Scaling New Heights

When Richard Bass, set out to conquer the seven summits, little did he realize the countless number of people he would inspire, including several female climbers who would follow his footsteps. As of January 2010, approximately 275 climbers have climbed all the seven summits.

For those wondering what are the seven summits- they are the highest mountain peaks of each continent. They include Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (Africa), Vinson Massif (Antarctica) Elbrus in Russia (Europe), Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, Denali in the United States(North America), Aconcagua in Argentina(South America), Mount Everest in Nepal(Asia) and Cotopaxi in Ecuador.

There are a number of record breakers among these 275 people. Prominent among them are Reinhold Messner who was the first person who climbed all the seven summits without the support of artificial oxygen and Lei Wang who was the first Chinese woman as well the first Asian American woman to climb the highest peaks of all seven continents. Lei Wang also has another feather to her cap, she is the first Chinese woman to ski both the north and south poles. In fact there are only nine people in the world who have attempted and succeeded in this feat. Lei has, indeed proved that woman climbers can climb at the same or even higher levels in terms of difficult terrains. Many woman climbers have proved that female climbers are stronger than the strongest of men and they can equally endure pain to climb summits.

She is one of the very few woman climbers to have achieved this distinction. What started as a fascination eventually turned out to be a passion for her, when she stood on the top of Mount Cotopaxi. Her next feat was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Mount Kilimanjaro is believed to the worlds highest free standing snow covered Equatorial Mountain and is famous for the fact that it is one of the most accessible of all the seven mountains peaks. You do not need training in mountaineering or be a professional climber to scale Mount Kilimanjaro. Any regular tourist should be able to achieve this feat, albeit with a little struggle.

Mountaineering may be a sport or hobby for many, but for those who love to live their life streaked with adventure, it is life. Initially mountaineering referred to reaching the highest points of un scaled mountains, however today it has diversified into several fields like rock climbing etc. Some of the basic skills required are athletic ability, technical knowledge, stamina and physical fitness.

It is indeed a dangerous hobby with dangers from unknown forces like rock falls, avalanches or could be induced by the climber in situations when the equipments fails etc. But climbers like Lei Wang have time and again proved that nothing is impossible for man.