A 1998 graduate of the University of Tennessee,Robert Dickie will spend the next two-and-a-half years attempting to reach the highest summits on each of the world's seven continents to raise money for cancer, autism and Alzheimer's research.Dickie's climbing partner for the Seven Summits is Bob Cassidy, a Harvard Business School alumnus who co-chairs the National Campaign Committee for the Autism Society of America. Only 275 mountain climbers have completed the Seven Summits since the goal gained widespread recognition in the mid-1980s.
On Jan. 28, 2009, they climbed Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro, the first of their Seven Summits. At 19,340 feet in elevation, Kilimanjaro is the tallest free-standing mountain in the world.The remaining mountains on the Seven Summits list include Asia's Mount Everest, 29,035 feet; South America's Aconcagua, 22,829 feet; North America's Denali, 20,320 feet; Europe's Mount Elbrus, 18,510 feet; Antarctica's Mount Vinson, 16,067 feet; and Australia's Mount Kosciusko, 7,310 feet.
In July they will attempt to climb Mount Elbrus, the tallest peak in Europe's Causasus mountain range. Also this summer, they plan to hike up Australia's Mount Kosciusko, the lowest summit on the list.
Dickie and Cassidy hope to complete three more mountains in 2011, leaving the grand finale, Mount Everest, for the spring of 2012.