Plan Smarter. Climb Safer.
Free interactive tools to help you choose the right mountain, build a realistic budget, schedule acclimatization correctly, assess your fitness, and map a multi-year path to bigger summits. Every tool draws on the same expedition data that powers our peak guides.
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Whether you’re picking a first summit or building a Seven Summits campaign, the right tool turns vague ambition into a concrete plan. The tools below are organized by where you are in the process: decide what to climb, plan the trip, train for it, and research the deeper details. Start with whichever stage matches your need — they’re designed to work together.
01 — DecideChoose your next mountain
Tools that help you compare objectives side-by-side, narrow down options based on experience and goals, and understand the realistic difficulty step-up between peaks.
Compare any two or three mountains side-by-side: elevation, technical grade, season, expedition length, cost, success rate, and death rate. Built for climbers weighing real options against each other rather than reading isolated peak pages.
Compare peaksA guided selector that asks about your experience, time, budget, and goals — then surfaces 3–5 realistic objectives matched to your profile. The right starting point if you know you want to climb something but don’t know what.
Find your mountainMap a realistic multi-year campaign through the highest peak on every continent. Sequences peaks by progression order, estimates total cost and timeline, and flags the experience gates between each climb.
Build your path02 — PlanBuild the trip
Once you know what you’re climbing, these tools turn the climb into a concrete logistical plan: cost, calendar, acclimatization, and gear.
Expedition Budget Calculator
Estimate total expedition cost for any major peak — permits, guide services, oxygen, gear, flights, insurance, and contingency. Adjusts for guided vs. independent style and includes regional cost variations.
Calculate costAcclimatization Schedule Builder
Generate a day-by-day acclimatization plan based on your target altitude, available time, and approach. Built around the climb-high, sleep-low principle and the ascent rate guidelines used by IFMGA guides.
Build scheduleGear & Climbing Checklist
A working gear checklist for mountaineering, glacier travel, and expedition objectives. Track what you own, what to buy, and what to review before every climb. Adaptable from trekking peaks to 8,000m expeditions.
Open checklistPermits, Fees & Regulations
Country-by-country permit requirements, costs, and application timelines for every major climbing destination. Includes Nepal, Pakistan, Tibet, Argentina, Tanzania, USA, and more — kept current to 2026.
Check permitsMountain Weather for Climbers
Read alpine forecasts like a guide: pressure trends, freezing levels, wind aloft, and how to interpret weather windows on big peaks. Includes recommended forecasting sources by region.
Learn weatherOperator Comparison
Vetted profiles of major expedition operators on the world’s most-climbed peaks — pricing, success rates, staffing models, and what they actually deliver. Useful before signing a $50K commercial deposit.
Compare operators03 — TrainGet ready physically
Honest self-assessment is the difference between a successful summit and an early evacuation. These tools benchmark where you are and what you need to build before your objective.
Fitness Assessment Checklist
Benchmark your aerobic base, strength, and uphill endurance against the standards required for specific peaks. Identify gaps before they cost you a summit day.
Assess fitnessMountaineering Fitness Standards
Concrete fitness benchmarks by peak — VO2 max ranges, vertical gain capacity, multi-day load-carry standards. The objective targets to train toward, not vague advice to “get in shape.”
View standardsExpedition Training Plans
Multi-month training templates for the most-climbed expedition peaks — Denali, Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, Rainier, Elbrus. Periodized base, build, and peak phases mapped to your climb date.
View training plansAcclimatization Explained
How the body adapts to altitude, what HAPE and HACE actually look like, and how to recognize trouble before it becomes an emergency. Pair with the schedule builder to apply it.
Read guide04 — ResearchReference databases
Searchable databases for the deeper questions: which mountains have the highest summit rates, where the fatalities concentrate, and how 500 peaks compare across the same data fields.
Master Mountain List
Searchable index of 500 mountains worldwide — every 8,000er, all Seven Summits, full Karakoram, Andes, Alps, Cascades, and more. Filter by category, country, or status. The site’s spine.
Search 500 peaksSummit Success Rates
How often climbers actually summit each peak — by route, season, and guided vs. independent. The realistic baseline for what to expect from your own attempt.
