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What is the The Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam?All You Need To Know

The Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam is a lifetime challenge designed to represent the ultimate combination of travel, adventure and exploration. Anyone can attempt it, but completing it will probably require decades of your life.

To complete the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam, you must:

• Visit Every Country+ — All 193 United Nations’ Countries, plus additional nations. See below.
• Complete the Seven Summits+ — climbing the highest mountain on each continent covering the Bass List, Messner lists and all the others. See below.
• Reach both geographic poles — the North Pole and the South Pole. See below.
• Reach the hottest place and coldest places on earth – See below.
• Reach the highest and lowest places on earth – See below.

The idea is that this shouldn’t be something you can race through simply to tick a few boxes. It combines four completely different worlds: global travel, high-altitude mountaineering, polar exploration and ocean expeditions.

Anyone can give it a crack. But to actually finish it, adventure and exploration will almost certainly have to become a major part of your life. That’s what the Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam is supposed to represent.

How Many People have Completed the Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam?

I think maybe just me? I can confirm for myself. Then there are a couple of other people who may also have done it, I’m currently trying to track them down.

• Johnny Ward (Confirmed)
• Bruno Rodi (ABSOLUTE TRAVEL LEGEND. All confirmed stuff. Every country, ocean row, 7 summits, both poles, least visited island ever – Bouvet Island. Legit legend. One of the coolest living humans on earth). Not sure about Mt. Wilhelm or Carsentz/Punjak Jaya.
• Johan Ernst (amazing Polar stuff. Need the mountain and travel stuff confirmed.

Special shout out to Jaime Aleman here (every country AND SPACE!), and to Jason Wang who may be the next one to finish in 2027 or so.

How the The Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam concept came about?

This is a bit nerdy (sorry, not sorry!).

In a (not so) short description, this was my thought process. For me, probably because I’m probably a little bit on the spectrum, the Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam came about because I wanted to represent true adventure and travel and exploration. 

I wanted the only people to do it, or think about it, to really do this as a lifestyle, not just racing through, ticking boxes (which we’re all guilty of sometimes, me too for sure). the Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam is just such a big undertaking; it could take decades. 

It means that basically it has to be coming from your heart and your passion and one of your life’s dedications. 

Originally I thought perhaps every country in the world, 193 or 197, depending on your definition, plus Explorers Grand Slam, so the Seven Summits and both poles. Then I thought that still doesn’t do it justice for what I want it to represent. So I thought it should be every country ‘plus plus’. So over years of thought and research, I created a little list of the other nations I believe should be included. 

Not to say that they’re countries, but for example you shouldn’t be able to skip Scotland and say that you’ve completed the Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam. But if we go with 197 countries, that allows you to do that. The country is the UK of course, so if you visit England, that means you wouldn’t need to visit Scotland to tick the box and move on. So I thought it’s better to break it down just one level more. I didn’t want to get too train-spottery, which I know sometimes I’m guilty of, so I tried to take a step back from that and include just major places that should be included that aren’t strictly countries. 

But to say you’ve visited the world and completed the Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam, you should also have had it in your heart to want to visit. So less chance to cheat, per se.

With that, the ULTIMATE explorers Grand Slam (or the ULTIMATE Adventurers Grand Slam) is:

• Visit every Country in the world (all 197++)
• The highest point on each continent, aka the 7 summits**
• Reach both the North and South Pole
• Hottest and Coldest places on earth
• Highest and Lowest places on earth

++ Even though there are 197 countries, the ULTIMATE EXPLORERS GRAND SLAM requires more than ‘just’ every country. This is about exploring the world, so we need to find the balance between adventure but avoid the duty of becoming trainspotters. So for example where Hong Kong, despite not being a country, should of course be counted but small islands, like the Isle of Man for example, shouldn’t. We have a list of 214 ‘nations’ in total. 

** To complete the ULTIMATE EXPLORERS GRAND SLAM you need to have all bases covered, so that means the standard 7 summits, both the Bass and Messner lists of the 7 summits completed, as well as Mont Blanc and Mount Wilhelm. That means you need to have Mount Kosciuszko and Carstensz Pyramid under your belt.

The normal Explorers Grand Slam is an amazing achievement, don’t get me wrong. But people have completed it in less than a year. It’s primarily an expedition and mountaineering challenge. The Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam is something different. Once you add every country in the world, plus some of the extremes where humans actually live, you’re talking about something that realistically takes years, probably decades, to complete.

