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Park City woman becomes first to climb world’s second-tallest summits

Mountain climber Jen Drummond holds American flag after reaching peak.
Tom Horig
Mountain climber Jen Drummond holds American flag after reaching peak.

After a near-fatal car accident in 2018 and a fun dare from her oldest child, Park City resident Jenn Drummond has reached her goal of summiting the second tallest peaks on each continent, becoming the first woman and only the second human in the world to complete the climbs.

After healing from a car accident, she said should have killed her, Jenn Drummond began climbing. She started with Amma de Blom [elev. 22.349’] in Nepal.

“This started because I was climbing a mountain named Amma de Blom [elev. 22.349’] which my son heard as ‘I'm a dumb blonde,’ and he said I should climb a real mountain like Mount Everest,” Drummond said. “And our family does hard things, so I'm like, I'll show you what hard is. I'll do Everest, because we're all capable of summiting our Everest no matter what it is.”

To meet the Guinness World Records’ criteria, Drummond climbed the second highest mountains on each of the seven continents and then went on to climb an additional two mountains, for a total of nine, to ensure she had the record.

FULL INTERVIEW: Jenn Drummond

“When Guinness World Records was looking to file this pursuit, they said, ‘You know, some people think Indonesia is a part of Australia instead of Asia,” she said. “'So, we really want you to climb that mountain in Indonesia named Sumantri [elev. 15,978’]. And if Russia was to break off from Europe, the second highest point would be Mount Rosa [elev. 15,203′] in Switzerland. So, could you climb that too?' So, I did that one in May of this year. And then Indonesia just opened, and we just got Sumantri done Oct. 9.”

Drummond started her record climbing adventure in Dec. 2020 by climbing Ojos del Salado [elev. 22,615′] in Chile. And then went on to climb Mount Kenya in Africa, Dykh-Tau [elev. 17,077’] in Russia, Mount Tyree [elev. 15,919′] in Antarctica, K2 [elev. 28,251’] in Asia, Mount Townsend [elev.7,247] in Australia and Mountain Logan [elev. 19,551′] in North America. She cinched the record anyway you look at it by climbing Mount Rosa and Sumantri this year.

All of the climbs were difficult, but hard in different ways. Drummond said Mount Logan in Canada stands out for the endurance that was required.

“Just because you were not allowed assistance and had to carry all of your gear,” she said. “And it's a very windy mountain, so you would set up a camp, you'd have to build an igloo to prevent your tent from ripping in the wind, bury your gear so it didn't blow away. And you had to do that five times. So, each time you set up a new camp, you had to build a new igloo and protect all of your stuff. It was just a lot of work.”

Her last climb, although not technically difficult, took the longest because of the logistics.

“This Indonesia climb was one single day, but it was so hard to get in because of the civil war,” Drummond said. “I flew over there, and I was on 16 days of standby, and every morning, I'd wake up at 6 a.m. and they'd be like, ‘Nope, we're not flying today. Be ready for tomorrow.’ And I'm in an area of the world that is not safe, so they're moving my hotels. They're moving my hotel rooms. They don't want me to establish a pattern in the area. We finally got the green light to fly in. We flew in. Within 15 minutes, we started climbing the mountain.”

Jenn Drummond at a mountain base camp
Tom Horig
Jenn Drummond at a mountain base camp

After weeks of waiting, the climb itself only took about 10 hours and required hiring three armed guards to keep her and the team safe.

With mission accomplished, Drummond said she’s still riding high on the thrill of her achievement.

“When you cover every possible version of something, and you know in your heart of hearts that you've taken it and done it, and there's zero questions left, that integrity is a level of confidence and celebration that no one can take away from you,” she said. “And it is the best feeling in the whole world.”

As if that wasn’t enough, with four of the Seven Summits already completed, Drummond said she will finish climbing all the world’s tallest peaks. She has three left: Aconcagua [elev. 22,838’] in South America, Mount Elbrus [elev. 18,510] in Russia and Denali [elev. 20,310] in North America.