UAE-based Everest conqueror completes Seven Summits goal

Atte Miettinen, the UAE-based Everest conqueror, reached the summit of Denali (also known as Mount McKinley), the highest mountain in North America, at 1,625 on the 22nd of June.

Reaching the summit capped off a two-and-a-half week expedition in Alaska where Miettinen was climbing as part of a six-member team led by guides from the Alaska Mountaineering School (AMS).

Denali is a significant mountaineering challenge. This year over 1,200 mountaineers have set to climb the mountain but to date, less than 390 have actually reached the summit.

“Alaska is a beautiful place and Denali is without a doubt one of its highlights” commented Miettinen, “However, despite its beauty, one can never forget that Denali is also a dangerous place with unpredictable weather, which often pushes mountaineers to their limits.”

The successful expedition to Denali also completed Seven Summits, a challenge of climbing the highest mountains of every continent, for Mr Miettinen.  To date, only around 350 mountaineers in history have completed the Seven Summits and this is a historic first Seven Summits for Finland, the birth home of Miettinen.

There are two official lists for the Seven Summits; the Bass List, which includes Mount Kosciuszko for Australia and the Messner List, which includes Carstensz Pyramid for Australia. Miettinen has climbed both mountains, which has been done by only 30 per cent of the 350 people that have completed the Seven Summits. Miettinen’s completion of the Messner List is also a first in the UAE.

“Completing the Seven Summits, which has been a dream of mine for many years and felt so distant in the beginning, is an amazing feeling”. Miettinen also added “Joining a group of just 350 people that have completed the Seven Summits as the first person from my native Finland gives me a small taste of what the true explorers in mountaineering felt like when they left the first footprints on mountains for others to follow.”

Seven Summits refers to a mountaineering challenge of climbing the highest mountains of every continent: Cerro Aconcagua (South America), Denali (North America), Vinson Massif (Antarctica), Elbrus (Europe), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mount Everest (Asia) and either Carstensz Pyramid or Mount Kosciuszko (Australia).

First achieved in 1985 by Richard Bass, to date, only around 350 people have stood on all the Seven Summits.

Atte Miettinen is a telecoms executive and mountaineer based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

He’s the latest person to join the exclusive club of mountaineers that have stood on all the Seven Summits and made history in his native Finland thanks to completing the first Seven Summits by a Finnish national and the first Messner List by a UAE-resident or citizen.

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