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Proving that age is just a number and adventure can keep us all young, a self described "crazy grandma" is attempting to climb the Seven Summits at the age of 58. Lisa Walker has already knocked Kilimanjaro off of her list and will head to Aconcagua next month for her second mountain, as she pursues her quest to climb the higher peak on each of the seven continents. Ripcord Rescue Travel Insurance has a profile of Walker on its website in which she shares some of the challenges she has faced climbing and traveling in different parts of the world, including an intense trek to the top of the 20,100-foot (6126 meter) Stok Kangri in the Indian Himalaya. Only half of her team managed to reach the summit on that tough expedition. Walker isn't just a climber, but an endurance athlete too. She competes in long distance running races and triathlons, including half-Ironman events, which keeps her in better shape than most people her age. That has also inspired her to want to cli...

Last week I posted a story about Alan Arnette's recent look at the cost of climbing Everest in 2018 . This week, he's back to delve deeper into the numbers behind all of the expeditions that visit the world's highest peak, and take a peek ahead at what we can expect in the spring of 2018, when more people than ever will be heading to the Himalaya. As you probably recall, the Himalayan Database is the main authority on who has and hasn't climbed Everest and the other big mountains in Nepal and Tibet. Recently, the database was updated to include all the summits from 2017 and was released online for free . Over the past couple of weeks, Alan has been pouring over the numbers to search for any interesting tidbits of information, with some fascinating things being revealed. According to the database, 4833 people have summited Everest a grand total of 8306 times to date. Most of those (5280) came from the Nepali side, with an additionally 3026 reaching the summit on the ...

This past summer mountaineer Vanessa O'Brien became the first American (and British!) woman to summit K2. Shortly after the climb she was interviewed about the experience, which you'll find in the short video below. The clip includes some amazing shots from the expedition itself, giving us the viewers a chance to see what it was like on the mountain. As you'll see, it was quite an adventure.

Alan Arnette has compiled his annual examination of the costs of climbing Everest and as usual the post is filled with lots of interesting information. If you're thinking of joining an expedition to the highest mountain on the planet sometime in the near future, you'll definitely want to give this article a look. For those going in 2018, here's what you can expect to pay. So how much will it cost next year? Alan says it will be a minimum of $30,000, with most climbers paying somewhere in the neighborhood of about $45,000. That's an increase over 2017, with prices climbing both on the lower end of the spectrum and the premium high-end as well. In 2018, the price range for an Everest climb starts at $28,000 and goes up to as much as $85,000. You can have a completely custom climb for $115,000 as well, although few take that option. At the bottom end, if you want to mostly go it alone, with some support, you can get away with spending as little as $20,000, although as Al...