It’s not just about climbing mountains. It’s not just about ticking countries. And it’s not just about having enough money to fly to the Poles. It’s about experiencing as much of Planet Earth as one human reasonably can.

Why Create the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam?

This is probably the most important part. It’s not really about a checklist. I love lists. I love goals. And I love ticking stuff off. Anyone who knows me knows that. But the list is just the framework.

The real purpose is to create a massive life goal that forces you to experience the world. Think about what you’d have to see along the way. Every country in Africa. Every tiny Pacific island nation. North Korea. Afghanistan. Bhutan. Brazil. Ireland. Yemen. Japan. Antarctica. You’d stand on the summit of Everest looking down from the highest point on Earth. And you’d stand at the North Pole with literally every direction pointing south. You’d stand at the South Pole on the enormous frozen continent of Antarctica.

You’d experience -50°C in Siberia. Any you’d sweat your balls off in the Danakil Depression or Death Valley. And along the way you’d meet thousands of people from cultures, religions and backgrounds completely different from your own. That, to me, is exploration. Just squeezing as much life as possible out of this amazing planet while we’re lucky enough to be here. That’s what the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam is supposed to represent.

So, what exactly counts?

The Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam Criteria

The Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam is based around five things: every country in the world, the Seven Summits, the North Pole, the South Pole, and the hottest and coldest inhabited places on Earth.

But because explorers fucking love arguing about definitions, I’ve deliberately made the criteria broader than the bare minimum wherever there’s a legitimate dispute. That’s why I call some of these categories “plus plus.”

If there are two respected definitions, do both. If there are three, do all three. No asterisks. No bullshit.

1) Every Country in the World++

The first requirement is visiting every country in the world.

My definition of every country is 197 countries: the 193 UN member states, Palestine and Vatican City, plus Kosovo and Taiwan.

You can argue about this until the cows come home. Some people count 193. Some count 195. Others count 197. Some of the hardcore country-counting communities have lists running into the THOUSANDS because they’re counting territories, regions and every island with a different coloured postbox. That’s fine. Do whatever makes you happy.

For the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam, though, we’re keeping it less train-spottery, but still we can’t miss main chunks of the world that otherwise could be skipped with just the 197 (Greenland, for example, is ‘ticked off’ as Denmark. Scotland as the ‘UK’ – you can’t miss Scotland and Greenland on your life’s travels and call yourself an Ultimate Explorer in good faith).

But because this is the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam, I also think you should go a little further than simply ticking countries. There are several places that aren’t countries but are so culturally, geographically or politically distinct that it would feel wrong to claim you’ve properly explored the planet without experiencing them. That doesn’t mean we’re going to create some ridiculous 1000+ never-ending checklist. The whole point is to have a definition people can actually understand and work towards.

So we’re going for the 197, plus:

1. Somaliland
2. Northern Cyprus
3. Western Sahara
4. Transnistria
5. South Ossetia
6. Abkhazia
7. Iraqi Kurdistan
8. Tibet
9. Hong Kong
10. Macau
11. Faroe Islands
12. Greenland
13. Northern Ireland
14. Scotland
15. England
16. Wales
17. Niue
18. Cook Islands

This makes 214 Nations. (actually it makes 215, but you have to remove UK as you’ve include England, Scotland and Wales).

2) The Seven Summits++

The traditional Seven Summits means climbing the highest mountain on each continent. Sounds simple. Of course it fucking isn’t.

The standard recognised Messner list is Everest in Asia, Aconcagua in South America, Denali in North America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Europe, Vinson in Antarctica and Carstensz Pyramid/Puncak Jaya in Oceania.

But there are disagreements. The most famous is Oceania. The Bass list uses Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, whereas the Messner list uses Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesian Papua.

Then you even have a small argument about Mount Wilhelm, in Papua New Guinea. Most people count Puncak Jaya as Oceania’s Seven Summit because New Guinea is geographically part of Oceania. However, Puncak Jaya lies in Indonesian territory, and Indonesia is politically considered Asian. Under that interpretation, Puncak Jaya belongs to Asia, making Mount Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea Oceania’s highest qualifying mountain.

Same thing with Europe. Mount Elbrus is generally accepted as Europe’s highest mountain, at 5,642m, and it’s the mountain used for the standard Seven Summits. But depending on exactly where you draw the Europe-Asia boundary through the Caucasus, people occasionally make the argument for Mont Blanc instead.

The Ultimate Explorers Grand Slam answer? You have to do them all.

Therefore, for the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam, you’re not really doing the Seven Summits.

