Originally published 13 May 2018.
An offshore engineer hit alpine heights in a fundraising speed-climbing record, capping it with a Mt Everest and Mt Lhotse double summit inside 24 hours.
Steve Plain is ICON Engineering’s Chief Goal Setter. He has made his mark setting audacious engineering and sporting goals — and achieving them. At ICON, Steve has authored patents for deepwater drilling heave compensation systems and executed some complex projects, but his latest challenge was based firmly on terra firma.
Caption: ICON engineer Steve Plain, who set a new world speed record climbing the Seven Summits in under four months.
The Record
On 14 May 2018, Steve set a new world speed mountain climbing record, completing his goal of climbing the Seven Summits — the highest mountain on each of the seven continents — in under four months. He actually exceeded his own stated goal, adding Mt Kosciuszko in Australia in March, and Mt Lhotse the day after Everest, making it nine big mountains in four months.
The Backstory
Early on Saturday morning, 13 December 2014, while swimming at Cottesloe Beach, Steve was dumped by a wave and went head first into the sand. This caused, in layman’s terms, a Hangman’s Fracture — fracturing the C2, C3 and C7 vertebrae, plus a contorted spinal cord, ruptured disc, dissected artery and torn ligaments. It wasn’t good.
After his accident, Steve stunned everyone with his big, audacious “Project 7in4” goal. Then he stunned everyone — perhaps even himself — by achieving it, and smashing a world record in the process.
ICON Managing Director Dave Field commented: “As well as being a remarkable athlete blitzing his extreme sporting goals, as an engineer Steve always blitzes the projects and goals our clients set him. I’m sure when he gets back to our West Perth office he won’t be looking at little goals, so here is a shout out to our customers past, present and future. We want to hear about your big, audacious offshore oil and gas, deepwater drilling goals and challenges — but only difficult ones please, and if they’re big enough, we can get Steve onto it.”
Steve is passionate about raising awareness and funds for two not-for-profit organisations he has close affiliation with through his accident: SpinalCure and Surf Life Saving. Photos, videos and donation details are at project7in4.com.
ICON’s Track Record
ICON has installed more offshore platforms with jackup drilling rigs than any other company worldwide, and is expert in minimal facilities installation techniques such as Minnowpods, Monopods and Annex wellhead platforms. That track record includes a British Government engineering award for the innovative North Sea design and installation method of Shell’s Skiff oilfield, and the first fixed wellhead platform installed in the Timor Sea. ICON has also carried out the deepest and lowest-cost deployment of flexible flowlines from a semi-submersible drilling rig in Australia, and has pioneered mini-floatover technology for installing small topsides in weight ranges up to 1200 tonnes.
ICON is a world leader in the supply of conductor tensioning systems for jackup drilling rigs, from the Gippsland Basin to the Gulf of Mexico, and is renowned for completing difficult upgrades to drilling rigs outside shipyards in remote offshore locations. Its growing equipment division sells and rents equipment internationally, and designs and manufactures heave compensated systems — including the systems Steve himself holds patents for — for drilling locked-to-bottom well test conditions.
Contact ICON for more information.
