Colin O’Brady Shatters The Explorers Grand Slam World Record: Ruminations On Risk, Limits, Fear & Giving Back

In documented history, only 44 people have successfully completed the extraordinary feat of adventure athleticism known as the Explorers Grand Slam — a challenge that encompasses scaling the highest mountain on each of the seven continents and treks to both the North and South Poles. Of these 44, only 2 have done it under a year. Not only is today's guest the youngest person to conquer this most prestigious undertaking, Colin O'Brady absolutely smashed the world record by an incredible 53-day margin, completing the EGS in a mere 139 days. Along the way, he simultaneously broke the 7 Summits world record by two days. A Yale grad turned professional triathlete and Olympic hopeful, Colin is one very impressive young man. But perhaps more admirable than his mind boggling achievements is Colin's commitment to service by way of his non-profit organization Beyond 7/2 – a directed mission to combat childhood obesity by raising $1 million on behalf of the Alliance For A Healthier Generation, a non-profit founded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation dedicated to helping kids to develop healthy habits. If you are relatively new to the podcast, it's worth noting that Colin and I sat down this past December on the eve of his world record attempt. In case you missed it, RRP 207 is great conversation about his unique upbringing on a commune, his experiences swimming for Yale, how he survived an almost lethal burn accident that left him unlikely to walk again, his phoenix like transformation into a professional ITU triathlete and Olympic hopeful, and how he morphed into a mountaineer with the audacity to attempt such an incomprehensible feat of adventure athleticism. Picking up where we left off, this conversation recounts the highs and lows of Colin's extraordinary accomplishment. It's a conversation about the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual fortitude required to push beyond the ceiling of perceived ability. It's a conversation about facing and overcoming obstacles. It’s about life and death decisions. Risk. Limits. Fear. It’s about the indomitable nature of the human spirit to overcome and persevere. And its about the importance of giving back. Specific topics include: * completing The Explorer's Grand Slam in world-record time * conquering Everest after the North Pole * sharing Colin’s experiences through social media * severe frostbite and the risks of amputation * attempting fastest ascent of the 7 Summits * rational fatalism & objectivity * 10,000 hours of deliberate practice * navigating risk & fear It was an honor to spend a couple hours with this extraordinary human. My hope is that this conversation will help you question your own internal limiters and confront you with the very real truth that we are all capable of so much more than we allow ourselves to believe. I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange. Peace + Plants, Rich Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rich Roll?

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• 1:03Rich Roll?

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• 1:42Colin O'Brady?

  You know, I was kind of in a place where I felt I wanted to do a project that still, you know, quenched my thirst for endurance challenge, pushing my own personal limits, but a little bit away from the traditional race course, and that had a greater purpose behind it. You know, for me, to combine my endurance athleticism with a charitable platform was a huge draw for me in doing this project.

• 2:07Rich Roll?

  That is Colin O'Brien, and this is the Rich Roll Podcast.

• 2:28Rich Roll?

  Greetings, everybody. My name is Rich Roll. I'm your host. Welcome to the Rich Roll Podcast, the show where each week I sit down with a wide variety of incredibly inspiring people, thought leaders, paradigm breakers, athletes, doctors, filmmakers, authors, advocates, and even the occasional everyman. And I do this across all categories of wellness, fitness, food, entrepreneurship, creativity, and basically just positive social change. And hosting this podcast has completely changed my life in innumerable ways. I can't even articulate how much meaning it has to me personally. And my hope is that it will serve you in your journey to unlock your best, most authentic self. And on that point, and before getting

• 3:11Rich Roll?

  into the meat of today's episode, I thought I'd share a listener email with you. Now, look, I get tons of incredible emails from you guys. I read all of them. I appreciate it more than you know, even if I don't always get back to everybody. And I haven't really shared any of these letters with you guys because honestly, it feels a little weird and self-congratulatory, to be honest. But I got one this week that really impacted me and I think crystallizes why I do what I do. So I wanted to share it with you guys. It's from a guy called Aaron. I'll leave his last name out of it in case he doesn't want to be personally identified. And it goes like this. "Hey, Rich. I'm sure you've heard a thousand times that you have inspired someone to change their lives for the better.

• 3:54Rich Roll?

  I feel from your podcast and videos that though you receive this praise often, it does not appear to change you." Bravo for that. Thank you for that, Aaron. "Anyway, I'd like to share my story with you. I am 41 years old and my weight has always been an issue. At mid-41, I weighed 305 pounds and well over 40% body fat. I have diabetes and refused to take medications, so my fasting blood sugar was about 160. My blood pressure and cholesterol was higher than I'd like. I had aches and pains everywhere. I wasn't sleeping. I have liver and gallbladder issues and I was very out of shape. June 16, 2016. I had a heavy lunch at work, ribs and barbecue chicken with deep-fried veggies like they do in the South. I live in North Carolina. And when I got back to work, I stopped halfway

• 4:39Rich Roll?

  up a flight of stairs and thought I was going to pass out, sweating heavier than normal and breathing heavier than normal. I remembered you from Finding Ultra." Sure, I listen to the podcast, yours and Julie's. I subscribe on YouTube. I own the Plant Powered Way. I watch the NutritionFacts.org videos, but I'm a paleo guy. I eat bacon every day and meat at every single meal with the occasional salad for crunch. I have burgers for breakfast, man. Well, fast forward to me on a flight of stairs about to pass out with a skyrocketing blood sugar. I have not had meat or dairy since. That was five days ago, Rich. Five days. As of this morning, I have lost 10 pounds. My blood sugar has dropped 20 points, or more staggeringly, 13%. My blood pressure is normal. My aches and pains

• 5:24Rich Roll?

  have gone. I'm sleeping better. I don't get lethargic after lunch, no matter how much I eat, and my endurance has almost doubled. I can play around a golf without being winded. I swam three extra laps Saturday. I climbed those same stairs yesterday and this morning without feeling bad. Five days. Wow. I feel our stories are so similar, and that's why it resonates with me. I'm chained to an office job I hate. I'm overweight and fighting food addiction by the minute. If you'll allow, I'd like to check in in a bit, in a few more days, and let you know how I'm doing. I know you're busy and do not expect a response or really expect you to even read this. I just wanted to share it with someone, someone who's been there, even if it's a virtual presence and community. Wow. Five days, and

• 6:08Rich Roll?