View success ratesDeath Rates by Mountain
Fatality statistics for every major peak — Annapurna at 32%, K2 at 22%, Everest at 1%, Kilimanjaro under 0.1%. Causes of death and risk-reduction analysis included.
View death ratesMountain Route Comparisons
Side-by-side route breakdowns on the most-climbed peaks. Lemosho vs. Machame on Kilimanjaro, South Col vs. North Col on Everest, Disappointment Cleaver vs. Liberty Ridge on Rainier.
Compare routesMountain Difficulty Ratings
YDS, French Alpine, Russian, and UIAA grading systems explained side-by-side. Translate ratings between systems and understand what a “TD+” actually demands of you on the mountain.
Decode ratingsState of Mountaineering 2026
The definitive 2026 data report on permit costs, summit rates, expedition budgets, and emerging trends across 100 of the world’s most significant peaks.
Read reportHow they work togetherA four-step planning workflow
The tools above aren’t isolated calculators — they’re designed to feed each other. Here’s the order most climbers use them, from first idea to expedition departure.
From idea to expedition, in four tool stops
Each step builds on the previous one. Pick Your Mountain narrows your choice. Peak Comparison validates it against alternatives. Acclimatization & Budget builders turn it into a real plan. Fitness Assessment confirms you’re ready.
Narrow your options
Use Pick Your Mountain or browse the Master Mountain List to identify 3–5 realistic candidates.
Start thereCompare side-by-side
Run your candidates through Peak Comparison to see elevation, cost, season, and risk in one view.
Compare peaksBuild the plan
Once you’ve chosen, use the Budget Calculator and Acclimatization Builder to turn the choice into logistics.
Build the planConfirm fitness
Run the Fitness Assessment against the standards for your peak and start training to close any gaps.
Assess yourselfEvery tool here is calibrated against the deeper peak guides on the site. A budget number is only useful if you’ve also read the operator profiles. A fitness benchmark only matters if you understand the route. Use the tools to compress the research, then dig into the relevant guide before you commit.
ContributeAdd your data to the database
The tools get sharper every time a climber submits a verified trip report. If you’ve completed a climb covered on the site, your data improves the success-rate, cost, and conditions estimates for the next person.
Share your summit experience
Submit a trip report — route, dates, costs, conditions, gear that worked, gear that didn’t — and become part of the dataset that powers Global Summit Guide. Reports are reviewed and published within 7 days.
FAQFrequently asked questions
Are the tools really free?
Yes. Every tool on this page is free to use, requires no signup, and stores no personal data. Global Summit Guide is funded by editorial partnerships and affiliate links on gear and operator pages — never by gating planning tools behind a paywall.
How accurate are the cost and success rate estimates?
The Expedition Budget Calculator pulls from current operator pricing across the major commercial expeditions (refreshed annually) plus permit fees published by national authorities. Success rates come from the Himalayan Database for Asian peaks, national park records for North America, and operator-published statistics where available. Like any estimate, they’re a starting point — not a guarantee — but they’re calibrated against current 2026 data, not legacy figures.
Which tool should I start with?
It depends on where you are. If you don’t yet know what to climb, start with Pick Your Mountain. If you have 2–3 candidates, use the Peak Comparison Tool. If you’ve chosen and need to plan, start with the Expedition Budget Calculator. If you’re unsure whether you’re ready at all, run the Fitness Assessment first.
Can I use these tools for trekking peaks, not just expeditions?
Yes. The Peak Comparison Tool, Master Mountain List, Pick Your Mountain helper, and Gear Checklist all cover trekking peaks (Island Peak, Mera, Chimborazo, Kilimanjaro, etc.) alongside expedition objectives. The Acclimatization Schedule Builder is especially useful for trekking peaks, where altitude is usually the limiting factor over technical difficulty.
Do the tools work on mobile?
Yes. Every tool is built mobile-first and works on any modern browser — useful for last-minute checks on the trail or while talking to an operator on the phone. The Master Mountain List filtering and Peak Comparison Tool are best on a tablet or larger screen for comfortable side-by-side reading.
Is there a tool for [something I don’t see here]?
If a tool you’d find useful is missing, send a request via the contact page with the peak or scenario you’re trying to plan for. The tool roadmap is built directly from reader requests — most of what’s on this page started as a question someone emailed in.