Mr. Park completes the Grand Slam

PARK YOUNG SEOK BECOMES THE FIRST HUMAN BEING IN THE WORLD TO STAND ON ALL OF THE 14 HIGHEST 8000M HIMALAYAN PEAKS, THE 7 SUMMITS, AND THE 3 POLES. See here for more on the Grand Slam.

Korean alpinist Park Young Seok (The North Face Climbing Team, Korea) has succeeded in reaching the North Pole. This success of exploration has marked Park the first human being in the world to ascend the 14 Highest 8000m Himalayan Peaks, the 7 Summits (the highest peaks on each continent), and reach the 3 poles (Everest, The North Pole, and the South Pole). Park finally stepped his foot on the North Pole on April 30, 2005 00:00 PM.

In order to stand on the North Pole, Park’s Grand Slam Expedition Team began their exploration from Ward Hunt in Northern Canada on March 8 and marched 775 km on foot for 00 days. While the team was continuously pulling sleighs weighing up to 140kg, they also faced difficulties dealing with leads – open water due to split of ice shelf. His stand on the North Pole brings Park even more joy because the success has followed a failure to reach the North Pole in 2003. In addition, no other alpinists have reached the North Pole this year on foot besides Park and his team.  

Park, the 42-year-old explorer, not only has ascent the 14 8000 meter Himalayan peaks in the shortest period of time (8years and 2 months) in the world, but also holds the Guinness record for ascending the greatest number (6) of 8000 meter Himalayan peaks in one year. In addition, he holds the record for reaching the South Pole in the shortest period of time (44 days) by purely walking on foot without any resupply of food in 2004.  

The three other alpinists in the Park’s Grand Slam Expedition Team, Hong Sung Taek, Oh Hee Joon, and Jeong Chan Il, also held Park’s hands to shout for the victory at the North Pole. Park could not have reached the North Pole without the great team spirit and chemistry. In order to deliver a vivid detailed description in writing and graphic to the team’s supporters around the world, the newspaper reporter Jeon Chang and the expedition administrator Kang Donald Suk accompanied the team.

Since 1997, the Park’s Grand Slam Expedition Team has been supported and sponsored by Goldwin Korea (The North Face license holder in Korea) in all aspects of expedition. Goldwin Korea’s R&D team developed all the technical wears and equipments used during the North Pole and South Pole Expeditions in 2005 and 2004 respectively.

The Park’s Grand Slam Expedition Team including Park Young Seok plans to depart the North Pole on May 3, arrive at the base camp in Resolute, Canada, on May 4, and then return to Seoul, Korea on May 12.

Park’s Grand Slam represents the series of Park’s alpinist expeditions to stand on all of the 14 Highest 8000m Himalayan peaks, the 7 Summits, and the 3 poles. No other alpinists in the world have accomplished such Grand Slam before Park Young Seok. 

*Park’s Grand Slam Expedition

*The 14 highest 8000m Himalayan peaks

*The 7 Summits

*Three Poles

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