The (Eleven) Seven Summits

Everest, Aconcagua, Denali (Mount McKinley), Kibo (Kilimanjaro) and Vinson are undisputed.

On Australia there are several different opinions. Some accept only the large continental island Australia and therefore claim Mount Kosciuszko as the culmination of this continent. Not only for mountaineering reasons it is disputed by many. So others include New Zealand as part of “Oceania” and they claim Mount Cook as one of the “Seven Summits”.

But in the case of New Guinea, one cannot deny the nearness to Australia, there is even a large shelf connection and the water between it and the other Indonesian islands is much deeper! So the culmination of this island would be the most logical candidate, because also the water between Australia and New Zealand is much deeper and it is also more distant. Nowadays another opinion is that several old and new atlases define Asia’s border as the political one between Indonesia and Papua-New Guinea, and therefore Mount Wilhelm is supported. But political borders are no good rulers on geography. So the Carstensz Pyramid is from the mountaineering and the geographical point of view the best candidate to be the high point of “Oceania”.

Elbrus is orologically (separating mountain ranges and land only by water and the deepest points and saddles to the next higher mountain) connected to the High Asian mountains and not to European ranges. Its key saddle is far away in South East Iran quite near to the Pakistani border. Basically Europe are "just" parts of the large continent Eurasia, but if one separates orologically, one has definitive borders for the two European peninsulas. Skandinavia's (or Northern Europe's) border runs from the White Sea to the Baltic Sea. Southern or core Europe's border runs across the prominence saddle of Mont Blanc, then along the river Volga to the Caspian Sea. The southern border is the Kuma-Manych depression, not only in the view of most of the geographers before the Seven Summits game, but also orologically across the basin saddle of the Caspian depression over to the Black Sea! Therefore the true ruler of the European core subcontinent is of course Mont Blanc.

Northern border of Mont Blanc's Domain

Southern border of Mont Blanc's Domain

Both basic images created by Jonathan de Ferranti

From these strictly logical points of view the “true” "Seven Summits" are Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kibo, Vinson, Carstensz Pyramid and Mont Blanc. The first climber, who ascended all these was Reinhold Messner, over five years before Gerhard Schmatz! This is quite ironic, because he was the one, who said in an interview in Russia, that he came to climb Elbrus, “the highest mountain of Europe” and gave the minority, who wanted to separate Europe from Asia across the water divide and not across the land divide, power for their opinion. And of course it was understandably very welcome for the tourist industry near the Caucasus. Maybe Reinhold Messner thought to have an advantage, because he was the first of all the Seven Summiteers, who ascended Elbrus and obviously he wanted to be the first to complete the Seven Summits with Elbrus, but in this case he failed. In comparison with the "traditional" versions here are the first two climbers of all three versions.

The now "traditional" versions of the Seven Summits will be still listed on Harry Kikstra's fine website www.7summits.com and we will continue to cooperate to stay complete and accurate.

Another interesting essay about the many different "Seven" Summits is posted on Adam Helman's website here.

Anyway the best way to have a climbing series which definitely includes the most dominant mountains on Earth which would be satisfying for all mountaineers, one should have an altitude cut higher than the highest non-topcontinental island. So all mountains above 4511 m (cut of the “Continental” altitude class of my separation system “Elevation Equality”) with more than 83% Dominance (or independence) are the TOP 15 mountains of the world:
(note : Elbrus is included, but NOT Wilhelm, Cook and Kosciuszko)