7‑Summits reached — MM Clients Living The Dream!

Long-time MM clients Suzanne al-Hou­by, Shawn Daw­son, and Giuseppe Ruffi­no have been liv­ing their dreams as they make their way towards the Sev­en Sum­mits goal. All three have recent­ly had suc­cess­ful sum­mits all over the world and are already look­ing ahead to the next chal­lenge! These climbers are inspir­ing every­one who is work­ing towards their own dream, and show­ing that, with hard work and per­se­ver­ance, they can make it happen!

Some of you may remem­ber Moun­tain Mad­ness client Shawn Daw­son who sum­mit­ed Ever­est last year and recent­ly com­plet­ed his sev­enth with a climb of Carstenz Pyra­mid. He began his jour­ney with some train­ing in Bolivia, where he quick­ly took to liv­ing in the rar­i­fied air of high moun­tains. Way to go Shawn!

Suzanne on the sum­mit of Ever­est with the flags of the Arab countries

Suzanne al-Hou­by, who sum­mit­ed her first 4 of the Sev­en Sum­mits with Moun­tain Mad­ness, became the first Arab woman to sum­mit Mount Ever­est this year with Moun­tain Mad­ness Ever­est guide Willie Bene­gas and team, who has sum­mit­ed Ever­est over 10 times him­self. About her accom­plish­ment, she says:

“Becom­ing the first Arab woman to reach the top of the world was an enor­mous thrill and a great priv­i­lege. I will nev­er for­get the moment when my dream became real­i­ty, mak­ing the sum­mit of the great­est moun­tain on Earth.” 

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Suzanne! 5 down, 2 to go!

Giuseppe cel­e­brat­ing on the sum­mit of Denali

Last, but not least, ital­ian climber Giuseppe Ruffi­no sum­mit­ed Denali this year along with Moun­tain Mad­ness guide Eric Gul­lick­son, after 21 days of gru­el­ing weath­er on the moun­tain. Giuseppe and his team had to sit out three days at high camp in high winds, but final­ly reached the sum­mit on May 27. This is also his 5^th sum­mit of the sev­en, with only Carsten­sz and Ever­est left to tack­le. Congratulations!

Stay tuned for info about an upcom­ing trip to Carstensz.

Get­ting start­ed: Join one of our North­west moun­tainieer­ing cours­es or this fall on the Ecuador School. Or start on the non-tech­ni­cal ascent of Mount Kil­i­man­jaro where you can enjoy our more than 25-years of expere­ince on a route pio­neered by Scott Fischer.