Makalu from the Third Step on Everest, just after sunrise
Routes, seasons, permits, operators and what each peak actually asks of you.
Every finisher on our record, searchable by name, country, year and route.
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7 continents, but two defensible answers for Australasia, which is why the full set is 8 mountains, not 7. Each one has its own guide.
'Everest: The Other Side' gets a 30 October releaseThe IMAX documentary following ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson on the north side of Everest opens in theatres…
Film of the week: Everest (1998)David Breashears took an IMAX camera to Everest in the spring of 1996, and his team was on the mountain…
Which of the 7 summits should you climb first?Start with Kilimanjaro: it teaches you how your body handles altitude and asks for no technical skill.
Book of the week: Into Thin AirJon Krakauer was on Everest in May 1996 as a client on a guided team, and came home with the…Kosciuszko vs Carstensz Pyramid, Bass list vs Messner lists. Which one counts? Two people drew the list differently, so we record both and say which one each finisher completed.
Dick Bass took Kosciuszko, the highest point of mainland Australia and a walk-up. It is the older list, and the one most finishers claim.
Reinhold Messner argued the continent is Australasia, which makes Carstensz Pyramid the peak: a technical rock climb in Papua, and a far harder day.
Film of the week
Book of the week
Dick Bass's own account of the climbs that created the list almost everyone still counts by. Read it and the Bass-versus-Messner argument stops being trivia.
Each of these was checked by hand before it appeared here.
Completed both lists Provisional approval: more details needed
Behind every line in the record is someone who spent years, and usually a good deal more than money, getting there.
Jenn Drummond
Joyce Azzam
Atanas Skatov
Tore Sunde-rasmussen
Maxim Shakirov
Jaco Ottink
Toshihiko Tamura
Andrey Muravyov
Denis Grachev
Oleg Savchenko
Young-Seok Park
Geordie Stewart
Frank Fumich
Josh Gates
Alexander Tertychny
Galymzhan Kuspanov
Gene Rehfeld
Julie McKelvey
Ryan Waters
Wilco van Rooijen
Basar Carovac
Wolfgang Fasching
Rudy van Snick
Jur RademakersThe 7 summits are the highest mountains of the seven continents: Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson and, depending on which list you follow, Carstensz Pyramid or Kosciuszko. This site holds a guide to each of the eight, the record of everyone who has climbed them all, and the companies that take people up.
What are the 7 summits? →Send us your summit dates and we will check them against operators, photographs and what is already on file. It costs nothing, and your entry stays yours to correct.
