Dan Lochner and the Seven Summits

[aaron]

Dan Lochner, a 21-year-old native of Edina, Minnesota, is taking his own crack at the record books by attempting to become the youngest person to scale the Seven Summits (the tallest peak on each continent). Japanese climber Atsushi Yamada who completed all seven peaks at the age of 23 years and 9 days currently holds the record. If all goes according to Lochner's plan he will summit Mt. Everest in May and then Mt. Vinson, the tallest mountain in Antarctica, sometime in the fall. He hopes to join the Seven Summits club now with around 113 members (around 41 of them American), at the age of 22.

Lochner's quest for the Seven Summits began at the age of 13 in a Maine summer camp when he developed an interest in rock-climbing and a love of the outdoors. When a friend of a friend climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest mountain, Lochner first considered making a bid for the Seven Summits. He trained for 10 days in the Canadian Rockies and in the Alaskan Range before giving Mt. McKinley (Denali), the tallest peak in North America, a try last summer. Even though he doesn't consider himself a mountaineer Lochner had privately decided that if McKinley were a success then he'd give the other 6 peaks a shot. McKinley turned out to be an arduous 15-day climb, but in the end it was a successful summit.

McKinley was followed by Elbrus in Europe, Kosciusko in Australia, and Kilimanjaro in Africa, giving him 4 of the 7 summits. Then came Aconcagua in Argentina making a second attempt at Aconcagua in the South American Andes, an earlier attempt at summiting Aconcagua was prevented by severe weather and an attack of bronchitis just 600 feet short of the top. In addition to Everest, and Mt. Vinson, Lochner hopes to climb Carstensz Pyramid in Papua New Guinea as well. There is some dispute in climbing circles over whether Kosciusko or the taller Carstensz Pyramid constitutes the seventh summit. Political problems in Papua New Guinea make climbing Carstensz Pyramid problematic.

Lochner plans to return to University of Richmond after completing the Seven Summits and complete his degree in Economics.

Aaron
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[winglady]

For those whose interest is piqued about the 7 summits, here's a good site to learn more about the history of these climbs:

http://7summits.com

A good friend of ours, Gerry Roach, was the 2nd person in history to complete the 7 summits (finishing just months after Dick Bass, the 1st person).

There is some "controversy" over the highpoint of Australia (Kosciusko) vs. the highpoint of what is sometimes called "Oceana" - in New Guinea (Carstensz Pyramid). Now, when I went to school, we learned that Australia is indeed a continent. So, just because Kosciusko is very easy to climb, and isn't impressively high, I still think it is the highpoint of a continent!

For more on the controversy, see:

http://7summits.com/faq/index.php?display=faq&nr=38&catnr=8&prog=p1&lang=en

Others disagree with me. Some climbers go ahead and climb all 8 of the "7 continental highpoints". Yes, climbers can be a bit obsessive!
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[aaron]

I seem to remember from my school days (yes, even us aardvarks attended school!) that there's also been a degree of controversy between which is the highest out of Everest and K2... does this still remain at all, or are the proponents of the "K2 is the highest" theory also founder members of the Flat Earth Society?

Aaron
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[winglady]

I think most everyone agrees that Everest is higher than K2; even with the more recent measurements done with modern GPS equipment, Everest has come out "on top." In fact, Everest is slightly taller than previously measured:

http://www.alpineresearch.ch/alpine/en/presse1.html
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