SARAY KHUMALO THE EXPLORER

The South Pole is also known as the Geographic Pole or Terrestrial South Pole. It is situated on the continent of Antarctica and is the southernmost point on the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the North Pole. It is 1½ times the size of the USA, with an altitude of 2,835 metres (9,301 ft) above sea level and is located about 1,300 km (800 mi) from the nearest open sea at Bay of Whales.

Roald Amundsen a Norwegian explorer and his team of four were the first to reach the South pole on 14 December 1911. On the 1st of January 2020 Saray N’kusi Khumalo became the first black African woman to reach the South Pole.

Everest is in The Himalaya mountain range at the border between Nepal and Tibet (China). It is the highest mountain in the world and called Sagarmatha in Nepal and Chomolungma in Tibet. Everest is one of the 14 mountains over 8 000 meters in the world and also one of the 7 summits.

Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first pair to summit Mt. Everest with a British expedition in 1953. Sibusiso Vilane from South Africa is the first black man to summit Everest in 1996. On the 16th of May, Saray N’kusi Khumalo became the first black African woman to summit Everest at 8848,86m.

Kilimanjaro has three peaks: Kibo, Shira and Mawenzi with Kibo being the summit. There are 5 main routes that meander from the jungle through five microclimates to join the three final ascent routes to Kibo. As one of the world’s highest volcanoes it was first summited in 1889 by Meyer and Purtscheller.

In 2012 Saray N’kusi Khumalo summited Kilimanjaro at 5896m.

Elbrus is an extinct volcano in the Caucasus Main Range, the European border with Asia in southern Russia. Elbrus has two main summits – the western summit at 5642m and the eastern summit at 5621m. Mont Blanc is sometimes considered the highest in Europe but Elbrus technically holds that honour.

The first ascent of the west peak was in 1829 by a Russian army team and the east in 1874 by an English team. In 2014 Saray N’kusi Khumalo summited Elbrus at 5642m.

Aconcagua is the highest peak in South America, and also the highest in the Western Hemisphere, with the summit at 6,961 metres (22,841 ft). It is also the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas. It sits within Argentina near the border with Chile. The first recorded summit in modern history was in 1897, by a Swiss climber Matthias Zurbriggen.

Saray Khumalo summited Aconcagua in December 2015 as her third of the 7 summits.

Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 6190 meters (20,310 feet) above sea level. With a topographic prominence of 20,194 feet and a topographic isolation of 4,621.1 miles, Denali is the third most prominent and third most isolated peak on Earth, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua.

Saray Khumalo summited Mount Denali on the 16th of June 2020 as her third of the 7 summits.

Mount Vinson Massif is the highest mountain peak in North Antarctica, with a summit elevation of 4,892 metres (16,050 feet) above sea level. It lies in the north part of Vinson Massif’s summit plateau in the south portion of the main ridge of the Sentinel Range about 2 kilometres north of Hollister Peak.

Saray Khumalo summited Mount Vinson on the 15th of December 2022 as her sixth of the 7 summits.

Mount Kosciuszko, previously spelled Mount Kosciusko, is mainland Australia’s tallest mountain, at 2,228 metres above sea level.

Puncak Jaya or Carstensz Pyramid, Mount Jayawijaya or Mount Carstensz on the island of New Guinea, with an elevation of 4,884 m, is the highest mountain peak of an island on Earth.

The mountain is located in the Sudirman Range of the highlands of Central Papua, Indonesia, in the southwest of Puncak Jaya Regency.

North Pole Last Degree is a ski expedition on the frozen Arctic Ocean starting at 89º north and ending at 90º north, the Geographical North Pole. The precise distance of one degree of latitude is 11.1 kilometres.