Seven Summits

The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven traditional continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them was first done on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. Once considered a mountaineering challenge, in January 2023, Climbing said "Today, the Seven Summits are a relatively common—almost cliché—tour of each continent's highest peak", and that the real challenge was the Explorer's Grand Slam, the Seven Summits with the North and South poles. Definitions The Seven Summits are composed of each of the highest mountain peaks on each of the continents. Different lists include slight variations, but generally the same core is maintained. The seven summits depend on the definition used for a continent – in particular the location of the border of that continent. This results in two major points of variation. The first one is Mont Blanc versus Mount Elbrus for Europe, which depends on whether the crest of the Greater Caucasus Mountains is taken to define the Greater Caucasus watershed which marks the continental boundary between Asia and Europe for the region between the Black and Caspian seas; this classification would place Mount Elbrus in Asia instead of Europe. The second one is Puncak Jaya (also known as "Carstensz Pyramid") versus Mount Kosciuszko for the continent of Australia, which depends on whether one includes the Sahul Shelf or only mainland Australia as the continent. This also gives rise to another list called the "Eight Summits", which includes both Puncak Jaya and Mount Kosciuszko along with the six summits on the other continents. This creates several possible versions of the seven summits: Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Elbrus, Mount Wilhelm (Continent) Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Elbrus, Kosciuszko (the Bass version) Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Elbrus, Puncak Jaya (the Messner version) Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Mont Blanc, Mount Wilhelm (the Wilhelm version) Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Mont Blanc, Kosciuszko (the 1950s explorer Hackett version) Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Mont Blanc, Puncak Jaya Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Mauna Kea, Puncak Jaya / Kosciuszko (the tectonic version)