Explorer's Grand Slam

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Sir David Hempleman-Adams standing in Antarctica in 2018. In 1998 he became the first person to complete an Explorer's Grand Slam.
Vanessa O'Brien skiing the last degree to the North Pole as part of the Explorer's Grand Slam in 2013. She was the first woman to complete the Last Degree in under one year.

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

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The original concept involved the polar trips starting from accepted coastal points, involving long sledging journeys. Over time the significantly shorter, easier, and less serious "Last Degree" polar trips – from 89 degrees to the pole (at 90 degrees) – have been claimed as the Explorer's Grand Slam (Last Degree). The climbing community, the American Alpine Club, The Explorers Club, climbing companies such as International Mountain Guides, define the Explorer's Grand Slam as having accomplished the Seven Summits plus (at a minimum – the last degree of) the North and South Poles. There is some consensus that a True Explorer's Grand Slam means one will also have summitted all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) (14 + 7 + 2). Likewise, there is some consensus that a True Adventurer's Grand Slam is achieved by also visiting the magnetic north and south poles.[1] As of 2022, all terminology and guidelines regarding polar data records are being conducted under the Polar Expeditions Classification Scheme (PECS).[2] In 1998, David Hempleman-Adams became the first person to complete an Explorer's Grand Slam.[3] In April 2005, Park Young-seok (RIP 2011) became the first person to complete a True Explorer's Grand Slam (South Korea).[4] In 2011, former Wales rugby union international Richard Parks became the first person to complete the (Last Degree) Grand Slam within a single calendar year, doing so within seven months.[5] On April 16, 2013, Vanessa O'Brien became the first woman to complete the (Last Degree) Grand Slam under a single calendar year, doing so in eleven months.[6][7][3] On April 22, 2013, Cheryl Bart became the first Australian woman and the 31st person worldwide to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam.[8] In 2014, Jing Wang became the fastest woman to complete the (Last Degree) Grand Slam in 142 days.[9] In 2014, Ryan Waters became the first American to complete the True Adventurer's Grand Slam by skiing full-length, unsupported and unassisted North and South Pole expeditions and climbing the seven summits.[citation needed] On April 21, 2015, Tashi Malik and Nungshi Malik became world's first twins and siblings as well as the first South Asians to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam (Last Degree).[citation needed] On May 27, 2016, Colin O'Brady became the fastest person to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam (Last Degree), doing so in 139 days. He is the world speed record holder for completing the Explorer's Grand Slam (Last Degree).[10] On April 12, 2017, Marin Minamiya became the youngest person to complete the Explorers' Grand Slam (Last Degree) at 20 years old.[11]

People who completed the quest

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Full Grand Slam (both poles from an outer coastline/shore)

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In chronological order:

  1. David Hempleman-Adams (United Kingdom)
  2. Fyodor Konyukhov (Russia)
  3. Heo Young-ho (South Korea)
  4. Park Young-seok (first person to complete a True Explorers Grand Slam) (South Korea)[12]
  5. Bernard Voyer (Canada) [13]
  6. Cecilie Skog (Norway)
  7. Maxime Chaya (Lebanon)
  8. Ryan Waters (United States) [14]
  9. Stuart Smith (United States)
  10. Johan Ernst Nilson (Sweden) [15]
  11. Wilco van Rooijen (Netherlands) [16]

Grand Slam (one pole from an inner coastline/shore and one pole from an outer coastline/shore or last degree)

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In chronological order:

  1. Haraldur Örn Ólafsson (SP non-Coastal) (Iceland)[17]
  2. Khoo Swee Chiow (SP non-Coastal) (Singapore)[18]
  3. Arnold Witzig (Switzerland) (Canada)[19]
  4. Alison Levine (mountain climber) (NP non-Coastal) (United States) [20]
  5. Mostafa Salameh (NP non-Coastal) (Jordan)[21]
  6. Newall Hunter (NP non-Coastal) (United Kingdom) [22]
  7. Zhang Liang (SP non-Coastal) (China) [23]
  8. Grazyna Machnik (NP non-Coastal) (United Kingdom, Poland)
  9. Jaco Ottink (NP non-Coastal) (Netherlands)[24]
  10. Jérôme Brisebourg (NP non-Coastal) (France) [25]
  11. Mark Shuttleworth (NP non-Coastal) (United Kingdom) [26]
  12. Inge Meløy (NP non-Costal) (Norway)[27]