  I'm a different person. I don't hate meat or have a political agenda. I just don't want it, and my body is starting to thank me for not eating it. Alright, so that's the email. That is just amazing. An everyday guy making a few simple changes with almost immediate and really profound results. I'm just, I'm blown away. So, congrats, Erin. I live for this stuff. This is my fuel. I'm really touched, and I just want to encourage you to keep going and simply say thank you for sharing your story. And yes, please keep me posted, and I can share these updates on the podcast with your permission. It's up to you. Today's podcast is brought to you by Ring. Did you guys know that there's a home burglary every 13 seconds?

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• 8:21Rich Roll?

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• 9:46Rich Roll?

  It was on the eve of his world record attempt to become the youngest and the fastest human to ever complete the Explorers Grand Slam. Now, this is an adventurer's challenge that entails summiting the highest mountain on each of the seven continents, as well as treks to both the North and the South Poles. Only 44 people in documented history have successfully completed this challenge at all. Most of these people devoted their entire life towards accomplishing this goal. And of the 44, only two have done it in under a year. So in case you missed it, definitely check out our first episode together. It's RRP 207. It's a great conversation about Colin's unique upbringing on a commune, his experiences

• 10:31Rich Roll?

  swimming for Yale, how he survived an almost lethal burn accident that left him unlikely to even walk again, and then his phoenix-like transformation into a professional ITU triathlete and Olympic hopeful, and how he then morphed into this mountaineer with the audacity to attempt such an incomprehensible feat of adventure athleticism.

• 10:55Rich Roll?

  In any event, I'm super thrilled to announce that he did it. The guy did it. Not only did he absolutely smash the Explorers Grand Slam world record by an incredible 53-day margin, he did it in 139 days. The previous world record was 192 days. And along the way, he also beat the Seven Summits world record by two days. It's just amazing. More impressive than this mind-boggling achievement is Colin's commitment to service. His conviction to land a blow to childhood obesity by raising $1 million on behalf of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which is a nonprofit founded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation, dedicated to helping kids develop healthy

• 11:40Rich Roll?

  habits. And this is a promise that he is now fully focused on following through on with all of his many incredible talents. So this is a conversation about the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual fortitude required to conquer this challenge, the obstacles faced and overcome. It's a conversation about life and death decisions. It's about risk and limits and fear. It's about the indomitable nature of the human spirit to overcome and persevere, and it's about giving back. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, the incredible Colin O'Brien.

• 12:24Rich Roll?

  Dude, you did it. I can't believe it.

• 12:27Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 12:28Rich Roll?

  Unbelievable, man. I'm so proud of you. It's amazing. I'm so glad that you made your way up to our house to reprise our first podcast and tell us all about how you broke this world record and did all the crazy stuff that you did. It's just amazing.

• 12:47Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, man, it's crazy. It doesn't feel like long ago. I was sitting in your studio before, just talking about this. It was a lofty goal at the time, an idea we'd put a ton of, obviously, effort and work into, but you never know how these things are going to turn out. Particularly, a lot of things had to go our way with not just perseverance, but luck and logistics and all this sort of stuff. So to be sitting here... Having successfully completed not just one but two world records is, uh, yeah, beyond belief really, still just sinking in.

• 13:17Rich Roll?

  It's crazy. So you were here, let's see, it was January, right? So it was about six months ago?

• 13:22Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, I think it was, we actually did it, uh, in December, because I left on Christmas days, but it was only a week or so before I left. It was pretty much right as I was getting ready to take off for Antarctica, so, uh...

• 13:32Rich Roll?

  Unbelievable.

• 13:32Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 13:33Rich Roll?

  So, I want to go through the whole thing and get the entire experience, but, uh, why don't we start with Everest? Because there was a lot of stuff that went down on Everest, right? So Everest kind of fell, it wasn't the final challenge, but it was the second to last, right?

• 13:48Colin O'Brady?

  Yes, yes. So, just, uh, I guess to give a little context for those who didn't maybe hear the first one, the, uh, the record I was trying to set was the Explorers Grand Slam, so that's to climb the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents, as well as complete an expedition both the North and South Pole.

• 14:04Rich Roll?

  And name, and let's name, why don't we just run through the names of those mountains?

• 14:07Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, so, started off at the South Pole, then the tallest mountain in Antarctica is Mount Vinson. From there, went to Akkongaga, which is the tallest mountain in South America, and then to Kilimanjaro in Africa. After that, it was to Karsten's Pyramid, uh, in Australasia, and then onward to Mount Elberes in Russia, the tallest mountain in Europe. And then the final third, which was really the big, the big, big third, was, uh, the North Pole, straight to Everest, and then to finish with Denali. So, that, that was the challenge, that was the gauntlet.

• 14:41Rich Roll?

  And you did it in 132 days?

• 14:43Colin O'Brady?

  So 139 days to complete the Explorers Grand Slam, and then we can talk about this later, but I also snuck in a second world record by beating just the Seven Summits record in 132 days, so, yeah.

• 14:55Rich Roll?

  So, so the Explorers Grand Slam record you crushed, because the other record was like 197 days?

• 15:00Colin O'Brady?

  Exactly, yeah.

• 15:01Rich Roll?

  And the Seven Summits record you just beat by like two days?

• 15:04Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, it was right down to the very wire. So it wasn't what I had set out to achieve, but once we getting towards the end of the project, realized it was in play, we had to, uh, had to chase it.

• 15:12Rich Roll?

  Had to make it happen.

• 15:12Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 15:13Rich Roll?

  Well, all kinds of crazy, uh, ups and downs along the way, this was not easy, not all the chips fell in your direction, of course. Of course, there's no way they were going to.

• 15:22Colin O'Brady?

  For sure.

• 15:23Rich Roll?

  Lots of obstacles, but you persevered, man.

• 15:26Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, it's crazy.

• 15:27Rich Roll?

  You look healthy, you didn't like, you're not covered in frostbite.

• 15:31Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 15:32Rich Roll?

  All kinds of stuff that could have happened.

• 15:33Colin O'Brady?

  Got all the fingers, all the toes. That was, that was the primary goal, much more, more important than the world record. So yeah, to come back and be, you know, I'm exhausted, still haven't really caught up on sleep. Body's definitely still thrown around, but considering that, that's the worst of it. I mean, yeah, didn't, didn't get injured out there. And that was one of the things that I feel like is just a stroke of luck. Cause you know, you want to think, you know, in the mountains, there's obviously a lot of risks, you know, avalanche or falling into a crevasse or something like that, the big scary mountain things. But it's also just 139 days, a long time just to be like out there. You're gonna trip over a tent pole or twist your ankle on some innocuous rock or something like that. And so for me, one of my biggest fears in starting this project was something stupid is gonna end this.

