The Three Poles is an adventurer’s challenge to reach the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

, the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

, and the summit of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

. The first person to reach all three locations was

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the Timeline of M ...

. Hillary summited Everest in May 1953, reached the South Pole in January 1958, and made it to the North Pole in company with

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aerospace engineering, aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the Apollo 11#Lunar surface operations, first person to walk on the Moon. He was al ...

in April 1985. Hillary flew to the North Pole. The first person to complete the challenge entirely on foot was Erling Kagge. Kagge completed the Three Poles Challenge by May 1994, six 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. Tina Sjögren became the first woman to complete the challenge in 2002. Colin O'Brady became the fastest person to complete the Three Poles Challenge in May 2016, setting the current record in 131 days as part of his successful attempt to break the

Seven Summits The Seven Summits are the highest mountains on each of the seven traditional continents. On 30 April 1985, Richard Bass became the first climber to reach the summit of all seven. In January 2023, ''Climbing (magazine), Climbing'' said "Today, t ...

and

Explorers Grand Slam The Explorer's Grand Slam is an adventurer goal to reach the North Pole and South Pole, as well as climb the Seven Summits ( Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, and Puncak Jaya or Kosciuszko). History The original ...

(Last Degree) speed records. However, unlike Erling Kagge, Antoine de Choudens, and Tina Sjögren, Colin O’Brady only did the Last Degree of the North Pole. Masha Gordon became the fastest woman to complete the Three Poles Challenge in 2016, beating a record set by Wang Lei in May 2010.

References

External links

* Peak bagging Polar regions of the Earth Edmund Hillary Mountaineering competitions {{climbing-stub

See also

References

External links