Last Degree Grand Slam (both poles from 89 degrees)

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In chronological order:

  1. Sean Disney (South Africa) [28]
  2. Vaughan de la Harpe (South Africa)
  3. Sibusiso Vilane (South Africa)
  4. Arthur Marsden (South Africa)
  5. Andrew Van Der Velde (South Africa)
  6. Vernon Tejas (United States)
  7. Will Cross (United States)
  8. Lei Wang (United States, China)
  9. Neil Laughton (United Kingdom) [29]
  10. Jo Gambi (United Kingdom)
  11. Rob Gambi (Australia)
  12. Randall Peeters (United States)
  13. Wang Yongfeng (China)
  14. Ci Luo (China)
  15. Liu Jian (China)
  16. Wang Shi (China)
  17. Zhong Jianmin (China)
  18. Jin Feibao (China) [30]
  19. Wang Qiuyang (China)
  20. Suzanne K Nance (United States) [31]
  21. Richard Parks (United Kingdom)
  22. Andrea Cardona (Guatemala)
  23. John Dahlem (United States) (RIP 2024)
  24. Matthew Holt (United Kingdom)
  25. Len Stanmore (Canada) [32]
  26. Cheryl Bart (Australia)
  27. Vanessa O'Brien (United States, United Kingdom)
  28. Sebastian Merriman (United Kingdom)
  29. Jing Wang (China) [9]
  30. Tashi Malik (India) [33]
  31. Nungshi Malik (India) [33]
  32. Omar Samra (Egypt) [34]
  33. Maria (Masha) Gordon (United Kingdom, Russia)
  34. Colin O'Brady (United States) [10]
  35. John Moorhouse (United Kingdom)
  36. Victor Vescovo (United States) [35]
  37. Sean Swarner (United States) [36]
  38. Marin Minamiya (Japan) [11][37]
  39. Michael W. Grigsby (United States) [38]
  40. Julia Elinor Schultz (Germany) [39]
  41. Muhamad Muqharabbin Mokhtarrudin (Malaysia) [40]
  42. Mike Gibbons (United States) [41]
  43. Nikolaos Mangitsis (Greece)
  44. Josu Feijoo (Spain) [42]
  45. James Holliday (United States) [43]
  46. Joel Schauer (United States) [44]
  47. Alexander Pancoe (United States)
  48. Leifur Örn Svavarsson (Iceland) [45]
  49. Khai Nguyen (Canada) (United States)
  50. Taylor Sweitzer (United States)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "First person to complete the Adventurers Grand Slam". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  2. ^ "The Language of Polar Adventure". Polar Expeditions Classification Scheme. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  3. ^ a b Van Den Broek, Alex. "Can the Explorer's Grand Slam Be Saved?". The Explorers Web. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  4. ^ Annapurna, Kris. "A Tiger Till The End: A Tribute to Park Young-seok". Explorers Web. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  5. ^ Alywin, Michael. "Richard Parks: from record-breaking solitude in Antarctica to flat isolation". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  6. ^ "Origins of The Explorers Grand Slam with Vanessa O'Brien". Polar Explorers. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  7. ^ "Boston's Vanessa O'Brien Becomes First Woman to Climb Seven Summits". Grind TV. May 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-08-27. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  8. ^ "Icy grand slam success". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  9. ^ a b "An Awesome Adventure of Wang Jing". Gantabya Nepal News. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  10. ^ a b "Setting an epic world record". Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  11. ^ a b Feitelberg, Rosemary. "Uniqlo's Global Brand Ambassador Marin Minamiya Hikes All Seven Summits, Completes Explorer's Grand Slam". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  12. ^ Annapurna, Kris. "A Tiger Till The End: A Tribute to Park Young-seok". Explorers Web. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  13. ^ Tremblay, Natalie. "Gold Medal 2000 Winner - Bernard Voyer". The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
  14. ^ Stonich, Avery. "What It Takes to Complete the Adventurers Grand Slam Unsupported". National Geographic. Archived from the original on May 21, 2014. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  15. ^ Stats, Adventure. "Three Poles – NP, SP, Everest (excluding motorized)". Adventure Stats. Adventure Stats. Archived from the original on 18 February 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  16. ^ "Highest achievement in Exploration: Full Explorers Grand Slam". World Explorer's Collective. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  17. ^ "Atlantica". Tímarit.is. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
