Decrease font Decrease font
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

Everest ascent will complete global tourEverest ascent will complete global tour

Climbers don’t have much time for reflection on the world’s tallest peaks. Storms can roll in at any moment and jeopardize the already treacherous descent that awaits.

“Literally, sometimes you’re there for a minute,” said Kurt Gusinde, a 1996 Thunderbird graduate, who has accumulated time atop many of the world’s tallest mountains. Before summer, he plans to scale Mount Everest — the world’s tallest peak, and the last in his quest to scale the highest peaks on all seven continents.

“It wasn’t as if I had this goal to climb all seven,” Gusinde said in November before leaving his Scottsdale, Ariz., home for a short climbing adventure in Ecuador. “It’s just in the last four years where I thought I could climb all these.”

He got his first taste of mountaineering as a Boy Scout in Oregon, where he learned about snow camping. His first climb with ropes and hooks came in 1988 up Oregon’s Mount Hood with a fellow Rotary Club member.

From 2002 to 2007, Gusinde climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa (19,340 feet), Mount Elbrus in Europe (18,481), Mount Aconcaugua in South America (22,829), Mount McKinley in North America (20,320 feet), Mount Vinson in Antarctica (16,067 feet) and Carstensz Pyramid in Australia (16,023 feet).

Gusinde, 53, is “kind of retired” from investment management and lists his occupation as “professional climber.” Besides, he said, employers aren’t interested in hiring someone whose near-term goal takes an abundance of commitment away from the office.

Commitment may be one of Gusinde’s greatest strengths. He works out seven days a week and gets in a long hike every Saturday.

The discipline necessary for success at his level of climbing is no different from what is necessary for success in any other endeavor, he said. He preaches teamwork, planning, dedication and focus.

“There’s nothing extraordinary about my skill set,” Gusinde said. “If you want to be successful, turn off your TV.”