Ascents of the Seven Summits as a climbing goal gained attention in the late 1980's. Pat Morrow, a Canadian mountaineer, became the first to climb all seven in 1985, and that achievement was soon followed by success by mid-50-year-olds Dick Bass and Frank Wells. Their publication of a book in 1988 gained great media attention.

Previously, several climbers had sought and succeeded on five or six of the seven peaks, and in fact by 1978, Reinhold Messner (one of the most influencial mountaineers in history and an architect of the Seven Summits idea) succeded on six of the seven. Messner had actually climbed what he believed then to be the Seven Summits, because there was some debate regarding whether Australia should be considered its own continent by itself, or if the surrounding islands, including New Guinea should be considered part of Australia. It is Carstenz Pyramid, a 16,023-foot rock tower in Papua New Guinea that is now officially considered the seventh summit, soaring for higher than mainland Australia's highest peak, Kosciuszko (7310 feet). Some still proclaim there to be Eight Summits (including Kosciuszko) or even the Nine Summits (including Mont Blanc).

By 1999, 60 climbers worldwide had completed the Seven Summits. With the start of the 21st century, the numbers of climbers interested in attaining this goal rocketed up, and over the last 10 years the Seven Summits have received a lot of press and are now well known as a popular climbing objective.

• North America - Denali (officially named Mt. McKinley) 20,320 feet / 6494 meters


• South America - Aconcagua 22,841 feet / 6962 meters


• Europe - Elbrus 18,510 feet / 5642 meters


• Asia - Everest 29,035 feet / 8850 meters


• Africa - Kilimanjaro 19,343 feet / 5895 meters


• Antartica - Vinson 16,067 feet / 4897 meters


• Australia/Oceania/Australasia - Carstensz Pyramid (also known as Puncak Jaya) 16,024 feet / 4884 meters in Papua New Guinea and/or Kosciuszko 7310 feet / 2228 meters in Australia

Strategy and Logical Progression - Here is a logical order for climbing these mountains, based on their difficulty:

1. Kilimanjaro
2. Mt. Elbrus
3. Mt. Vinson or Aconcagua
4. Carstenz Pyramid
5. Denali
6. Everest

Though a few people have tried to complete their ascents of all seven summits in a year or two, most take longer because each peak requires progressively more skill and experience. While some climbers do in fact start with Kilimanjaro and move through the list to Everest without doing much other climbing along the way, this is definitely not the safest method nor the approach most likely to bring success.

For example, there are quite a few skills needed to climb Denali - such as a solid level of snow and ice climbing ability and intimate knowledge of glacier travel procedures - and these skills aren't necessarily picked up on any of the easier Seven Summits. Climbers planning to move on to Denali will commonly take a few intermediate-level climbing courses first (such as Introduction to Alpinism plus a Denali Prep program either on the glaciers of the Cascades or Alaska.

Another example is Carstenz Pyramid, which requires the ability to climb up to 5.8 (following) at high altitude (16,000 feet); those who aren't highly skilled on rock will commonly take an Intermediate Rock course and sometimes choose to climb a major objective in the Cascades (Mt. Stuart, North Ridge, the Sierra (Mt. Whitney, East Buttress), or the Alps (the Matterhorn), to employ the same skills in a less extreme setting.

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Give us a call at 360-671-1505 anytime to discuss your personalized strategy for training for and attaining the Seven Summits. You can also drop us an email at info@aai.cc