RIP Dick Bass, 1st to Complete the 7 Summits & Co-Founder of Snowbird, UT

Dick Bass is a true American badass and he passed away yesterday at the age of 85.  He’s the guy who first came up with the idea to summit the tallest summit on each of the seven summits and he executed the project with precision.

Dick was also a co-founder of the legendary Utah ski resort, Snowbird.

Not many of us get the chance to do something great.  Dick was able to pull off many legendary feats:

DICK BASS BADASSNESS:

• Co-founded Snowbird ski resort in Utah in 1971

• Conceived of the idea of the “Seven Summits” and completed them all on, summiting Mt. Everest on April 30th, 1985

• Oldest to summit 29,028-foot Mt. Everest (at time of summit)

• Wrote book “Seven Summits”

• Got into Yale at 16-years-old

• Served two years in the Navy onboard the USS Essex during the Korean War.

Dick Bass was born in Tuscaloosa, OK on December 21st, 1929.  He passed away yesterday, July 26th, 2015.

Congrats on a great life, Dick and thanks for Snowbird.

DICK BASS INFORMATION:

“Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1929, Bass moved with his family to Texas in 1932. After graduating from Highland Park High School, he enrolled at Yale University at 16 and graduated in 1950 with a degree in geology. After completing some graduate work at the University of Texas, Bass served two years with the U.S. Navy on board the aircraft carrier USS Essex during the Korean War. In 1953, he returned to Texas to join in the running of the family oil and gas business and ranching operations.

In 1971, Bass opened the Snowbird Ski Resort. He became prominent in the industry due to his self-proclaimed “blanket curiosity, nonstop verbosity and hyper-enthusiasm.”

Together with Frank Wells, one-time president of Walt Disney, Bass conceived of the adventure challenge of summiting each of the seven continents: Denali (Mt. McKinley), North America; Aconcagua, South America; Mt. Elbrus, Europe; Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa; Vinson Massif, Antarctica; Mount Kosciuszko, Australia; and Mt. Everest, Asia.

Bass became the first person to achieve the Seven Summits (the highest point on each continent) on April 30, 1985. At the time, he was also the oldest person to have climbed Mt. Everest. He later co-wrote the book Seven Summits describing his achievement. The ascent has been somewhat controversial; Bass’s list puts Mount Kosciuszko as the tallest in Australia, but climber Patrick Morrow has put forward that that the tallest mountain in Oceania (which includes Australia) is instead the more difficult Puncak Jaya.

Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air opines that Bass’s ascent of Mount Everest pulled the mountain into a “postmodern era” wherein commercial guided expeditions became big business and encouraged climbers with limited experience to pay large sums of money to these enterprises in order to ascend Everest.” – WIKIPEDIA

Join us as we mark the passing and pay tribute to this legendary man who was the first to complete the “Seven Summits” and co-founded Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort in 1971. Richard Daniel “Dick” Bass, Dec. 21, 1929 – July 26, 2015. – Snowbird