Kuwaiti youth scales world’s 7 volcanic summits

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

He took up exercise seriously almost all his life, but mountaineer Yousef Al Refaie has taken it to the next level, setting a Guinness World Records title for being the youngest person to climb the Seven Volcanic Summits at 24 years and 119 days.

Al Refaie is not only 24 but he is also the 24th globally to climb each continent’s tallest volcano. Notoriety is not the key component here as ascending the seven calderas is a very rare achievement, so becoming the youngest person to complete the circuit is even rarer feat.

“You came from the desert, I wouldn’t think you will be able climb the highest mountains” is what kept pushing him toward his goal that started as a normal tourist trip on December 30, 2015 to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

The Volcanic Seven Summits is a relatively young circuit, however, the multicontinental project is still never easy, especially for a person who was born in 1997. The volcanoes were climbed in the following order – Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (December 30, 2015); Elbrus, Russia (July 18, 2017); Giluwe, Papua New Guinea (July 21, 2018); Pico de Orizaba, Mexico (January 6, 2019); Damavand, Iran (August 11, 2019); Ojos Del Salado, above the Argentina-Chile border in the Andes mountains (January 15, 2020); Sidley, Antarctica (December 22, 2021).

Speaking with Guinness World Records, Al Refaie described the difficulty of ascending Mount Sidley at 4,285m, a dormant volcano in Antarctica’s Marie Byrd Land, mainly because of carrying a 15,000 weight on his backpack and the other 25,000 pulling on a slide.

Al Refaie previously attempted the world record of the fastest time to climb the highest points in all Arabian Peninsula countries, but similar to many other applicants, he was not allowed into Yemen to complete the feat.

Marie Byrd Land is one of the largest uninhabited areas in the world, and it does not have basis or camps, so reaching the highest volcano in such an area was the toughest among all other summits. It cost Al Refaie and his friends around $60,000 to mount this summit.

“With a cost of around $60,000, and eight other people on my side, I was able to complete the Sidley mount. We were able to see sunlight, but the temperature was around -35˚C,” he added.

Each team member was carrying their own food, and eating at least three times a day, yet still constantly losing weight. “We carried 27 meals each for this trip. Food alone was about 10kg in total. It was mainly dehydrated meals that are high in calories.”