• 16:16Colin O'Brady?

  Like I'm gonna, you know, be going pee outside my tent in the middle of the night and, you know, trip over a rock and that's gonna be it. So fortunately, none of that happened.

• 16:23Rich Roll?

  I think that's the underappreciated truth in any of these amazing adventures that, that, that people undertake. You know, it's easy, like you said, to point at, you know, the big scary things, but it's the little things. Like making sure you have clean underwear, like if you get a rash or, you know, like stupid tiny little stuff that can really just derail the entire thing. Because you got a blister or something like that.

• 16:43Colin O'Brady?

  No, I couldn't agree more. And particularly just flying from place to place, country to country, just, you know, don't wash your hands one day after a meal and, you know, that's it. You know, you're, you're sick for two weeks and the, the record's over. So yeah, I really can't believe the, the resilience of the body and able to make it through this one all in one piece.

• 17:01Rich Roll?

  How many people have, have completed the Explorers Grand Slam?

• 17:04Colin O'Brady?

  So the most recent number I heard was just under 50. So something like 48 or 49 people have ever completed the Grand Slam. Um, and only four of those have done it in under a calendar year now. So very few, most of the people that do it, you know, it's an amazing accomplishment.

• 17:22Rich Roll?

  It's like a lifetime.

• 17:22Colin O'Brady?

  Right, yeah, a lifetime thing.

• 17:23Rich Roll?

  Spend your lifetime trying to make it happen.

• 17:25Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, you train one of these expeditions, you come home, you rest, you dream and plan up the next one and then get after it. So, um, yeah, to do it all this quickly, back to back to back was, uh, I, I even right now smiling thinking about it, I can't really realize it actually happened, so.

• 17:40Rich Roll?

  And of the people, so four have done it in a calendar year and then obviously one other, there's one person that did it in 190, whatever it was, days. Were those expeditions that were backed by sponsorship, like sort of professionally organized and really conducted for the purpose of, you know, speed, for lack of a better word, to see how quickly it could be achieved?

• 18:03Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, so the record that I broke was a guy named Richard Parks, a Welsh guy, and he definitely set out with some sponsorship with the intention of setting the sort of the high bar for the Explorers Grand Slam. So he really, you know, went after it. And the other, the other two are women who've done it in under a year. And again, they, they both were trying to break records when they, they did it. And I think they, both those women more were self-funded, had money from other parts of their career and other parts of their life. But yeah, the people that have done it that quickly have done it intentionally that quickly to try to see sort of what the boundaries and barriers are for this, this type of thing.

• 18:43Rich Roll?

  And I don't want to backtrack too much over stuff we already talked about last time and in the intro, I'm sure I said this, but I'll say it again, you know, make sure that you make a point of going and listen to our, listening to our initial conversation. We go into your whole like sort of life story and backstory, professional triathlete, survivor of this crazy burn accident that almost resulted in you like losing your leg, actually, you know, and being told you weren't going to walk again, going on to this incredible athletic career and then this adventure that you just completed. I mean, it's quite a remarkable story, so for the full biography, dial that one up. But I think it would be worthwhile to kind of just explore your motivations behind this. You know, what was it about this adventure that inspired you?

• 19:27Rich Roll?

  Why did you want to do it? And, and you know, what were you looking, at least on the, on the beginning side of this before you embarked upon it, what were you looking to get out of it?

• 19:36Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, you know, for me, like I said on this, maybe the first podcast was that, you know, I'd gotten to a point in my athletic career where it was amazing. You know, I had raced in 25 different countries, six different continents as a professional triathlete, you know, had my fair share of success, but let's be honest, I also had my fair share of down moments, not great races. Any, any athlete at any level knows it's not always good. But things were looking, you know, great in my career. I had just come off a half Ironman win in 2014, at the end of 2014, and, you know, feeling good about where my triathlon was at. But it kind of hit me that, you know, I was kind of in a place where I felt I wanted to do a project that still, you know, quenched my thirst for endurance

• 20:21Colin O'Brady?

  challenge, pushing my own personal limits, but a little bit away from the traditional race course, and that had a greater purpose behind it. You know, for me to combine my endurance athleticism with a charitable platform was a huge draw for me in doing this project. So not, you know, we set ourselves the record, the goal to set this world record, but the other goal we set ourselves was to raise a million dollars towards combating childhood obesity and doing some ton of outreach effort in the school. So that was really my driving force behind this was to create, you know, an inspirational campaign around, you know, getting kids excited about a window into the outdoors, being active, being healthy. And our fundraising efforts are ongoing, but I really feel like with

• 21:04Colin O'Brady?

  the kids I've connected with so far, this has been a great metaphor for them to sort of see.

• 21:09Rich Roll?

  Right. And the charitable organization is Alliance for a Healthier Generation?

• 21:13Colin O'Brady?

  That's right.

• 21:14Rich Roll?

  Which is the outpost of the Clinton Foundation? Is that correct?

• 21:17Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, that's right. So we, we have our own small nonprofit called Beyond 72 for this project, but the, all of the charitable dollars that we raise, 100%, none of it goes towards my climbing or anything like that. That's all separate for sponsorship and whatever. Goes 100% to kids programs that, with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. So they're an amazing organization in the space. They're impacting 20 million kids and 29,000 school districts or schools nationwide, and just doing fantastic work. So we're super proud to partner with them and support their efforts.

• 21:47Rich Roll?

  What, what kind of programs are they on?

• 21:50Colin O'Brady?

  So they, they really have, you know, three mainstays in their, in their programs. The number one is basically in-school programs. So better physical education, better nutrition in the schools. Which is fantastic.

• 22:05Rich Roll?

  It's not like we don't need that.

• 22:07Colin O'Brady?

  Right, so that right just there is great work. Second of all, of course, kids are only in school so many hours of the day. So it's, you know, trying to figure out, well, what are kids doing at home? Or can we get them involved in after-school programs that also, you know, have that strong nutritional aspect instead of going home and, you know, eating Oreo cookies or something and sitting in front of the TV, getting kids running around and, you know, eating healthy. So they'd have a great, robust after-school program efforts. And then the third pillar is because of the, you know, interaction with the Clinton Foundation and some of the larger people involved, you know, with this project, they're able to sit down with some of the large, you know, food and beverage companies. They don't take any money from food or beverage because of the conflict of interest, of course, but they're able to have a voice at the table.

• 22:51Colin O'Brady?

  So, you know, they were able to get the food and beverage companies to reduce calories in vending machines in schools by 90% voluntarily. They were able to get apple slices and Happy Meals instead of French fries, which, you know...

