811 people have climbed the highest mountain on every continent
The relaunched 7summits.com keeps a live record of everyone who has finished the 7 summits, each climber checked by a person and listed with their dates and sources.
Amsterdam, 28 October 2026. 811 climbers have stood on the highest summit of every continent, according to the finisher record at 7summits.com, relaunched this month. The count updates with every approved climber, and every name links to a page with each summit, its date and the sources behind it.
Two lists, both counted
The 7 summits come in two versions. The original, completed first by the American businessman Dick Bass in 1985, counts Kosciuszko on the Australian mainland: 467 climbers have finished it. The second, proposed by Reinhold Messner and completed first by the Canadian Pat Morrow in 1986, counts Carstensz Pyramid in Papua, Indonesia: 571 have finished that one. 260 climbers have done both, all eight summits.
Who they are
The finishers come from 82 countries, and 188 of them are women. Junko Tabei of Japan, the first woman on Everest, became the first woman to finish in 1992. The youngest on the record is Jordan Romero of the United States, who was 15 when he reached the top of Vinson in December 2011. The oldest, Werner Berger of Canada, completed the Carstensz Pyramid list at 76. Most finishers take several years; the fastest rounds on record took about four months.
How a name gets on the record
7summits.com has kept this record since 2001, working with the mountain chronicler Eberhard Jurgalski of 8000ers.com. A climber gives the date of every summit with their evidence, such as summit photos, certificates, press reports or GPS tracks, and a person reads every application. Listing is free. The record is searchable by country, year, sex, age and list, and its statistics measure things like the real summit season on each peak from the finishers' own dates.
For journalists and site owners
The numbers, a fact sheet, story ideas, bios, logos, artwork and screenshots are free to use at 7summits.com/press. Sites that write about the 7 summits can show the four live counts with a small widget that stays current by itself. Harry Kikstra is available for interviews about the record and the mountains.
About 7summits.com
7summits.com is an independent reference for the 7 summits: route guides to all 8 peaks, the record of everyone known to have finished them, a directory of the companies that guide them, a library, news and a forum, in English, Dutch, Spanish and German. It has been online since 2000 and is owned, written and built by Harry Kikstra, a Dutch climber, photographer and writer based in Amsterdam. He completed the Carstensz Pyramid list in 2006 and the Kosciuszko list in 2008, and wrote the Rucksack Readers guidebooks to Aconcagua, Denali and Everest.
Press contact: Harry Kikstra, through 7summits.com/contact. Facts, pictures and files, free to use: 7summits.com/press.
This release in its other versions: for everyone, for climbers, for operators.