Amazing journey
started over a year ago
finally
Here at the top mind you we still have to get down
It's certainly extreme fundraising let me tell you
Yea, couldn't you do something simpler? Now that's what I was thinking, like, I'm sure folks are thinking
could you not just have had a golf tournament?
You know but, I have to take my hats off to all th people that have participated because
This has not been easy but
Everybody's just been so supportive of one another and had each other's back along the way, and I honestly think we'll all walk
Away from here lifelong friends so, so much has come out of this.
So we're going from here to Lobuche and when I say here
The wonderful gentleman Mike Hamill who's a great famous expedition leader?
Allowed us accommodated us here for a wonderful lunch and some friends left on the helicopter
We said goodbye to them so now we're a group of 14 so from 23 to 14
Those folks are out of here safely, and we're gonna just trek down and keep going until
Lobuche and then we're gonna take it easy and then we're gonna head down some more tomorrow
So we've got we're doing a lot of down
But it's up and down they don't tell you that if you go up to go down you go up to go down so don't
Think we're just gonna be running down the hill, but it's all good
And you know what it's been such an amazing experience today to see everybody so excited to have reached base camp
You know what we did it and it's so so amazing and I hope that the people at home
Realize that how extreme this expedition was for us and also that they would like to support us and help us reach our fundraising goal
You know a few today, you know this group after
What actually started more than nine months ago, today we have finally reached our goal.
Not quite our destination yet, we reached our goal our goal was Everest base Camp, and we're standing right in the middle of it
right now
Incredibly proud of this group our destination as with any high-altitude climbing is to get home so right now we've reached our goal and
The group is in an incredible mental position right now
You know I think what's been incredibly empowering from the group is
Everybody wanted to find a way out of their comfort zone
Hopefully never to find their way back or at least to establish a new baseline and they did you know they reach somewhere that?
I'm gonna guess less than half percent of the half percent of the world will ever see ever touch
maybe even never think about so the group supported each other and
you know
In one of my other worlds I work a lot with
Olympians and people always think that it's about their strength or it's about their skills and although those things matter
it's a vote their mental capacity to deal with things when they get hard things when they get difficult and
This group there are all Olympians right now in the context of what we're doing the mental capacity to push through
What has to be probably the hardest thing anybody has ever done is absolutely incredible.
I think part of the experience was being with the team, the team that we had started out with and traveled with and trucked with and
Then to enter it all together and to see an avalanche just before we entered it that was pretty cool
Shook the team and everybody has been so
Wonderful and attentive and supportive. It just felt like we were all together doing something very special so it was amazing
Let's see you Peter. What's coming up the valley here
Well we've got the sparkling gorgeous morning as we head for base camp and right behind us is a rising cloud out of the valley
I guess the purpose of the trip was to raise money for hybrido R and a group of people decided to do that trip
Raised the money by trekking to Everest base camp and so walking into base camp
So this is the hardest thing I've ever done mentally and physically in my entire life
And I think the whole team would tell you the same thing
And so when we were walking into base camp
the sense of accomplishment in
Such low oxygen
Was amazing but not, it is no longer a personal accomplishment, but a team accomplishment
We became such a family on the way up and that you just all wanted to do it together
And we had each other's backs and to sort of walk in there as a team
With a single purpose of you know doing something for the hospital and such an extreme personal challenge is
beyond words it was very emotional and
Really hard to describe other then you just wanted to lay down and cry it felt so good to be there
Hey man wanna climb some stairs, no thank you, I'm petrified
Well okay at least sit down
so Clint
Fresh out of base camp how do you feel? Tired.
Probably one of the hardest things I had to do and I think I underestimated the trek into base camp and
Especially out and so literally it took everything out of me to
To get in and out of base camp and then while trying to still enjoy the experience it was
Hard not to feel tired and exhausted and at the same time like oh my god. I made it but
It certainly was
a great experience
and even when we were getting our debriefs above the track and what we would experience I
Don't think anybody truly understood the physicality of the trek itself and that and the changing landscape
Changing temperature the terrain. I don't think anybody was truly mentally prepared for
Experiencing what they did but I think through it all once you get there, and you achieve it your like
Okay it was well worth it.
As we see truckers pass by us and they're you know we want we often wonder like I look at their faces
he looks so tired and exhausted and we say and we try to cheer the most you know what it's well worth the
Experience whatever pain you're going through whatever doubt you know today. You know to see it and to be part of that experience is why travel.
The team of the foundation what they've done to support us back home along the way is incredible
But I don't think that could be enough said about
Alan and
Beyond the fact that he's 24/7 always working he has been an absolute source of energy
Of power of humor when somebody might feel like they're about to hit a Down moment
Alan seems to always be there with that special energy and that special motivation to keep this group going
So it's been an incredible support system and infrastructure from the foundation
But I think this entire group feels a very special bond with Alan
And Alan is one of the absolute main reasons that we've got to this goal that we succeeded getting to Basecamp