• 23:05Rich Roll?

  God forbid.

• 23:06Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, it's a tiny step, but it's a step in a more positive direction than we've had. So, you know, I'm really, really great to support an amazing organization and I just think it's so important that kids, the next generation, grow up and live healthy lives, you know?

• 23:21Rich Roll?

  Right, and in the wake of your adventure, I know you were, didn't you visit it? Because I know from Snapchat.

• 23:25Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 23:26Rich Roll?

  On Snapchat, I know you were at the Clinton Foundation recently.

• 23:28Colin O'Brady?

  Yes, yeah, so we were in New York last week.

• 23:31Rich Roll?

  What's happening now there?

• 23:32Colin O'Brady?

  It's great. So we're continuing our charitable efforts until we reach that million-dollar fundraising goal, you know. We're rolling on our way, but, you know, we still have our work cut out for us, for me going away.

• 23:42Rich Roll?

  How is it, how has it been going? Can you say how much you've raised?

• 23:45Colin O'Brady?

  Um, I don't know, I don't have the exact number. There's still a couple corporate matching campaigns. So the Nike Foundation was very supportive of this project. So Nike, all 20,000 of their employees, they've done a corporate matching dollar-for-dollar campaign. So we still haven't gotten some of those numbers back in from that. But, no, we still have a work cut out for us to reach that million-dollar fundraising goal. But for us, it was always a, not just the goal of while I'm climbing, but even more so important now that I'm back, that I can share the story, not only in the school kids, which is not fundraising efforts, but it's outreach. And then I can also go share the story other places to, you know, raise money. So it's an ongoing process that we'll continue to really commit to over the next, you know, few months or even year.

• 24:26Rich Roll?

  Right, so you've already visited a bunch of schools.

• 24:28Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, oh, it's amazing, you know, the, uh, I visited a bunch of schools before I left, kind of telling them what I was doing and, you know, they were excited to hear the stories. Um, but what was amazing is that some number of, you know, PE teachers and teachers in some of these schools got really excited about this story. And started following along daily with their kids. So I went back and spoke with some schools. Luckily, I got back right before school got out of session. Uh, and, uh, spoke to a number of schools that had been following along every blog, every Snapchat, every Instagram. They knew the whole story. They were super excited and inspired. So gym's full of, you know, 500 elementary school kids. You know, it just warmed my heart to hear, you know, them, them sending me videos during while I was out there saying,

• 25:10Colin O'Brady?

  you know, you're climbing Everest, but let me tell you what my Everest is. My Everest is to ride my bike to school every day. My Everest is to eat more fruits and vegetables. One day I want to graduate from college because no one in my family has, and I think if I live a healthy lifestyle, like I can get there. And it's just amazing to see the smiles on their faces when I got back. And the truth is, is that, you know, I was hoping to inspire them. But of course, you know, they surprised the heck out of me. They were my inspiration. You know, I was out there, you know, climbing Mount Everest and didn't think, you know, I was going to make it to the top or, you know, delayed at the North Pole and not knowing if it was anything was going to come together for us to work. And knowing that these thousands of kids around the nation who are following along so closely were sending me all that love and positivity definitely inspired me to keep going, no doubt.

• 25:55Colin O'Brady?

  So I'm grateful to them, rather than the other way around.

• 25:59Rich Roll?

  Super cool. Yeah. So are you into doing lots of schools? Like, are you open to that?

• 26:04Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 26:05Rich Roll?

  Elementary schools, high schools?

• 26:07Colin O'Brady?

  Totally. That's a, you know, that's a big focus for us. Um, I should mention, because I keep saying us, I was the only one climbing these mountains. But I feel like I climbed them side by side with my partner Jenna Bisa, my fiance. Um, she's really been, she's actually in the room with us right now. Um, but we don't have her on the mic at least yet.

• 26:24Rich Roll?

  I'll get her in here in a minute.

• 26:26Colin O'Brady?

  Uh, but no, she's really been the rock behind this whole thing. You know, she's supported this project from day one despite her own anxiety and fears of me going off into these. places and has really been leading the charge with all of our outreach efforts. You know, she's the executive director of our nonprofit and just working her butt off and committed herself fully to this whole project as well. So

• 26:48Rich Roll?

  Just the media aspect of it was like a full time job because as a subscriber to your newsletter and like sort of absorbing all the content as it was unfolding, I was like, wow, this is like a major, you know, it's like a broadcast channel.

• 26:59Colin O'Brady?

  It's crazy. I mean, it's, it's been so much work and yeah, it was, it's been a grassroots effort from day one. It was, you know, me and Jenna dreaming this up and just the two of us till I left. And then we brought on my cousin, Mariana Brady, to do some of the social and some media stuff, but between it's just the three of us making this whole thing happen. And it's been a lot of work, but also a great joy. And so to answer your question about the schools, yeah, absolutely. You know, once school is back in session in the fall, we're trying to figure out how to do a more robust school tour and really get out there and spread this message.

• 27:30Rich Roll?

  All right. Well, there's a lot of teachers and school administrators and principals and PE teachers that listen to this show. So

• 27:37Colin O'Brady?

  Please reach out. Yeah. Beyond72.com. Hit us on the contact page or email either [email protected] or [email protected] and we'll respond. Yeah, we really excited about doing that.

• 27:48Rich Roll?

  I mean, when I was in high school and junior high, they would bring people in to talk to us, but nobody who had done the kind of things that you had done. So I would imagine like kids would be super thrilled to like hear the stories.

• 27:58Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah. It's a tremendous joy for me. I love being in the schools. It's, it's really amazing.

• 28:02Rich Roll?

  So let's hear some of these stories.

• 28:04Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 28:04Rich Roll?

  I, I wanted to

• 28:05Colin O'Brady?

  We started with Everest and then we got like on this.

• 28:07Rich Roll?

  I want to, I want to camp out on Everest first, just because it's, it's sort of dramatic. And, and one of the things that was really interesting about it is, you know, didn't, it didn't go, it didn't go as planned. There were a lot of struggles here, but you were sharing this on Snapchat, which is like, like, first of all, how are you even getting like service to be able to get these Snapchats out? And to see it unfold in real time was really kind of something amazing. And Perhaps it might make sense to kind of set the stage with how the calendar works with Everest.

• 28:38Colin O'Brady?

  Yes.

• 28:38Rich Roll?

  Because it's a very compressed period of time where all these people were trying to get up Everest. Like, what is it, like, it was it was open for the first time in like two years, right?

