Loading ...Yesterday we reported that Johnny Collinson reached the summit of Vinson Massif making him the youngest to summit all Seven Summits. The seven summits are the highest peak on each of the seven continents and are coveted by mountaineers. Many dream of reaching just one of the summits, but to reach them all is truly a feat. Even if you have the skills to climb these peaks, what about the cost?
For reference, here is the list of the seven summits:
- North America - Denali (Mt McKinley) 20,320 ft
- South America - Aconcagua 22,840 ft
- Europe - Mt Elbrus 18,510 ft
- Africa - Kilimanjaro - 19,340 ft
- Asia - Mt Everest 29,029 ft
- Antarctica - Vinson Massif 16,050 ft
- Australia/Oceania - Carstenz Pyramid 16,024 ft
*For Australia/Oceania some use Kosciuszko in Australia for their list. But we'll use Carstenz in Indonesia since it's higher.
Guide Services -$105,850 - $169,900
Taken from the WhatItCosts.com research on guide services. This is a range and can be customized. But it is a great starting point for our calculations.
Gear - $2,000
All the costs being listed here are obviously a ballpark figure. These are also assuming that you already have some of the essentials like a backpack and trekking boots. If you don't have a backpack then, my friend, you might want to just think about spending your money in other ways. With that said, you can rent gear from an outfitter or buy it. Needless to say if you're climbing the highest peak on every continent you should probably invest in your own gear. Basic items like down jackets, crampons, ice axe, helmet, base layers, mid layers, shell layer, gaiters, gloves, plastic boots, trekking poles, harness, and a few pieces of technical gear would need to be purchased. Tents, ropes, and other group gear would be the responsibility of the guides. With all that said, I'm going to place the price on this one at $2,000. That is a conservative figure, assuming you shop around.
Training - $1,170
This is something that most likely could be included in your guide packages. Let's assume you already have experience as a peakbagger, and backpacker, and that you've done some rock climbing. If you want to play it safe you would get a Wilderness First Aid course as well as a course in basic climbing techniques such as self arrest. A course in crevasse rescue would most likely also be on the list of needed training. The American Alpine Institute has a 7 Summits Training Course, but doesn't list a price. If you piece together the crevasse rescue/glacier training and wilderness first aid training would total $770 (Glacier/Crevasse $570 + WFA $200). This didn't include travel to and from the training so $400 was added in case a flight is needed.
Airfare - $9,200
This one is tricky. As we all know airfare fluctuates quite a bit throughout the year and depends on fuel surcharges and more. So to make this a smooth process I went to a popular airfare booking site and entered in travel from NYC to all destinations you would need to fly to for a seven summit bid. These are rates as of mid January 2010, and seemed a bit on the low side to me for an average. Also, remember these fares are from NYC. If you would be needing to connect from a smaller city estimate more. Another good point is that this number could realistically double if prices go up and depending on seasonality. Total is $9,200.
Incidentals - $1,500
Travel insurance, visas, passport, vaccinations, and more all add to the total. This is an elusive figure but let's say you get $100 of travel insurance for each trip and get shots for each trip. We'll ballpark it at $1,500.
So the grand total for a seven summits bid, as it stands today (ballpark) would be....
$119,720 - $183,870
"Hey boss.... so I was thinking of taking 2011 off, any thoughts?"
"Honey, I hope you and the kids understand, but I am selling our house and cars. I need to free up some funds to climb the seven summits."
Synopsis: If you're a serious climber with alot of extra cashola laying around, go for it. If you are going through a mid-life crisis buy one of these.
Similar Posts:
- Youngest Person to Climb Seven Summits - Johnny Collinson
- New Speed Record for Seven Summits
- Travel Tip - When and How to Hire a Guide
- Super Sherpas
- Renting Outdoor Gear Online?
- Sibusiso Vilane
- Figure Eight Knot
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With all the money I am making cleaning up ash I think I will give this a shot.
The toughest one to get the skills for is actually Carstenz, where you either have to be an OK climber with exceptional ideas about the route, or a very good climber or you have to have money to pay for someone who knows the route well and can show you, how to take the edge out of it.
Fourth option would be "Go for a hike in Australia", just as everybody knows, who thinks about the seven summits.
The most expensive one is actually Mount Vinson, since Flight + BaseCamp is an absolute monopoly and it's virtually impossible to get a permit + transportation cheaper.
North side Everest packages start at around 9000 $, which includes climbing permit, acccess to the fixed lines, transport of equipment to BC and a couple more things, like walkie talkie to a different team.
That means no Sherpa, no Guide, no Oz. Probably none of us would make that, at least not those, who think these mountains could or should be tackled with money.
You can negotiate more than sufficient high-camp oz for a couple thousand.
Do you want and need a guide? The death-ratio of guided climbers is slightly higher than the ratio of private climbers. And there is even more to it: Do you know, how the difference feels, whether you climb guided, or climb for yourself? You think a completely different way about the mountain and you will feel a different kind of achievement. A guide is going to take away most of that from you!
There are other things you can do to better your chances: With time for acclimatization and required rest, the time-window actually is narrow, to have that perfect day and feel strong on it. There usually isn't a second chance to push. Buy yourself a low-oxygen tent or something to do altitude-training and then come up there pre-acclimatized. You'll feel stronger, establish your camps faster and you'll have better chances to hit the perfect day.
I think it is great to climb independently and just pick the necessary extras, just as it's great to have a second or third shot if the first one doesn't succeed.
If you don't agree with me yet, just go and climb Elbrus and Aconcagua unguided. You can go solo and meet people. It's great, it's fun, it's cheap and you will feel like, you made it yourself. Maybe you have to do one of them twice, but every single one will feel like a real achievement.
Make up your mind about guides, when you actually get to everest or denali. If you really feel like needing a guide, you might just want to buy yourself a tent, find some friends and start with similar peaks that are easier. Elbrus and Aconcagua are good places to find people, that would actually do are couple more mountains with you on a low budget and get some great experience - and I mean experience from the trip as well as experience for the next trip. You can do Cho Oyu on a budget of 5500-6000 and I hope, you wont see it as an everest training hill. I would strongly suggest, whoever reads the article saves 105,850 to 169,900 in guide services and enjoys to put some 30.000 in training and equipment. The equipment-budget in this article is tight from my point of view. Training budget will be all right, if you have a good guide on Carstenz - I'd rather suggest, that within the two years you probably need for Elbrus, Kili, Aconcagua and Denali you take several Rock-climbing classes per year, improve your skills and pratice.
Save climbing to everyone of you!
[...] the official blog of Outdoorzy.com, has an interesting post up January 22, 2010 that examines the costs of climbing the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on all seven [...]
[...] the official blog of Outdoorzy.com, has an interesting post up January 22, 2010 that examines the costs of climbing the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on all seven [...]