Youngest Person to Ski Seven Continents
December 1, 2022
Paradise Bay, Antarctica
Eight Year Old Boy Breaks World Record as Youngest Person to Ski on All Seven Continents
On the morning of December 1, 2022, Colorado second grade elementary school student Maddock Jefferson Lipp set a new world record as the youngest person to ski on all seven continents. Maddock, age 8 years and 25 days, went from the Ocean Diamond ship just off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, via Zodiac craft to shore, near a gentoo penguin rookery. From there, Maddock along with his older sister (Keira Lipp), father (Jordan Lipp), and IFMGA ski mountaineering guide (Jorge Kozulj) ascended the lower portions of Mount Hoegh in Antarctica. With several inches of fresh powder, the four of them skied down the slopes of the glaciated mountain back to shore and the penguins.
Prior to skiing Antarctica, Maddock had, in addition to skiing all over North America, checked off the other continents by skiing in Cervinia, Italy (Europe), Thredbo and Perisher, Australia (Australia), Oukaimeden, Morocco (Africa), YongPyong and Jisan, South Korea (Asia), Portillo and Valle Nevado, Chile and the Martial Glacier, Argentina (South America). And Maddock skied Deception Island, just north of the Antarctic continent two days earlier, on December 29, 2022.
In order to train to ski in the remote wilderness of Antarctica, Maddock trained with his father and older sister on skiing and climbing, as well as crevasse and avalanche rescue skills. From Golden, Colorado, Maddock began skiing when he was two years old, and was proficient at skiing expert level terrain at ski areas by the age of six. He started backcountry skiing at age five, honing his skills with his father who has both a ski patrol and ski mountaineering background. Backcountry skiing – far from any ski resort – means one must climb up to ski down in a mountainous location without lifts, lodges, or ski patrols.
The Lipp family was guided in Antarctica by Jorge Kozulj, the lead guide of Andescross based in Argentina. They were on a ski expedition arranged by Ice Axe Expeditions, and were on a ship operated by Quark Expeditions.
Maddock broke his older sister, Keira Lipp’s world record. Keira set the record at age ten in Portillo, Chile in June 2022 after having skied the interior of Antarctica with her father on a trip arranged by South Africa’s White Desert in February 2022. Keira remains the youngest girl to have skied on all seven continents. Keira, in turn, had previously broken the record set in 2008 by Victoria Rae White.
After skiing in Antarctica, Maddock and his family celebrated on board the Ocean Diamond boat with a Fanta, nachos, and ice cream. Maddock’s favorite part of skiing in Antarctica was skiing next to penguins.