• 28:46Colin O'Brady?

  Exactly.

• 28:46Rich Roll?

  Suddenly, everybody descends on Everest. And it became like a Snapchat store. There was a there was a category on Snapchat just for Everest. And you were like the primary focus of that. And that was, I don't know how long that was up there.

• 28:58Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 28:58Rich Roll?

  For a while.

• 28:59Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, it was really cool. It's a, so basically, yeah, what you said about the calendar. So the last two years, there have been some pretty serious tragedy on the mountain. In 2014, there was a massive avalanche in the Kumbu Icefall, and 16 Sherpas died. And then the climbing season was closed from that. And then in 2015, right around the same time period, a year later, there was the massive avalanche in Nepal that not only closed the climbing season on Everest, but of course, you know, devastated the country. I think nearly 10,000 people died and a lot of economic devastation, of course, from the destruction of infrastructure and buildings. So it's been a really tough couple of years in Nepal. And one of the things about visiting Nepal, I went and did a training climb there before this project started.

• 29:42Colin O'Brady?

  And just to see the resilience and the desire to, they want people there. They want people, you know, the tourism and all that is is good for the economy. And it's just an amazing, an amazing country, but definitely a country that's been through its fair share of hardship recently. And so this was the first time anyone was trying to actually successfully summit Everest since 2013. So it had been a good almost three years since anyone had stood on the top of the world. So that's kind of the context for Everest. And Everest can only be climbed in basically the second two weeks of May, but you need to be there for many weeks before.

• 30:15Rich Roll?

  To acclimate.

• 30:16Colin O'Brady?

  To acclimate.

• 30:17Rich Roll?

  And and how does the, is there like a, how do you even get to make sure that you get to be one of those people? Like, is there a selection process or a lottery?

• 30:25Colin O'Brady?

  It's not a lottery. Basically, it's a fairly expensive endeavor. And so, you know, the climbing permit alone on Everest is $11,000. And that goes pretty much directly to the Nepalese government. And then all the various other, you know, odds and ends on there really add up quickly. So it's expensive. That definitely makes it less people able to go there. I'm, for me, fortunate to have amazing sponsors that could help support this project. But it, you know, there's more, more people sometimes because of it's not capped, end up being there than probably should be there. In fact, a lot of people-

• 31:03Rich Roll?

  So they don't cap it?

• 31:04Colin O'Brady?

  They don't cap it. And there's controversy around that. On one hand, it's great because it's driving more people, more people there, more economic tourism dollars, and that trickles down to just trekking and all this sort of stuff. But at the same time, you've also got the problem of overcrowding on the mountain, which we'll get to in a second.

• 31:20Rich Roll?

  And no vetting, you know?

• 31:21Colin O'Brady?

  Right.

• 31:22Rich Roll?

  I'm sure there's people going up who aren't quite ready to do that.

• 31:24Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's a big bucket list item for a lot of people. And unfortunately, on that mountain, probably more than any mountain in the world, there's a lot of ego, maybe some people that aren't so prepared. And the stakes are truly life and death. And so, those combination of things aren't the prettiest sight of Everest.

• 31:43Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 31:53Rich Roll?

  Alright, so you get to, there's a series of base camps, right? That you have to like work your way up towards.

• 31:58Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, so-

• 31:59Rich Roll?

  Walk me through how this goes down.

• 32:01Colin O'Brady?

  So just to go back a little bit before that. So the North Pole was the expedition just before Everest. And the North Pole is at sea level. So, you know, for those who don't quite realize it out there, because it's a crazy concept, even me having been there. But it's, you're just walking around on the floating sea ice. So you're literally on ice, floating around in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. You're drifting around, and when you arrive at the North Pole, there's nothing there. It's just the same as the rest of the ice.

• 32:25Rich Roll?

  But no elevation gain.

• 32:26Colin O'Brady?

  You're at sea level. I mean, you can see the ocean at sea level type of thing. I mean, you couldn't be closer to the sea than you are at the North Pole. And so that's the opposite of what you need for Everest. Unfortunately, the only time to be at the North Pole is as the Everest season is getting underway. And so, most people leave for Mount Everest on about April 1st. And I didn't even begin my expedition to the North Pole until April 12th because of a series of massive delays that happened there with, you have to fly into this ice runway and it cracked and it was melting and there's all these problems, probably related to climate change. But basically-

• 33:01Rich Roll?

  Right, so North Pole got pushed way back because of this cracked runway situation?

• 33:04Colin O'Brady?

  Totally, so it was already gonna be tight if I had been to the North Pole when I had planned leaving on April 4th, as people are leaving for Kathmandu and Everest Base Camp on April 1st. But now, I don't even begin that till April 12th. So, the anxiety building up inside of me, every day you're not on Everest, every day you're not at altitude. The climbs I had done previous to this were just basically, literally draining out of my blood in terms of acclimatization as I was basically going in the wrong direction at this point.

• 33:30Rich Roll?

  Right, and that could be really a fatal decision driven out of, you know, expediency and ego, like, it doesn't matter, I'm fit, I'm young, I'll be fine.

• 33:38Colin O'Brady?

  Totally.

• 33:39Rich Roll?

  That's why people die.

• 33:41Colin O'Brady?

  And, you know, even doctors in base camp on Everest will tell you, more often than not, the people that they find getting into trouble are young, fit people because they can push a little harder or think, "Oh, I'm fine, it's not gonna happen to me," or whatever. And those are the people that ascend too quickly, get themselves into trouble, and eventually succumb to severe altitude sickness and maybe even die. So, of course, I'm very aware of that as I'm going to Everest Base Camp.

• 34:05Rich Roll?

  12, you're losing 12 days of acclimatization.

• 34:08Colin O'Brady?

  Totally. So, I arrived to Everest Base Camp, which is at 17,000 feet, on April 27th. Literally, the last person to arrive to base camp in all of Everest Base Camp. And there's a good, you know, maybe 300, 400 climbers in Everest Base Camp. So, to be the last person showing up like, "Hey, guys, like, ready to climb this mountain?" And everyone's like, "Uh, we've been here a month."

• 34:32Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 34:33Colin O'Brady?

  What do you think you are? I was scared. I mean, I was legitimately scared. I was worried. You know, I tried to just be-

• 34:40Rich Roll?

  When you, do you completely lose that acclimatization that you had gained from those previous- Or can you, because you, sort of like when you taper off from training, but you can kind of build back up more quickly because that fitness is there, is it similar with the climatization, or have you completely lost it and you're at point zero with that?

