Challenges

Conceived by Dick Bass and Franck Wells in 1985, the Seven Summits challenge involves climbing the highest peak on each of the seven continents: Everest (8848 m), Aconcagua (6962 m), Mount Denali (6190 m), Kilimanjaro (5895 m), Elbrus (5646 m), Mount Vinson (4892 m) and Carstensz Pyramid (4884 m).

Having climbed Peak Lenin three times, this year we tackled the second Snow Leopard Challenge peak in (theoretical) order of difficulty: Peak Korjenevskaya. Read the diary of our expedition to Peak Korjenevskaya in Tajikistan in August 2023.

Climbing the Seven Summits. Seven summits for seven ‘continents’. Climbing Mount Vinson, Antarctica's highest peak, has long been a matter of finance. Here's a look back at the development of mountaineering on the icy continent and the history of the Seven Summits, a speciality of Expeditions Unlimited.

On May 29, 2023, the mountaineering community will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary. Our friend Jean-Michel Asselin, journalist and writer, takes us back to 1953, to relive this feat that forever marked the history of Himalayan climbing.

The 1938 expedition was the last to be led by the British on the north face of Everest. The conquest of the poles eluded them. The French, their long-standing adversaries, took the first 8,000 m ascent from them. That's all they need. Now they have to climb Everest.

At 5,642 meters, Mount Elbrus is the roof of Europe, and not our beloved Mont Blanc, as many people think. To complete the Seven Summits challenge, climbing Elbrus is a must. In this article, we look back at the origins of the ascent to the highest peak in the Caucasus and Europe.

On October 12 1967, to encourage and reward the best in the race to the top, the Bureau of the Central Council of Sports Societies and Organizations of the USSR decided to award a prize to those who managed to climb the five highest Soviet peaks. The Snow Leopard challenge was born.

In the 60s, the USSR was at the height of its glory. But borders were hermetic, and Soviet mountaineers expressed their (immense) talent on the many peaks that stretched from one end of the former Empire of the Tsars to the other. The Himalayas are off-limits to them. On October 12 1967, the Bureau of the Central Council of Sports Societies and Organizations of the USSR decided to award a prize to those who succeeded in climbing the five highest Soviet summits.

Drowned in the equatorial mist, the Carstensz Pyramid, 4,884 meters high, located in Indonesian New Guinea (Irian Jaya), was only climbed in 1962. The highest peak in Oceania, its ascent completes the challenge of the Seven Summits, the seven highest peaks on the continents. A look back at the history of the exploration and conquest of Puncak Jaya.