(@semi_rad)

The Seven Summits Challenge is one of the adventure world’s great set-piece projects. Climbing the highest mountain on each continent. Carstenz Pyramid, Denali, Aconcagua, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro, Vinson and, of course, Everest. A fantastic achievement and a brilliant dream to chase. If you like the sound of huge expedition goals like this, then check out all my Grand Adventures posts (and the book!)

On the other hand, if you don’t have tens of thousands of pounds to spend and many months of spare time, or if you have some qualms about the crazy amount of carbon all those air miles will spew, then we need an alternative plan for 2024…

So here is an idea for this weekend, this month, or this year: tackle the local seven summits of your neighbourhood. 

I did this last summer (stealing someone else’s idea) and I absolutely loved it:

If you’d like to try this at home, here’s how to do it:

1. Decide what range of map you want to use. Do you want to climb the highest peaks in your country, county, or village? I used the same map that I spent a year exploring, an OS 1:25,000 Explorer Series. You can find the one you need here.
2. Find seven summits to tackle. They might be the seven highest points, seven church spires, or just seven hills you’ve never climbed. I chose mine by visiting seven trigpoints on my map. You can find your local trigpoints by zooming in here. (Trig points are the concrete pillars you usually find on the top of British mountains, but they are all over the country: one of my seven summits was on a busy road just outside Lidl…)
3. Invite a friend. A project like this is much more fun to do with friends, family or your kids.
4. Decide on a time frame. I zoomed round bagging all my peaks in a day. Brendan did one a week. It’s totally up to you.
5. Begin!
6. Snap a photo on each summit and share them online with the hashtag #Local7Summits. I’ll share the ones that I spot. The reason this part is so important is to help get a wider range of people out enjoying the outdoors. There are quite enough middle-aged, heroic, handsome, white, male ‘influencers’ running around the hills! But if I can start showcasing that all sorts of different people are doing cool things, then it encourages more people to try it. This was the reason that #microadventures became popular a decade ago.

Good luck!