• 34:59Colin O'Brady?

  I think the science would point towards that you lose it within the two or three week period of being at sea level. And on the first two thirds of the project, actually, we had our own hiccups on those pieces, but we got through it actually pretty quickly. So I finished Mount Elbrus on March 10th, which was the last time I was at altitude before basically being at Everest Base Camp on April 27th. So we were super stoked to be like cranking out the first ones, but actually almost would have been better if I didn't get to the summit of Mount Elbrus until right before the North Pole, and then the North Pole wouldn't have had such a great impact.

• 35:33Rich Roll?

  Right, right.

• 35:34Colin O'Brady?

  So it was kind of compounding in that way, which was tough. But yeah, Everest Base Camp is at 17,000 feet, just over 17,000 feet. And the way Everest is climbed is there's four camps higher, progressively higher than that. So, you know, simple names, Camp 1, Camp 2, Camp 3, Camp 4. And you usually go up on the mountain. What I did was to go up to the mountain and touch Camp 3, come all the way back down to Base Camp in a series of days. That took about a week. Get your body to sleeping up high, come back down and then rest a little bit at Base Camp, and then set out for the summit. Most people do what they call rotations on the mountain like that, two or three times, but I only had enough time to do it once because even though I arrived late, it's not like I can

• 36:19Colin O'Brady?

  summit any later than the rest of the people. There's a couple very specific summit windows that happened. That's when people climb the mountain, and then the season's over, closed until the next year because of the monsoons come and it's too much wind and too much precipitation.

• 36:33Rich Roll?

  So the people that have been there for a month, what do they do all day? I mean, they have to, they're going to go up to the next camp and touch it and walk back, but they only are probably doing that a couple times, right? What do they do in the rest of the year?

• 36:44Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, so when you're up on the higher mountain, it's pretty intense because you're climbing, you're tired, your body's pretty trashed from the altitude, all that sort of stuff. But to your question looping back now about Snapchat is, there's actually Wi-Fi at Everest Base Camp. Which is crazy to me because as a kid who explored a lot of outdoor areas when I was a kid, when you're in the outdoors, you're camping, you're just like, you should be like out there.

• 37:05Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 37:06Colin O'Brady?

  And on Everest, even more so than any other mountain that I climbed for this project, like there's literally just straight up like pretty decent wifi at Everest Base Camp.

• 37:15Rich Roll?

  That's amazing. Do you like stream Netflix and stuff?

• 37:18Colin O'Brady?

  It's not quite on that level, but it's certainly enough to like-

• 37:21Rich Roll?

  You can upload a snap.

• 37:22Colin O'Brady?

  Oh, for sure. You can upload a snap. You can, you know, send little videos, post to Facebook, whatever. So-

• 37:27Rich Roll?

  It's good for tourism.

• 37:28Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, but the cool thing about it with that was, you know, with this whole project, particularly with the inspiration behind Inspiring Kids, is I think it's harder to tell this story by saying, "I'm gonna go do this." Come back six months later and say, "Hey, I did this. Let me tell you the story of it."

• 37:45Rich Roll?

  And maybe a snapshot or-

• 37:47Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, slideshow, right, something like that. But what was great was that we realized that when we set out to do this, there was gonna be a tremendous amount of setbacks. Like if there was, it would be impossible for something this ridiculous to just like go smoothly. And so we knew, hey, if we just tell this story, succeed or fail in the long run, there's a exciting narrative about perseverance, ups and downs, setbacks, getting through those. Of course, when I was experiencing those setbacks for real, I wasn't so excited about the whole process. But, so to be able to share that in real time. So not only the wifi in Base Camp, of course, helped doing this, but we had, you know, I had a sat phone, I had a sat modem where I could send,

• 38:29Colin O'Brady?

  it would take me 20 minutes to send one image, you know, it's not like, that's not like proper wifi, but I could still send a photo, "Hey, I'm at the North Pole, hey, I'm in Antarctica doing this. This is how I'm feeling," you know, blogs and all that sort of stuff, to tell this story in real time. And then, once we got to Everest and there was even more wifi and stuff, we started using Snapchat as a platform, which honestly was, you know, I felt very old in trying to learn that medium. I felt like it was the first time technology was like passing me by.

• 38:56Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Listen, I'm a lot older than you. I figured it out. I think you can figure it out.

• 39:00Colin O'Brady?

  So I figured it out, thanks to my 24-year-old cousin who was helping me get through it. But once I figured it out, I was like, "This is amazing. It's such a cool way to just share this story." And, you know, to actually really show people like this is what it's like to be, you know, on Mount Everest. This is the day that I'm doing. This is what I'm eating today. Here's the cook tent. Here's the people I'm with. Um, was just really awesome. So to come back and, you know, share stories with people that were following along. It's amazing that they're like, "Oh yeah, I loved when you showed this or that," or "You look so tired on this day," or "This was so, so much elation," just the joys, the ups and downs. And to be able to really share that fabric in a really kind of unfiltered way was super cool.

• 39:37Rich Roll?

  Very cool. So you, uh, so there's one day that you wait, you're up at camp, was it four? And then you're gonna, today's the day that you're gonna make your summit attempt, right?

• 39:47Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, so I basically got word that there looked like there was a weather window opening up. Um, so I was at base camp at this point. Usually people climb to each camp, one camp at a time, or sometimes they'll skip camp one. Um, I was in camp two, but the weather window looked like it was only gonna be two days long. So, um, I was climbing with just myself and a Sherpa, Pasang Bodhi, an incredibly strong climber who I had met in Nepal the year before. So just the two of us, we were able to make some decisions kind of a little more out loose and on the fly than a typical larger expedition would with guides and tons of Sherpas and the whole thing. Um, so we decided, "Hey, let's try to get this weather window." Um, but what it's gonna take is to go from straight from

• 40:30Colin O'Brady?

  camp two directly to camp four. So basically skipping an entire day of sleep and rest. And, um, the main feature between those two is something called the Loti Face, which is basically this 5,000 foot, you know, snow and ice, very pretty steep slope, uh, that gets you up to camp four. Um, it was such a memorable day, feeling great. The sun was actually out. It's, believe it or not, people don't quite realize this about Everest, but, you know, it's crazy cold there at times. Like, can't have a single piece of skin exposed type of cold frostbite, obviously, you know, is a huge problem up there. But sometimes it's super hot. Like, I'm climbing up the Loti Face in this day. There's no, there's no wind at this point. The sun's out. I'm wearing like just a base layer and like kinda sweating a little bit.

• 41:12Rich Roll?

