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In 1986, American businessman Richard Bass landed within the file books by changing into the primary individual to climb the “seven summits,” the very best peaks from every continent. On that record are a few of the most iconic mountains on the earth: Denali in Alaska, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and naturally Mount Everest.
However mountain climbers aren’t the type of people that simply let data relaxation. For a lot of mountaineers, it’s the seven second summits – aka the second highest peak on every continent – which might be thought of a extra vital feat.
These mountains are much less well-known, much less in style with novice climbers and fewer commercialized. Probably the most well-known of the group is K2, situated on the border of Pakistan and China within the Karakoram Vary.
The remaining, although, are something however family names.
Ojos de Salado (“Salty Eyes”) on the Chile-Argentina border is the very best volcano on the planet. Mount Tyree in Antarctica is comparatively simple to climb by mountaineering requirements, however the challenges of attending to the White Continent and dealing with its climate situations imply that solely a few dozen climbers have ever made it to the highest.
Just one individual has formally climbed all seven of the second summits, however there’s somebody sizzling on his heels to finish the set. And she or he isn’t what most individuals assume a mountaineer appears like – she’s a mother of seven who lives in Utah and didn’t begin climbing till she was in her thirties.
Meet Jenn Drummond. Drummond has all the time been athletic, and she or he loves a problem.
Along with her fortieth birthday on the horizon in 2020, she determined to take her mountain climbing expertise to the following degree.
That 12 months, she employed a climbing coach, with the aim of summiting Ama Dablam, a mountain in Nepal.
However after finishing it, the coach offered a brand new problem – the Seven Second Summits. “He stated, ‘you’ve seven youngsters, there are seven continents,” she recollects.
However climbing mountains requires much more than bodily coaching. Covid threw the entire world into disarray – immediately, Drummond needed to residence college her youngsters, and worldwide border closures made it not possible to journey.
As soon as Chile reopened to vacationers in fall 2021, Drummond headed there to climb Ojos de Salado, her first of the seven peaks.
Thus far, she has climbed Dykh-Tau, Mount Kenya, Mount Tyree and most just lately Mount Logan in Canada. K2 is deliberate for summer time 2022.
Drummond’s quest to climb the seven second summits has changed into a barely longer undertaking on account of some disagreement about which peaks rely because the official seven.
For those who solely think about the continent to be the nation of Australia itself, the second summit there’s Mount Townsend within the state of New South Wales.
However for geographers who think about Australasia and Oceania a part of the continent, the second summit is Sumantri in Indonesia’s West Papua province. To verify her file is indeniable, Drummond plans to climb each.
In an anecdotal story, somebody as soon as requested the explorer George Mallory why he was so determined to summit Mount Everest, the mountain that finally claimed his life.
“As a result of it’s there,” he responded.
Though it’s not clear whether or not Mallory truly uttered these phrases, they’ve lengthy been a touchstone for different climbers who wrestle to elucidate why they danger life and limb to summit the world’s most difficult mountains.
Drummond agrees. She likes to climb mountains for the sake of the act. However she additionally is aware of that data imply one thing.
“if I had a Guinness World File, my youngsters would truly assume I’m cool,” she laughs.
She additionally desires to handle a few of the inequalities that exist within the small, rarefied world of mountaineering. For years, the picture of a mountain climber was somebody like Reinhold Messner or Edmund Hillary – bearded, severe, ice-ax-toting white males from Europe or North America.
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Organizations like Full Circle, an all-Black group of mountaineers who summited Everest in Might 2022, are displaying the world that excessive actions like mountaineering can be found to anybody with the grit to attempt.
Mountaineering will be exceptionally harmful. Individuals can die from altitude illness, falls and the chilly. But it surely’s not solely the mountains themselves that present challenges.
On the base of Sumantri, two rival tribes are at warfare over who has the rights to the mine there. And the continued battle in Russia has resulted in lots of airways stopping flights to the nation, which signifies that Dykh-Tau is difficult to succeed in.
It’s also costly and time-consuming.
Merely getting a allow to hike Everest prices $11,000. That doesn’t embrace airfare, native transportation, gear and information charges.
Plus, it will probably take weeks and even months to scale a few of the world’s highest peaks because of the acclimation course of.
For Drummond, being a girl on a mountain is an asset, not a weak spot.
“There’s undoubtedly individuals who method the mountains as me versus the mountain,” she says.
“For me, it’s so far more an expertise of being with the mountain. For those who go into Everest and also you’re within the Himalaya mountain vary, that mountain vary in my view could be very female. It’s very loving. It’s monumental. It’s stunning. The persons are unbelievable. They honor life. They pray earlier than they climb the mountain.”
Her climbs have additionally develop into a strategy to join along with her youngsters, who vary in age from 9 to fifteen. Some have joined her on climbs, whereas others choose to hang around on decrease floor.
However they’ve all been watching their mom pursue her aim. Drummond has used her mission as a strategy to inspire the youngsters in their very own lives.
“We’ll take a look at Mount Everest,” she tells them throughout a homework session, “however first you’re going to do your math.”
