Australian Steve Plain summited Mt Everest on May 14th and so broke the record time for completing the Seven Summits, beating the previous record of 126 days by Polish mountaineer Janusz Kochanski, set in 2017, by 9 days.
Steve has been accompanied by Trek & Mountain contributor, and expedition leader, Jon Gupta, on six of the seven peaks needed, and in fact Jon now has personally summited Everest three times (twice via the South Col, and once by the north) and is the youngest British male to have summited Everest from both sides.
Steve Plain’s ‘Project 7 in 4’ expedition started on Mt Vinson in Antarctica, which he summited on January 16th 2018, and proceeded via Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Carstensz Pyramid, Elbrus and Denali, before saving the Big E for last.
The adventure is still not over however, because Plain and Gupta are now hoping to complete the Khumbu ‘Triple Crown’ of Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse before returning home. The pair are currently in their tent beneath the Lhotse Couloir hoping to make a summit attempt very shortly. If successful, they will then move on to Nuptse, which they have already come tantalisingly close to summiting before their Everest summit.
The ‘7 in 4 Project’ is sponsored by Montane and you can find full reports on each of the peaks in the challenge HERE.