Three Poles Challenge
The Three Poles is an adventurer’s challenge to reach the North Pole, the South Pole, and Mount Everest.
The first person to reach all three locations was Sir Edmund Hillary. He reached the top of Everest in May 1953, the South Pole in January 1958 and made it to the North Pole in company with Neil Armstrong in April 1985. His son Peter Hillary has also reached all three.
Hillary flew to the North Pole. The first person to reach all three locations on foot was Erling Kagge. He had reached all three by May 1994, being 6 months faster than the next person. On 5 August 1997 Antoine de Choudens (France, 1969-2009) became the only climber to accomplish the Three Poles Challenge on foot without using supplementary oxygen on the Everest climb.[1] Tina Sjögren became the first woman to complete the challenge in 2002.[2]
Adrian Hayes set a speed record by completing the Three Poles challenge in 19 months and 3 days, between 25 May 2006 and 28 Dec 2007, breaking the previous record of 24 months. In 2011, former Wales rugby union international Richard Parks completed the Three Poles challenge in 5 months as part of his successful attempt to reach both geographic poles and climb all of the Seven Summits within 7 months; however, his surface journeys to both the North and South Poles began at 1 degree of latitude from each pole.
Maria (Masha) Gordon became the fastest woman to complete the Three Poles Challenge in 2016, beating a record set by Leigh Wang in May 2010.
See also
- Seven Summits
- Seven Second Summits
- Volcanic Seven Summits
- Explorers Grand Slam, also known as The Adventurers Grand Slam — the Three Poles plus the Seven Summits
- Eight-thousander
- Mountaineers 5 Peak Pin
References
- "Sir Edmund Hillary; An Extraordinary Life" by Alexa Johnston first published 2005.