Who are we?

Dastan Kasmamytov is a true globetrotter: he has lived in 5 countries, visited around 50 countries, speaks 5 languages. He is a reckless adventure, who cycled from Central Asia to Germany and now plans to conquer 7 Summits.

Dastan was born in Kyrgyzstan, a fascinating country with rich nomadic history and jaw-dropping mountain sceneries. There in his home country he learned to love nature, appreciate the beauty of it and enjoy hiking, snowboarding, mountaineering and rock-climbing.

Dastan loves sports and active life style and enjoys swimming and running in-between the epic trips to the mountains. The sports helps him to push his limits whether it is skiing in the Alpes or running the half-marathon in Berlin.

In his professional life, Dastan is a programmer. He works now as a freelance developer for startups and IT companies in Germany. He has a long academic experience behind him: he finished his Master's at Metropolitan University in Oslo (Norway), but studied also at Freie Universität - Berlin (Germany), American University in Central Asia/Bard College (Kyrgyzstan), Pierce College (USA).

Dastan is a gay activist. He was one of the first kyrgyz who openly came out in the media. This brought to backlash that forced him to continue education in Europe and to live a safer life.

Steffen is a successful entrepreneur, who founded and led several startups, digital initiatives and companies. He has recently defended his Doctoral degree and now has another big goal to conquer all Seven Summits together with Dastan and others.

Steffen has some mountaineering experience, but he loves sports and regularly ``tortures`` himself with high intensity trainings. Steffen enjoys also snowboarding and regularly attends the gay ski and snowboard events in the Alps.

Steffen is a proud openly gay CEO of one digital company and he was included into the Germany's Top 100 Out Executives List in 2018.

Hans Martin works in banking within capital markets on digitalization and heads up different products. He lives in the happiest country of the world, Norway and as a proper Norwegian enjoys cross-country skiing, hytteturs (hiking tours with staying in huts), and has the best equipment among all of us.

Hans Martin found recently his new passion in long-distance cycling and alpine skiing, especially if it is sunny outside. Sun is fun for him and with the first weak sun beams hitting his balcony in Oslo, he starts to grill and to chill out outside.

Hans Martin has some mountaineering experience and is a true planning guru who has everything in case if something was forgotten at home.

Christian is an academic psychiatrist and psychotherapist with training from Germany, US, UK and Canada. He is an international speaker and has a special focus on palliative and end-of-life care. Christian is Assistant Professor in Palliative Care Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Canada, and Visiting Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, UK. He is a faculty member of the Global Institute of Psychosocial, Palliative and End-of-Life Care (GIPPEC) and the current chair of the Federation for Existential Therapy in Europe (FETE) with teaching commitments in Canada, Israel, Turkey and Germany.

Christian is driven by studying the interplay between existential suffering and meaning-making. He is interested in the psychology of ingroup favouritism and aggression towards others. His passion is to understand better how awareness of our own mortality and personal regrets are influencing the way we interact with others who are different from us.

Daria has been involved in feminist activism in Kyrgyzstan since September 2013. She co-founded and coordinated Girl Activists of Kyrgyzstan initiative which received Global Girl Award in 2015 as well as other projects involving girl’s human rights advocacy. She also co-founded the first creative queer magazine for teenagers in Central Asia - Boktukorgon.

She enjoys film photography and riding a bike. She is not sure that she will be doing all Seven Summits, but she is in any case a proud part of the team taking care of many aspects that make this campaign successful.

Are you adventurous? Do you love mountains and stunning landscapes? Are you not afraid of mental and physical challenges? Are you passionate about LGBT rights and visibility?

Join us! You may do all 7 summits, a part of it, or only one mountain. Mountaineering experience would be great to have, but no the must. Good physical shape is necessary though.

Please, note: you should bear your own expenses and Seven Summits is very expensive to climb. If we are able to find some sponsorship, we may help with equipment and other costs.

Please, write to dastanurbek /at/ gmail.com if you are inspired to join us on our adventures!