Minus 148°: The First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinleyArt DavidsonThis site is kept going by its readers. Give once, any amount.
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* Estimated date, duration, or age: only the year (or year and month) was recorded; the exact day is unknown.
“Not known”: some summits on this record have no date, so this figure cannot be worked out.
≈ before a place or date: finish date not known. Some summits are undated, so we place the climber by the latest summit we can date; they finished on or after it.
Also confirmed ‡
‡ These summits are confirmed as part of this climber's 7summits completion, but the exact dates are not yet on record. We are still researching the details.
Andy van der Velde is a South African logistics executive who has run Berco Express and DPD South Africa, and lives in Cape Town. He took up high-altitude climbing after a trip up Kilimanjaro, climbed Elbrus in June 2006 and Aconcagua in January 2007, and on 16 May 2007 reached the summit of Everest from Tibet by the North-East Ridge, the tenth South African to stand on top.
He was part of the first South African team to go to the North Pole, guided by Sean Disney of Adventure Dynamics, and in the 2012-13 Antarctic season he climbed Vinson and then skied the last degree to the South Pole with the same company. He climbed Kosciuszko in March 2013, which by his own account completed both the 7 summits and the Explorers Grand Slam.
