Who was the first person to climb the 7 summits?

Dick Bass, an American businessman and the owner of the Snowbird ski resort in Utah, was the first person to climb the 7 summits. He finished on Everest on 30 April 1985, aged 55, with Kosciuszko as his seventh peak. Pat Morrow of Canada was the first to finish the version with Carstensz Pyramid, on Elbrus on 5 August 1986. Reinhold Messner finished the same version four months later, on Vinson on 3 December 1986. Junko Tabei of Japan was the first woman, finishing on Elbrus on 28 July 1992, with both versions complete on the same day. All four are in the finisher lists, with the date of every summit.

How the challenge began

The idea came from Bass and Frank Wells, the president of Warner Brothers and later of Disney. In 1981 the two of them, both in their fifties and neither a mountaineer, set out to climb the highest mountain on each continent within a year, hiring the best guides they could find. By the end of 1983 they had done six of the seven; Everest took Bass two more attempts. Wells never reached the top of Everest, and the book they wrote with Rick Ridgeway, Seven Summits, published in 1986, turned a private bet into a goal thousands of climbers have chased since.

Why there are two "firsts"

Bass counted Kosciuszko, the highest point of mainland Australia, a walk. Messner argued that the continent includes New Guinea, so its summit is Carstensz Pyramid, a real climb, and he and Morrow raced to finish that version first. Morrow won it. Both lists survived, and this site keeps both, with the climbers who have done all eight marked. What are the official 7 summits, and what about Kosciuszko? has the argument in full.

The first from each country

The finisher lists mark the first finisher of every country, and the countries page shows them together. As of November 11, 2026, 816 people have followed Bass, Morrow and Messner; How many people have climbed the 7 summits? has the numbers, and the leaderboards the fastest, youngest and oldest.