What Mountaineering Expeditions Taught Me About Life

It Was Nothing Like I Thought it Would Be

In July of 2017, I climbed Denali in Alaska up to 16,900 feet (5,151 m) before a blizzard turned my team around. Less than a month later, I summited Mt. Elbrus in Russia (18,510 ft, 5,642 m). To train for this, I did a mountaineering course in New Zealand and another on Rainier in Washington State. I also carried a 75 pound (34 kg) pack every weekend up mountains for 6 months straight.

Having no Internet is Unfathomably Good for the Soul.

Your mind becomes active instead of sedated, and you have the purest convictions about life. Not having Internet means you are fully present, which is what life must have been like in the 90s. I realized that some of my uncertainty about life were due to constantly being bombarded with conflicting information on social media. Once influencer says don’t buy that $5 coffee every morning. Another says buy that coffee! Constantly being bombarded with unsolicited advice waters down your own convictions.

When you have no alternative to entertain yourself, you make up a game or share stories with your tent mates. An impromptu snowball fight would be regarded as pointless and childish in the modern world, but on Denali, it was the perfect time and…