  18. ^ Travel, Lightfoot. "MEET SINGAPORE'S RECORD-BREAKING ADVENTURER". Lightfoot Travel. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
  19. ^ "South Pole from the Ronne Ice Shelf". International Polar Foundation. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
  20. ^ Associated Press, Climber Conquers Everest and Records Grand Slam https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/sports/15climb.html New York Times. Aug 14, 2000.
  21. ^ Britton, Bianca. "How a vivid dream led the first Jordanian to Explorers Grand Slam". CNN. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  22. ^ Hynes, Justin. "NEWALL HUNTER: HOW A 53-YEAR-OLD IT ENGINEER JOINED THE EXPLORING ELITE". Nightjar Travel. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  23. ^ Pokhrel, Rajan. "Four Chinese climbers complete all 14 peaks above 8,000 m this autumn". The Himalayan Times. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  24. ^ Diya, Diya. "On Top of the World Jaco Ottink". Issuu. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  25. ^ "liveXplorer". Expeditions Unlimited. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  26. ^ "South Pole Expedition- 2021/22". The Shutts. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  27. ^ "Politimannen Inge Meløy kan bli Årets eventyrer: – Vil bety utrolig mye" (in Norwegian).
  28. ^ Seemela, Masego (29 August 2016). "Father and son take on Mount Kilimanjaro". Fourways Review. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  29. ^ Laughton, Neil (2012-12-12). "Neil Laughton: the adventure interview". Telegraph Media Group. London.
  30. ^ Scally, Patrick. "YUNNAN'S NATIVE SON, JIN FEIBAO, COMPLETES 100 MARATHONS IN 100 DAYS". Go Kunming. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  31. ^ Lee, Dave. "Suzanne Nance". Go Backpacking. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  32. ^ Lovitt, Rob. "Adventure traveler Len Stanmore is not your average retiree". Today Travel. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  33. ^ a b Trivedi, Anupam. "Doon twins set to make history, once again". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on April 22, 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  34. ^ Nourhan, Magdi. "Omar Samra becomes 1st Egyptian to reach North Pole". The Cairo Post. YOUM7. Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  35. ^ http://7summits.com/ +SP:Jan 2016/Guide S. Robertson(ALE); NP:Apr 2017/Guide E. Larsen
  36. ^ WINFIELD, ALETTE. "Sean Swarner Becomes First Cancer Survivor To Complete Explorer's Grand Slam". PR Web. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  37. ^ "Youngest person to climb the Seven Summits and ski the polar last degrees". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
  38. ^ Hendrick, Bill. "Cobb man's quest to conquer the Seven Summits". The Marietta Daily Journal (MDJ). Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  39. ^ "Julia Schultz Certificate". Explorers Grand Slam. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  40. ^ "Family, Country Leader Inspired National Explorer Qobin to Create History". The Malay Mail Online. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  41. ^ "2017 South Pole and Mount Vinson Blogs". Polar Explorers. Archived from the original on 2 February 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  42. ^ ALCUTÉN, JACOBO. "Josu Feijoo, el primer astronauta diabético". 20 Minutos. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  43. ^ Pelusi, Christian. "Climbing past adversity: Mom's legacy lives at summits and on the ground through scholarships". The Pittsburgh Foundation. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  44. ^ Placek, Christopher. "How Hawthorn Woods businessman vanquished Mount Everest". Daily Herald Chicago. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  45. ^ "Greenland Adventures by Icelandic Mountain Guides". Greenland Adventures by IMG. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
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