Richard Bass - Business and Adventure

Business and Adventure

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 on April 30, 1985. On that date, he also held the record for being the oldest person to have climbed Mt. Everest. Details of his adventures were described in a book that he co-wrote, Seven Summits. His feat is not without controversy, as one of the seven summits was the tallest mountain in mainland Australia, and not the tallest in Oceania.

PacRim Coal, co-owned by Dick Bass, is currently in the process of securing state and federal permits to build the largest coal mine in Alaska's history, the Chuitna Coal Project.