You’re doing the Seven Summits++. Which is 10 summits.

Everest. Aconcagua. Denali. Kilimanjaro. Elbrus. Vinson. Carstensz Pyramid. Plus Kosciuszko. Plus Mount Wilhelm. And Plus Mont Blanc. Cover every base and nobody can give you any shit about which list you used.

3) The North Pole

Next up, you need to reach the Geographic North Pole: 90° North. Ideally, in the purest possible version of the challenge, you’d ski there from land. That’s fucking hardcore. And legendary.

If you’ve skied the whole way to the North Pole under your own power, that’s another level entirely and deserves massive respect. The problem is that the logistics of reaching the North Pole have changed enormously. The traditional Russian Barneo ice camp operation, which supported many ski expeditions, hasn’t provided the same reliable route it once did, and full North Pole ski expeditions have effectively disappeared for years. None since 2018.

So I’m not going to create a challenge where one of the rules has become practically impossible because geopolitics and Arctic logistics have changed. The requirement is therefore simple:

Reach the Geographic North Pole.

If you ski there, amazing. If you undertake a full expedition, you’re a absolute legend. But the fundamental requirement is standing at 90° North.

What About Skiing the Last Degree to the North Pole?

It’s a scam. There’s also this weird obsession in the adventure world with skiing the “Last Degree.” Basically, you travel most of the way to the North Pole using aircraft or other transport, get dropped at roughly 89° North, and then ski the final degree of latitude to 90° North. It’s about 60 nautical miles, or roughly 100km.

Personally, I think it’s one of the biggest wastes of money and sources of fake kudos in the adventure industry. You’re already bloody flying there! The plane is going towards the North Pole anyway. It just drops you off a bit earlier so you can spend days dragging a sled across the ice and then say you “skied to the North Pole.”

You didn’t really ski to the North Pole. You flew almost all the way there and skied the last bit. That’s absolutely fine if you want the experience. I’m sure it’s beautiful, brutal and memorable. But I don’t think it makes your North Pole visit fundamentally more legitimate than somebody who reaches 90° North another way. For the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam, 90° North is 90° North.

Either fly/sail there and own it, or be a true here and ski the whole thing. The weird middle ground doesn’t get extra points here.

4) The South Pole

Same idea at the other end of the planet. You need to reach the Geographic South Pole: 90° South.

MASSIVE EXTRA POINTS if you ski from the coast tot eh South Pole. Zero extra points for the fake ‘last-degree ski’. There are heros who have done absolutely enormous expeditions across Antarctica, skiing from the coast to the South Pole, unsupported expeditions, solo expeditions and crossings of the entire continent. Those achievements are in a different universe from simply reaching the Pole. They deserve recognition accordingly.

This, however, isn’t a competition to decide who is the greatest polar explorer in history. The Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam is about experiencing the geographical extremes of our planet. So the rule remains simple: You need to physically reach 90° South. If you ski all the way there, fair play. If not, you’ve still reached the South Pole and completed that geographical element of the challenge.

5) The Coldest Inhabited Place on Earth: In Winter

Now we get into the additions that I think make the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam much more interesting.

The actual coldest place on Earth is Antarctica. Temperatures there have dropped below -80°C, and the official ground-based record at Vostok Station is -89.2°C. But that’s not what interests me here.

I want the coldest permanently inhabited where normal human beings actually live. And that’s Oymyakon in Siberia, Russia.

Oymyakon is widely recognised as the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on the planet. An official temperature of -67.7°C was recorded there in 1933, and winter temperatures routinely plunge below -50°C. But there’s an important rule here. You have to go in winter.

Going to Oymyakon in July when it’s 20°C and taking a selfie beside the “Pole of Cold” monument is technically visiting Oymyakon, but come on. That’s completely missing the fucking point. The whole purpose of adding Oymyakon is to experience what life is like at the extreme limit of human cold-weather habitation. So go when it’s properly cold.

Experience your eyelashes freezing. Experience walking outside at -40°C or -50°C. You have to experience cars being left running because restarting them can become a problem. Feeling what life actually means in a place like that. That’s the challenge.

6) The Hottest Inhabited Place on Earth: In Summer

The hottest place is slightly more complicated. There are different ways of defining “hottest.”

A) Death Valley in California holds the official record for the highest air temperature measured on Earth: 56.7°C at Furnace Creek in 1913, although there’s been plenty of debate about the accuracy of that old measurement.

