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Snow-covered summit of Makalu rising above a level sea of cloud, lit from the side by low sun, under a dark banded sky.

Makalu from the Third Step on Everest, just after sunrise

The 7 summits list and climbing guides

The 7 summits are the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. 7summits.com keeps the verified list of everyone who has climbed them, free to join, and a route guide to all eight peaks.

Explore the guides →Browse the finisher record

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813
Finishers
474
Kosciuszko list
575
Carstensz list
264
Completed both lists

The 7 summits guidebooks

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7 summits news

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7 summits. Two lists.

7 continents, but two defensible answers for Australasia, which is why the full set is 8 mountains, not 7. Each one has its own guide.

  1. Aconcagua 6,961 m22,838 ft · South AmericaBoth
  2. Carstensz Pyramid 4,884 m16,024 ft · OceaniaMessner
  3. Denali 6,190 m20,308 ft · North AmericaBoth
  4. Elbrus 5,642 m18,510 ft · EuropeBoth
  5. Everest 8,849 m29,032 ft · AsiaBoth
  6. Kilimanjaro 5,895 m19,341 ft · AfricaBoth
  7. Kosciuszko 2,228 m7,310 ft · AustraliaBass
  8. Vinson 4,892 m16,050 ft · AntarcticaBoth

Bass list vs Messner list

Kosciuszko vs Carstensz Pyramid, Bass list vs Messner lists. Which one counts? Two people drew the list differently, so we record both and say which one each finisher completed.

  • The Kosciuszko list (Bass)

    Dick Bass took Kosciuszko, the highest point of mainland Australia and a walk-up. It is the older list, and the one most finishers claim.

  • The Carstensz Pyramid list (Messner)

    Reinhold Messner argued the continent is Australasia, which makes Carstensz Pyramid the peak: a technical rock climb in Papua, and a far harder day.

How we count them →

Film of the week

The Man Who Skied Down Everest

Oscar-winning doc on Yuichiro Miura's 1970 Everest ski attempt.

Read more →

Book of the week

Minus 148°: The First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinleyArt Davidson

Dick Bass's own account of the climbs that created the list almost everyone still counts by. Read it and the Bass-versus-Messner argument stops being trivia.

Read more →

People, not rows

Behind every line in the record is someone who spent years, and usually a good deal more than money, getting there.

Meet them all →

New here? Start with what the 7 summits are

The 7 summits are the highest mountains of the seven continents: Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson and, depending on which list you follow, Carstensz Pyramid or Kosciuszko. This site holds a guide to each of the eight, the record of everyone who has climbed them all, and the companies that take people up.

What are the 7 summits? →

Finished the 7 summits? Get on the record.

Send us your summit dates and we will check them against operators, photographs and what is already on file. It costs nothing, and your entry stays yours to correct.

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