  That's amazing.

• 41:13Colin O'Brady?

  Which is crazy.

• 41:13Rich Roll?

  Yeah, from the footage, it did look like it was really, the, the, the blue sky was so vivid, you know?

• 41:19Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, I mean, when it's clear that- And obviously you're kind of just in this big snow basin that just the reflection off the light really just warms you up, kind of like a little greenhouse effect or something like that. So then we got over this section, which is sort of the last really steep and challenging section before Camp Four, called the Geneva Spur. And to both of our very big surprise, we just get knocked by 50 mile per hour winds just right in the face. We're like, and this is right, we're about to set up our tent, basically to get ready for our summit bid the next, you know, few hours later, really. You leave in the middle of the night. So just a short rest. And we get there, quickly go from wearing our base layers to our biggest down coats, our biggest, you know, down mittens, like all this sort of stuff. I actually ended

• 42:01Colin O'Brady?

  up getting a little tiny piece of frostbite on my cheek, just not bad, but just like kind of a wind chap, you know, cold, cold injury there. Totally was fine after a few days, but enough to realize like, hey, we're in a tough, bad situation here. Took us two hours just to set up our tent in that wind at the South Call.

• 42:20Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 42:21Colin O'Brady?

  And we pretty quickly realized, we called back down to base camp where they have the the weather reports and this. And they're like, hey, guys, the weather window's closed, it turned, the weather on the summit's only getting worse. It's going to be 50, 60, 70 mile per hours up there. It's a no-go.

• 42:38Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 42:38Colin O'Brady?

  And at that point, so much disappointment, really. Just the physical effort to get up there. You know, I'm getting nearing the end of this challenge. So I've been going for over 100 days at this point, you know, working, chipping away at this, you know, Grand Slam goal. And to basically look at the face, it's crazy. When you're at Camp Four, the Summit of Everest looks close. It's 3,000 feet higher still, but like, it, you can kind of see the whole route. And you're like, that's the Summit of Everest. Like, it's right there. Like...

• 43:08Rich Roll?

  Although, you know, I saw the footage in which you said that.

• 43:11Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 43:11Rich Roll?

  I was looking at, I was like, doesn't look that close.

• 43:13Colin O'Brady?

  It looks like, I think the way, the reason I think it looks close is when you climb a smaller mountain like, you know, Mount Hood, which is the mountain in my backyard, basically in Portland, Oregon. It's a 5,500 foot vertical gain on the, on the summit day. When you, you climb it from your car in a parking lot and climb up to the top, but the top's 11 20,000 feet, so altitude's not really a big issue. So in my mind, I'm thinking, you know, that's, it's only half the distance of a climb that I've done many, many times in my life. It doesn't look close in terms of close, close, but it looks like very attainable.

• 43:46Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 43:46Colin O'Brady?

  It's not, I mean, Everest is this thing I've dreamed about as a kid my whole life and thought about and whatever. And you're like, oh, I'm standing in a place where I can actually just like see the top, like it's there. And then to be realized that there's no way that I'm gonna get a chance to go.

• 44:00Rich Roll?

  But I'm sure that that drives a lot of bad decisions for people too.

• 44:03Colin O'Brady?

  Totally, totally. Well, I think that's the biggest thing is that when you try to put that into the framework like I just did by comparing it to something that I've done a bunch of times, it's a very unfair comparison. Because when you're at that altitude, even using supplemental oxygen like I was, you're taking, you know, one step and you're taking a few breaths and then you're taking another step. And that's moving fast. If you're really slowing down, you're taking one step, waiting a minute before you're taking your next step. So nothing's close, you know, when you're walking. I think there's one funny clip that I saw, I don't know if we've posted it anywhere, but it was me approaching Camp 3. So this is still only at, only at, you know, 24,000 feet rather than the summit's 29,000 feet.

• 44:45Colin O'Brady?

  And in the photo, I'm literally look like I'm about to walk into the tents that are right there. And I say in the clip, I'm like, those tents may look close, but it's gonna take me a good 10 or 15 minutes to get there. And maybe the equivalent of like walking across your living room. But like, you're moving slow. Like, it's hard to realize how slow, slow is until you're up that high.

• 45:04Rich Roll?

  So when the weather turned and you were told it was a no-go, did you still camp there that night? Or did you just immediately start going back?

• 45:10Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, so we had that discussion, Pasang Bodhi and I had that discussion. And the truth was, it was about to get dark. The low-T face can be a pretty dangerous place. We'd already pushed super hard to go from Camp 2 to Camp 4, so we were tired. And it made sense, even though we knew we were going down, to, you know, hunker down in our tent, basically just get abused with the wind slapping away at the nylon. And then, you know, wake up the next morning early and get out of there. So that's what we did. We spent the night there on bottled oxygen overnight and then descended. So.

• 45:41Colin O'Brady?

  The disappointment for me had so much to do with, usually you go to Camp Four, that's your summit attempt. You either make the summit, you don't make the summit, and that's over. For a number of reasons, you know, obviously fatigue, you know, being up that high is really hard on the body. I mean, they call it the death zone for a reason, like, your body is not meant to be up that high. And then there's the whole logistics of, well, you just use some of your bottled oxygen. And that's part of the reason why Everest is very expensive, is the logistics of literally carrying these things up there, and how do you get them there, and all this sort of stuff. So, you've kind of burned a bit of your fuel, both, you know, in your body, as well as the actual fuel and the oxygen that's gonna, you know, get you to the summit. And so, going back down that day, there was

• 46:22Colin O'Brady?

  a lot of doubt, like, is this it? Am I gonna somehow figure out, logistically, you know, financially, and more than anything, physically, a way to, you know, make another shot at the summit?

• 46:32Rich Roll?

  So, how do you make that decision? I mean, did you have enough, obviously you had enough bottled oxygen, or did you have to have more brought up, or how did that work?

• 46:39Colin O'Brady?

  What ended up happening is, I was using Adventure Consultants, which is one of the sort of predominant guiding companies in the world. They were actually, if you've seen the Everest movie, it was the guiding company, you know, in that story, which is a tragedy.

• 46:54Rich Roll?

  Immediately when I started thinking about it, you said that.

• 46:56Colin O'Brady?

  But, Guy Cotter, who bought the company after that accident in 1996, is a good friend of mine, incredibly, you know, famous climber, and just a great guy all around. He basically said, you know, "I know you need logistics on this mountain. There's no way, you don't climb Everest by yourself." And you don't, like I said, I was climbing with one other Sherpa, but you don't even climb Everest with just, you know, one Sherpa. There's so much more that goes into it, from the logistics of literally getting in Nepal, and being on a climbing permit, which is not an easy thing to secure, to having a base camp cook and a chef, and making sure food is carried up, and all this other stuff. There's a lot of other people working in the background to make a summit attempt happen. Unfortunately, so they have their large, main guided group.