B) Then there’s Dallol in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression. Dallol recorded an average annual temperature of around 34°C during the years measurements were taken there, giving it a legitimate claim as the hottest inhabited location on Earth on an annual-average basis.

So rather than pretending there’s one perfect answer when there isn’t, the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam requires either. Visit Dallol and the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, or visit Death Valley in the United States. Ideally, do both. But again, there’s a rule. Go in summer/the genuinely hot season.

There’s no point claiming you’ve experienced one of the hottest places on Earth if you deliberately visit during the coolest week of the year. The objective isn’t merely putting your GPS coordinates in the right place. It’s experiencing the extreme. That’s the entire philosophy behind this thing.

7) The Highest and Lowest Places on Earth

This one is simple, not easy. Mount Everest Summit (8848m above sea level). And the Dead Sea, Jordan/Israel/Palestine (430m below sea level).

What About the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam+++?

And then we get into the completely ridiculous stuff. Because there is always another level. In 2025, my mate Jaime Alemán became the first human in history to visit every country in the world, reach both the North and South Poles, AND GO TO SPACE. Think about that for a second.

Every country on Planet Earth. The North Pole. The South Pole. And then he LEFT THE PLANET. Jaime flew aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard and crossed the Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary of space. That’s absolutely legendary.

He hasn’t climbed the Seven Summits, so technically he hasn’t completed the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam according to the criteria on this page. Equally, I haven’t been to space, so I haven’t completed his Grand Slam of Travel. They’re different achievements. Could you combine them? Of course.

Every country + Seven Summits++ + North Pole + South Pole + hottest inhabited place + coldest inhabited place + SPACE.

The Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam++. Has anybody done that? No. Would I love to see somebody do it one day? Absolutely. Is going to space currently one of my life goals? Yes! But with a young family, it’s financially out of reach for me. So unless someone wants to gift me a ticket, there are more important things for me in life right now. But if someone eventually completes everything on this list AND goes to space, I’ll happily bow down. You’ve won.

Could the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam Change in the Future?

Yes. And I think it probably should and will. Not the core criteria. I don’t want this becoming one of those ridiculous records where the rules change every few years so nobody can work out who has actually completed it.

Most Northern + Southern Settlements?

But I think there’s room to develop the challenge around other genuinely meaningful geographical extremes. For example, perhaps the northernmost permanently inhabited settlement on Earth should eventually be included. That would be either Alert Canada, or Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. And if we do that, logically we should include the southernmost permanently inhabited settlement too. Sp Puerto Toro, Chile. How about the highest permanently inhabited settlement? Lowest inhabited settlement? Maybe that’s cool too, that would be La Rinconada. Peru at 5100m above sea level. And Neve Zohar, Israel at 390m below sea level.

Mauna Kea as a seven summit?

Also for the 7 Summits, perhaps Mauna Kea mountain should be climbed. Under the tectonic Seven Summits interpretation, Europe isn’t treated as a separate tectonic continent because it shares the Eurasian Plate with Asia. That removes Elbrus. Instead, the Pacific tectonic region gets a summit, represented by Mauna Kea in Hawaii, while Everest represents Eurasia.Mauna Kea also has a cool claim: measured from its base on the ocean floor to its summit, it’s over 10km tall (taller than Everest!).

I kinda thing this one needs to be included, I’ll think about it during 2026.

214 countries. Or more?

I spend a disgusting amount of time thinking about this kind of thing. I love my 214 list. BUT if we are to add to it, then perhaps we must add:

• Svalbard : strongest omission. Unique Arctic destination, highly distinct from mainland Norway.
• Puerto Rico: 3m+ people, strong national identity, culturally and geographically distinct from the US.
• French Polynesia: — huge Pacific territory with its own government and strong Polynesian identity.
• New Caledonia: distinct Melanesian identity, substantial autonomy and long-running independence question.
• Falkland Islands: exceptionally isolated and politically/geographically distinct from the UK.
• French Guiana: South America rather than Europe; extremely different from metropolitan France.
• Réunion: same logic: African/Indian Ocean geography despite technically being France.
• Guam: major Pacific destination with indigenous Chamorro identity and separate political status.
• American Samoa: culturally distinct Polynesian territory and unusual US political status.
• 3 Netherlands constituent countries of Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten (constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands rather than simply a Dutch territory)

After that I’m getting into country-counting train-spotting again. So I need to draw a line. So right now, it’s 214. I’ll think about extending it to some/all of the above. Let’s see.