Erik Weihenmayer accomplishes dream of climbing the Seven Summits

At 9:15 a.m. on September 5, Erik Weihenmayer, a blind mountaineer, stepped onto the summit of 7,310-foot Mt. Kosciusko, the highest peak in Australia, and joined an elite group of climbers who have reached the continental summit of each of the seven land continents. Erik’s original plan had been to para-glide off the top of Kosciusko, but strong and gusty winds rendered that impossible. Instead, the team decided to ski down from Kosciusko’s summit. SNEWS® View: As is typical in such ventures, politics has managed to worm its way into the mix. Naturally, there are those who have immediately pointed out that Kosciusko is not technically the highest point in the continent and as a result Weihenmayer has yet to complete the Seven Summit quest. These same, errr, geographically passionate individuals, have determined that for a true Seven Summit quest to be complete, one must summit Carstensz Pyramid, a 16,023-foot peak located in West Papua on the island of Papua new Guinea — apparently the mountain shares the same tectonic plate as Kusciusko. Weihenmayer has announced he plans to complete the ascent of this summit in February. Once he does that, we assume the naysayers will simply, err, shut up already?