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The 7 Summits Challenge

North face of Mt. Everest (© P. Gatta)

The 7 Summits: Everest, Aconcagua, McKinley, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, Carstensz Pyramid

Almost 30 years ago Dick Bass and Franck Wells conceived the idea of the 7 Summits. This Challenge consists in climbing the highest mountain of each of the 7 continents. Dick Bass was the first one to succeed this challenge in 1985, but a controversy started a few times later about the actual list of the 7 summits. Depending on the geographical, geologic or geopolitics limits; the highest summit of Europe is either the Mont Blanc (France, 4807 m), or Elbrus (Russia, 5662 m). The polemic is even stronger for 7th summit in Oceania with either Kosciuszko (Australia, 2228 m) or the Carstensz Pyramid (Indonesia, 4884 m).

Today there are two "official" lists of the 7 Summits: Bass' version with Kosciuszko as 7th summit and the Messner's list with the Carstensz Pyramid as 7th summit. In both cases, Elbrus is considered as the top of Europe.

Around 110 climbers have completed Carstensz Pyramid version of the 7 summits challenge. Philippe Gatta is the 7th Frenchmen.

The Map of the 7 summits

7 Summits map (Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The list of 7 summits

Philippe Gatta has finished the Challenge on March 30th 2008. He has climbed each summit on his first attempt.

Summit	Elevation	Continent	Range	Country	Date
Mount Everest	8850m	Asia	Himalaya	Nepal, China	24 May 2007 (story)
Cerro Aconcagua	6962m	South America	Andes	Argentina	5 January 2007 (story)
McKinley (Denali)	6194m	North America	Alaska Range	USA	7 June 2004 (story)
Kilimanjaro	5895m	Africa	Kilimanjaro	Tanzania	7 March 2003 (story)
Elbrus	5642m	Europe	Caucasus	Russia	12 September 2007 (story)
Mount Vinson	4892m	Antarctica	Ellsworth Mountains		28 December 2007 (story)
Carstensz Pyramid	4884m	Australia - New Guinea	Pegunungan Maoke	Indonesia	30 March 2008 (story)