This blog follows my recent blog on December 2021’s Sidley expedition.  As indicated in that blog, there was one additional person who had then completed the Volcanic Seven Summits.  I can now report that two more individuals can now be added to the list.  So this blog provides an updated list of Volcanic Seven Summiters – January 2022.

In addition to Yousef al Refaie who completed last month, we now have Robbi Malandreniotis (UK) and Jarryd Commerford (USA/UK) who summited Ojos del Salado on 9^th January 2022. 

It sounds like the ascent was fairly brutal with a 16 hour round trip.  That compares with the 11½ hours I took when I did the climb.  But many congratulations to them both.

There are now 26 climbers on the list.  Five are women and 15 have also climbed one or other (or both) versions of the Seven Summits.

With people completing the Volcanic Seven Summits on the same day, I list them in alphabetical order by surname.  So, if it matters, the list does not necessarily reflect the order in which people reached a summit.  I have noted them with the same number rather than seeking to give any individual preference over any other.

As ever I remain aware of a number of people who have just one or two more volcanoes to climb in order to complete the challenge.  For most, but certainly not all, this is Mount Sidley. 

But I imagine that I am unaware of others who are close to finishing.  If anyone reading this blog has any information anyone who is pursuing this challenge I would be glad to have it.  Likewise if there are any errors or omissions in the list please let me know. I am always happy to correct these.

The List

And the Seven Summits?

None of the recent completers have current seven summits ambitions.  So there have been no changes to the details in the next couple of paragraphs as far as I am aware.

Aleks Abramov, Vitaliy Simonovic, Dan Bull, Ted Fairhurst, Satyarup Siddhanta and David Roskelley have also completed the seven continental summits (both Carstensz and Kosciuszko versions).

Mario Trimeri, François Bernard, David Hamilton, Vladislav Lachkaryev, Vaughan de la Harpe, Arthur Marsden and Oleg Mezentsev have completed the seven continental summits (Carstensz version).

Andrey Filkov and Katie Sarah have completed the seven continental summits (Kosciuszko version).

I have consistently written before that the V7S challenge is becoming more popular. There is a trend amongst those who have completed the 7S to look for other endeavours to complete. Perhaps this is not surprising for a group of driven individuals. The V7S is a part of this. But there are other challenges.

So François Bernard, Vitaliy Simonovich, Vladislav Lachkaryev, Vaughan de la Harpe and Arthur Marsden have also skied to the North and South Poles. You can expect at least a couple more achieving this combination in the course of the coming year, Covid-19 permitting.

I am also aware of other challenges that are being looked at.

But who has actually climbed the highest volcano in Australia? Should this not be one of the Volcanic Seven Summits?

Dave Roskelley is a Utahn, originally from Chicago. He completed the Volcanic Seven Summits in January 2020 on Mount Sidley in Antarctica. Whilst on his trip, he and another team member were kind enough to send me photos from Mount Sidley itself. We also had a brief chat when he was at the Sidley base camp after the climb before he and the rest of the team flew from the mountain. David has also completed the Seven Summits. So I was extremely interested in watching the recent Alan Arnette interview with Dave about his Volcanic Seven Summit experiences when a friend alerted me to it.

Alan is an extremely well-known and respected blogger on all things Everest and K2. His blog is one of the top 10 mountaineering blogs in the world in terms of hits.

So when I settled down to watch it, imagine my surprise therefore when only a few minutes into the interview my name came up.

I had not been aware in advance of the interview. Alan Arnette’s blog normally sticks to the goings-on on Everest and other 8000m peaks during the Spring and Autumn seasons. Occasionally he will also focus on K2. So a discussion about the Volcanic Seven Summits is a little off beam for him. Recently Alan has been interviewing various mountaineers about Himalayan experiences.

It is quite a fun, light-hearted discussion. So I’ll forgive them both for getting Crina Popescu’s sex wrong, and for misunderstanding the formation of volcanoes generally. For the record, Crina Popescu is the youngest person to have climbed all of the Volcanic Seven Summits. Satyarup Siddhanta is the youngest person to have climbed both the Seven Summits and the Volcanic Seven Summits. Theodore (Ted) Fairhurst is the oldest person to have climbed the Volcanic Seven Summits. He is also the oldest to have climbed the Seven Summits/Volcanic Seven Summits combination. Not that any of that matters of course 😁

Here’s the interview as posted on Alan Arnette’s YouTube channel. The Alan Arnette interview with Dave Roskelley is also accessible via Alan’s blog.