Vern Tejas reclaims his Seven (Eight) Summits Speed Record.....

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

......at a cost of about $5000. Amazing enough at 134 days, his ninth circuit of the Seven Summits, including over 40 times to the top of Denali, with its only successful solo winter ascent back in 1988 (he is 57 yo now), but he thinks that he can trim some more time off the circuit.

http://www.adn.com/2010/06/04/1307993/climber-tejas-reclaims-seven-summits.html#ixzz0q9lotOqc

 

[JohnL]

I've seen Tejas' name in many articles in the climbing magazines over the years but I think the most interesting new bit of information about him in this article is that he lives in Greenwich Village.

JohnL

 

[TCD]

Vern Tejas is cool. I love his old fashioned attitude about competition for this "record." None of this "my worthy opponent" stuff. He describes the other guys as "uppity" and "knowing nothing about climbing."

And his 88 winter solo - who's going to repeat it?

I'd love to see a "ten tips" type story from him on exactly how he's "learned to travel cheap." $1,000 for Everest? The permit alone is $12,000...

 

[Jay H]

The article mention that as a professional mtn guide, some (a lot) of his expenses are paid for by the guide service...

Jay

 

[Chugach001]

Way to go Vern! He is certainly the real deal and once carried a bicycle to the top of Aconcaugua as "Training" for the Iditasport.

Vern and I used to do mountain rescue and climbed a bit together. In fact, we almost launched a company based on some old Soviet climbing tools he had.

He's got an interesting story; grew up in Texas and left in his teens, (chose the Spanish "Tejas" as a nom de guerre) tramped through upstate NY as a migrant worker picking vegetables, ended up in Alaska and took up hiking...

He's a world class guy - gentle, supportive and considerate to everyone. (except maybe those Indian climbers).

 

[Chip]

Vern and I used to do mountain rescue and climbed a bit together. In fact, we almost launched a company based on some old Soviet climbing tools he had.

That's pretty cool ! Well, as long as it wasn't those russian ice screws...

The guiding job took Tejas up Antarctica's Mount Vinson three times last winter. His third climb up the 16,067-foot peak ended with a Jan. 18 summit -- and started the clock ticking on his record attempt.

It's not clear to me if that was the start of his planned attempt, or the attempt was triggered with that successful summit. Not that it matters, dude obviously rocks. 40 Denali summits would be enough in a lifetime !

 

[Jay H]

If the list started with summit time, would make sense to start with the longest approach. But like the article states, his Everest summit was with clients so he had to go their speed and not his. Which makes his comment that his record now could easily be broken again by some other accomplished climber with deep pockets.. so to put his accomplishment with the factors of cost, time, effort, definitely a worthy achievement no matter how you look at it.

Jay

 

[Chugach001]

That's pretty cool ! Well, as long as it wasn't those russian ice screws... !

Nope, old Russian Ice fifi tools and some weird under-knee aider attachments. It was a cool system for super long, dead vertical ice because it was restful but basically aid climbing.

Separately, I did move through a big purchase of those classic '90's Russian screws and pitons. I've heard horror-show rumors of poor quality but never witnessed any personally.