The Eight Summits [1] is the collective name for the eight highest mountain peaks on each of the seven continents (Australia has two entries). It is an alternative name for the "Seven Summits" due to different ways in naming the highest mountain on the continent of Australia.
Mountaineers can all agree that climbing all the summits is among the supreme accomplishments of their sport. The list of successful climbers has been listed on the Internet as a lifetime pride. [2]
The Eight Summits consists of:
Puncak Jaya is also the highest mountain peak of an island on Earth.
Due to the difference in definition and the controversy on the boundaries of continents, there were several proposed versions of the "Seven Summits". [3]
The most prominent one includes "The Messner List" which omitted Mount Kosciuszko in Mainland Australia. Supporters of this list argue that Puncak Jaya in Indonesia should be regarded as the Summit for the Australian continent.[ citation needed ] This is also due to the fact that reaching the summit of Mount Kosciuszko involves a simple hike with no mountaineering requirements and is thus a considerably easier task than any of the other mountains. Another list is called "The Bass List", named after Richard Bass, the first mountaineer to complete his particular list of "Seven Summits" which omitted Puncak Jaya in Indonesia.
This results in the list for the "Eight Summits", including both Puncak Jaya (also named Carstensz Pyramid or abbreviated as CP) and Mount Kosciuszko (abbreviated as K). This list is also called "The Bass and Messner List".
Mount Kosciuszko is mainland Australia's highest mountain, at 2,228 metres (7,310 ft) above sea level. It is located on the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko National Park, part of the Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves, in New South Wales, Australia, and is located west of Crackenback and close to Jindabyne, near the border with Victoria. Mount Kosciuszko is ranked 35th by topographic isolation.
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains on each of the seven traditional continents. On 30 April 1985, Richard Bass became the first climber to reach the summit of all seven.
Reinhold Andreas Messner is an Italian climber, explorer, and author from the German-speaking province of South Tyrol. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen. He was the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, doing so without supplementary oxygen. Messner was the first to cross Antarctica and Greenland with neither snowmobiles nor dog sleds and also crossed the Gobi Desert alone. He is widely considered to be the greatest mountaineer of all time.
Richard Daniel "Dick" Bass was an American businessman, rancher and mountaineer. He was the owner of Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah and the first man to climb the "Seven Summits", the tallest mountain on each continent.
Patrick Allan Morrow, is a Canadian photographer and mountain climber. In 1986 he was the first person to climb the Seven Summits in the Carstensz-Version.
Puncak Trikora is a 4,730 or 4,750-metre-high (15,584 ft) mountain in the Highland Papua province of Indonesia on New Guinea. It lies in the eastern part of the Sudirman (Nassau) Range of the Maoke Mountains.
Michael Graeme Groom is an Australian mountaineer. In 1995, Groom became the fourth person ever to reach the summits of the five highest peaks in the world without using bottled oxygen. In 1987 he lost the front third of his feet to frostbite after descending from the summit of Kangchenjunga. Despite this, he managed to summit Mount Everest in 1993 and again in 1996. He has also completed the Seven Summits.
The Seven Second Summits are the second-highest mountains of each of the seven continents. All of these mountains are separate peaks rather than a sub-peak of the continents' high point. The Seven Second Summits are considered a harder challenge than the traditional Seven Summits.
Christian Stangl is an Austrian alpine style mountaineer and mountain guide. He has become known as Skyrunner by numerous exceptionally fast ascents of high mountains. His major success was in 2013, when he became the first person to ascend the three highest mountains on all seven continents, the so-called "Triple Seven Summits".
Puncak Mandala or Mandala Peak is a mountain located in Highland Papua, Indonesia. At 4,760 metres (15,617 ft), it is the highest point of the Jayawijaya (Orange) Range and is included in Seven Second Summits. Following Puncak Jaya/Mount Carstensz 350 km to the west, Mandala is the second-highest freestanding mountain in Oceania, Australasia, New Guinea, and Indonesia.
Puncak Jaya or Carstensz Pyramid on the island of New Guinea, with an elevation of 4,884 m (16,024 ft), is the highest mountain peak of an island on Earth, and the highest peak in Indonesia. The mountain is located in the Sudirman Range of the highlands of Mimika Regency, Central Papua, Indonesia. Puncak Jaya is ranked 5th in the world by topographic isolation.
Ngga Pulu is summit on the north rim of Mount Carstensz in the western part of the island of New Guinea rising 4,862 metres (15,951 ft). Trigonometric measurements showed that Ngga Pulu was the highest mountain of New Guinea and also the highest summit of the Australia-New Guinea continent. The elevation of Ngga Pulu in 1936 was about 4,907 m (16,099 ft), and it was the highest and most prominent peak between the Himalaya and the Andes. However, due to glacial melting, Ngga Pulu lost a high margin of elevation in the 20th century, being surpassed by Puncak Jaya. It is surrounded by one of Indonesia's only three glaciers, including the one on Puncak Trikora.
Sumantri Peak is a sharp mountain in the western Sudirman Range. It rises 4,870 metres (15,978 ft).
Chris Jensen Burke is a New Zealand–Australian mountain climber who was the first New Zealand or Australian woman to reach the summit of K2. Since climbing Mount Everest on 20 May 2011, Burke has climbed nine other eight-thousanders, including K2 on 26 July 2014 and Kanchenjunga on 17 May 2018. She is also the first New Zealand or Australian woman to complete the Seven Summits.
Samina Khayal Baig is a Pakistani mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest in 2013, all Seven Summits by 2014, and K2 in 2022. She is the first Pakistani woman to climb Everest, K2 and the Seven Summits. She climbed Mt. Everest at the age of 21.
The Seven Third Summits are the third-highest mountains of each of the seven continents. All of these mountain peaks are separate peaks rather than a sub-peak of the continents' high point. Christian Stangl from Austria claims to be the first person to reach the summit of all seven third summit mountains after climbing Puncak Mandala and Puncak Trikora. He did this as a part of his "Triple Seven Summits" project. Because of glacial melting and the disagreement over exactly which three peaks are the tallest in the Australian continent, Stangl also climbed several additional candidate peaks including Sumantri and Ngga Pulu.
The Indonesia Women Seven Summits Expedition was a team of Indonesian women with a stated objective to scale all Seven Summits within two years, starting on August 17, 2014. The team's mission was to promote sexual equality, following the eponymic Indonesia Seven Summits Expedition, which would not admit female mountaineers. On May 17, 2018, the two most senior female members scaled Mount Everest, the final summit of the expedition.
Wang Jing is a Chinese climber, author, entrepreneur and member of The Explorers Club in the United States. Wang is best known for her feat in becoming the fastest woman in the world to complete the Explorers Grand Slam in 143 days and the fastest woman to climb Seven Summits with an assist from helicopters. The Explorers Grand Slam involves reaching the highest peak on every continent plus at a minimum of skiing the last degree (111 km) to the North and South poles. Wang recorded this adventure in her book Silence of the Summit, which was published in English in December 2018.
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