Dick Bass (Entrepreneur)

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Richard "Dick" Bass (born December 21, 1929 in Tulsa , Oklahoma , United States , † July 26, 2015 in Dallas , Texas ) was an American entrepreneur and mountaineer . He is credited with the idea of ​​climbing all Seven Summits , the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. He was the first to complete this series.

Life

Dick Bass was born in Tulsa , Oklahoma in 1929 . In 1932 his family moved with him to Dallas, Texas . He graduated from the prestigious Yale University with a degree in geology in 1950 and graduated from the University of Texas before serving in the US Navy for two years during the Korean War on the aircraft carrier USS Essex . In mid-1953 he returned to Texas and got into the family's oil and gas business; he also helped out on the family ranches .

After a winter vacation in the Wasatch Mountains , Utah in 1969 , Bass began to take an interest in mountains. In 1971 he opened a ski resort in Snowbird , Utah. Later he also invested in coal. He was a shareholder in PacRim Coal , a development company that wants to realize the largest coal mine in Alaska with the Chuitna Coal Project .

The Seven Summits

At the beginning of the 1980s, Bass developed the idea of ​​climbing the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, the Seven Summits . Together with his friend, the later Disney President Frank Wells , he wanted to put this into practice. Both were around 50 years old at the time and more amateurs when it comes to mountaineering. Her physical fitness, climbing experience and knowledge of nature and equipment initially lagged well behind the requirements of the project. They first tried in 1981 on Elbrus , the highest mountain in Europe, on which Wells failed. Other expeditions were initially unsuccessful. In 1983 they finally made six of the seven peaks: Aconcagua (South America), Denali (North America), Kibo (Africa), Elbrus (Eurasia), Mount Vinson (Antarctica), and Mount Kosciuszko (Australia). Bass 'and Wells' expedition was only the third to climb Mount Vinson.

On Mount Everest (Asia) they had to give up three times because of bad weather, whereupon Wells promised his wife to give up the venture. Bass finally climbed the mountain on April 30, 1985 under the guidance of David Breashears . Bass was not only the first to climb all Seven Summits, but also set a new age record on Mount Everest at the age of 55.

Bass wrote an autobiographical book with Wells about the experiences of climbing the Seven Summits, entitled Seven Summits .

The Seven Summits are still considered a challenge among mountaineers today. However, in accordance with a suggestion by Reinhold Messner, instead of Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain on the Australian mainland, the significantly higher Carstensz pyramid as the highest mountain on the continent of Australia is climbed.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Celeste Tholen Rosenlof: Snowbird co-founder of this in Dallas home . In: ksl.com . July 27, 2015, accessed July 28, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c Dick Bass. In: EverestHistory.com. Retrieved August 29, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Dick Bass, Frank Wells , Rick Ridgeway: Seven summits . 1986, p. 2 .
  4. ↑ Dick Bass, Frank Wells , Rick Ridgeway: Seven summits . 1986, p. 4th ff .
  5. ↑ Dick Bass, Frank Wells , Rick Ridgeway: Seven summits . 1986, p. 1 .
  6. ^ A b History of the Quest for the Seven Summits. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 17, 2015 ; accessed on August 29, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abc-of-mountaineering.com
  7. ^ Susan Champlin: Movie Mogul Frank Wells and Financier Dick Bass Become the Old Men of Seven Mountains . In: People . Vol. 21, No. 6 , February 13, 1984 ( article on People Magazine website).
  8. ↑ History of 7 Summits project - who was first? Retrieved August 29, 2010 .
  9. ↑ Jeff Bowden: Living Legends: Largemouth Bass. Retrieved August 29, 2010 .
  10. ↑ 7summits.com. Retrieved August 29, 2010 .
personal data
SURNAME Bass, thick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bass, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur and mountaineer
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Tulsa , Oklahoma, United States
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 2015
Place of death Dallas , Texas, United States