad of firsts on the Seven Summits ranging from the first person from different countries, first male or female from a specific country, or with certain medical conditions, disabilities, etc. All of which can be seen as a great personal achievement.