The Seven Summits* are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. (Completing the Seven Summits and additionally reaching the north and south poles has been dubbed the Explorers Grand Slam!).
So especially for Eagles, starting this Monday 9th November, until Monday 30th November, inclusive, a club effort: to run the equivalent accumulated elevation of these 7 peaks combined:
Everest 8,894m
Elbrus 5,642m
Kilimanjaro 5,895m
Aconcagua 6,961m
Vinson Massif 4,892m
McKinley 6,194m
Carstensz 4,884m
= Total: 43,362 meters!
Elevation Challenge Guidelines:
Run or walk as many elevation meters as possible in 3 weeks, submit your progress on this form (as for Round the World in 80 Days):
Running or walking stairs or steps, indoors or outdoors, also counts (in itself a serious challenge!). To save angst-ridden measurements, use the formula 10 stairs/steps = 3 meters elevation (we’ve tried this out!).
No Garmin/Strava etc evidence required (unless you want to illustrate a particularly stupendous climb): we trust you all!
Please share tips for particularly good hills/steps to run: e.g. West Walk, Northala mounds, Trumpers Way, Gunnersbury steps, etc.
If you know the elevation of certain routes, please share: this will help any without the technology, or when walking (which doesn’t always provide elevation), and also our Juniors, who will have a similar challenge.
Please post photos on Facebook, &/or anecdotes, as so many did for RTWI80. Any quotes, mantras, pithy sayings, poems (acrostic: EEKAVMC?), also fun.
BONUS challenge: peaks #8 & 9 (Mont Blanc 4,810m & Mount Kosciuszko 2,228m)!
*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 points of variation: the first is Mont Blanc versus Mount Elbrus for Europe; the second depends on whether one includes all of Oceania or only mainland Australia, which results in either Carstensz Pyramid or Mount Kosciuszko, respectively.