Polar regions

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.

The highest peak in North America, Mount Denali at 6,190 m is a mountain with few equals in terms of challenge and scenic beauty, halfway between the very high attitude and the polar, reserved for experienced mountaineers. Its completely autonomous climbing conditions and extreme weather make it one of the most difficult of the Seven Summits.

At 5.15pm on Tuesday 31 May 2022, a group of four, including Éric Bonnem, founder of Secret Planet and Expeditions Unlimited, reached the summit of Mount Denali at 6,190 meters. A wild and beautiful expedition, which we'll be reporting on shortly, and which gave us the urge to delve back into the history of the first mountaineers to have trodden this superb mountain almost 110 years earlier, in far more heroic conditions! Mount McKinley... Denali.

For several years, thanks to our great friend, guide and explorer, Dixie Dansercoer, who tragically passed away in Greenland in June 2021, we have been developing a rare expertise in expedition snowkiting, whether crossing Greenland, Antarctica or Alaska. Thanks to him, we've been able to get close to the best polar kiters in the world, and it's in this spirit that we're now expanding our range of programs, with four new stays or mini-expeditions guided by French snowkiter Michaël Charavin.

Jérôme Brisebourg is currently attempting to reach the South Pole via the Amundsen route in his latest challenge to complete the Explorers Grand Slam. Historically, fewer than a hundred people in the world have achieved this feat, and perhaps one or two in France.

Antarctic ICE is the longest expedition without supplies and without motorised assistance ever carried out in Antarctica. Between November 2011 and January 2012, Belgian explorers Dixie Dansercoer, co-founder of EXPEDITIONS UNLIMITED, and Sam Deltour broke the world record for the longest Antarctic expedition without supplies and without motorised assistance. Dixie and Sam achieved this feat during their Antarctic ICE adventure in East Antarctica, the last unexplored region of our planet.