• 47:42Colin O'Brady?

  And ultimately, they got four of those people to the summit, all the people who were able to attempt the summit, but their group started out at eight and progressively over the climb, over the duration of two months being there, a series of things happened to some of those other climbers and they had to be evacuated from just sickness or fatigue or whatnot. And so there was in our group in excess store of oxygen essentially, which again is to the detriment of those who unfortunately didn't make it to the summit, but was a benefit for me because had all those people been healthy and in place and ready to go, there literally would not have been enough oxygen for me to make a second attempt.

• 48:20Rich Roll?

  So there were a couple fatalities during this window. Did you get to know any of these people that ended up unfortunately passing away?

• 48:30Colin O'Brady?

  No, I did not. My closest touch to that was when I was climbing in Nepal Training for Everest, a guy who I knew did pass away on that climb, which was definitely my first sort of touch with that in my climbing career and definitely emphasized how serious it can be out there. But on my actual summit day, so you know, a few, two days, three days later, another weather window opened up. I was down at Camp Two trying to recover. I was exhausted, but figured, hey, they're giving me another shot. They're saying there's enough oxygen in place. I gotta give this one more go. You know, I've put my whole life into this project and real eager to complete it.

• 49:11Rich Roll?

  That's another one of those decisions that could be fatal.

• 49:14Colin O'Brady?

  Totally. And you know, Jenna and I had some long conversations about that. She's like, are you really ready? Like, are you, I mean, are you really physically able to do this? Because so many people use all their energy going up to the summit. But as a famous guide in the Himalaya, Russell Price often says is that the summit is really only halfway. You know, you gotta get yourself all the way back down till you can really call that a successful expedition. And so, you know, I really checked in with myself to see if I was, I was ready, willing and able to take that, you know, take that on. And I did, you know, I got back up to Camp Four again, actually got, again, gotten a little Windstorm halfway up, had to kind of delay a day and then get to Camp Four and eventually

• 49:56Colin O'Brady?

  make it to the summit. We can talk about that in more color in a second, but you know, two people on the same day that I summited unfortunately did lose their lives on the descent due to high altitude sickness. And you know, I didn't know them and didn't really encounter them while I was climbing, didn't realize that was happening. But to come down on the backside of that, when you're, you know, excited and wanting to celebrate, you know, your personal success and realize that there was people out there in the same day in the exact same conditions that I was, that lost their lives on that day really puts the, the whole sort of risk of it all into perspective.

• 50:32Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's so intense.

• 50:33Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 50:35Rich Roll?

  Wow. So, so you don't find that information out, obviously, until you get back down to whatever camp, right?

• 50:41Colin O'Brady?

  Right.

• 50:41Rich Roll?

  Probably not Four, but like

• 50:42Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, Camp, so I went to Camp, a lot of people go to Camp Four on the descent. I went to Camp Four, but it's also Camp Four is known for people having had summited, coming back, going to sleep and never waking up again. You know, you're still at 26,000 feet at Camp Four, and although you feel like you're back in the safety of a camp, you know, you're still up high, you're still on bottled oxygen if you're staying there. And so I said to myself, I basically sat in my tent for a couple hours, called home to Jenna, actually, and I was like, I am so tired right now, but I'm going to summon the energy to get myself down the low T face, back to Camp Two, where I can take off this oxygen mask and be at the relative lower altitude of 21,000 feet. So it wa, you know, I left for

• 51:23Colin O'Brady?

  the summit at 11:00 PM and it wasn't until about 7:00 PM the following day that I was back down at Camp Two. So an incredibly long day, but for me, I'm fortunate that I did that. Not that I was showing any signs of, you know, slipping into, you know, the death or anything, you know, bad happening to me, but it is in Camp Four that night when the people did pass away.

• 51:44Rich Roll?

  Wow. And so the actual summit day, the weather cleared, you had decent weather to get up there? Did you have like trouble with the, you know, the final stage, the final, the last?

• 51:56Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, yes and no. You know, the weather actually wasn't calling for great conditions that day. It was good enough that a lot of people were in position, but because there had been these delays, like my first thwarted attempt and whatever, there was about 200 people trying to summit that day, which is crazy. I mean, that's like

• 52:15Rich Roll?

  200 people?

• 52:16Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 52:16Rich Roll?

  So it's like, it's literally

• 52:17Colin O'Brady?

  Like the whole mountain, basically.

• 52:19Rich Roll?

  Going up and down the mountain.

• 52:19Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, it's crazy. And there's one rope, and that day turned out to be by far the biggest summit day that had happened on Everest in many, many years. You know, like I said, I think it was 120 Sherpas and 80, you know, Western climbers summited that day.

• 52:36Rich Roll?

  Oh my god.

• 52:36Colin O'Brady?

  So, you know, the numbers might be exactly close to that.

• 52:38Rich Roll?

  You just think it's you and the Sherpa and there's no one else around.

• 52:41Colin O'Brady?

  And that's how it would have been had I made the first summit attempt. There was only a couple of teams into position because, but then after sort of these progressive delays, a number of teams kind of caught up or got, had been delayed, you know, it kind of, everyone ended up there on that day. And the truth was, the weather was calling that night for, you know, minus, you know, I think it was minus 30 ambient temperature, but with 30, 40 mile per hour gusts, which takes the wind chill to somewhere like ridiculous, negative 60 or negative 70 or something like that. And that's, you know, that's a scary amount of cold, especially when you're up at really high altitude. What keeps you warm is oxygen. And so the lack of oxygen not only make, you know, minus 40, minus 50, minus 60 is like unfathomably cold, no matter what.

• 53:25Colin O'Brady?

  But then, you know, add the fact that your body's also suffering to stay warm because of the lack of oxygen. That's like ridiculously cold. And so there was, I actually called Jenna from Camp Four because we just kind of kept checking in with one another. And she was really my rock through this whole time. And I said to her, I said, you know, I'm scared. Like, I'm, I'm really scared to go up there because I think people are probably going to die today, but if not, you know, not be so fatalistic, people are definitely going to get frostbite in these conditions. And I've been really hurt before, you know, you mentioned not, you know, not knowing if I'd ever be able to walk again normally and like losing a toe, losing a finger. I mean, you hear people out there go, oh, it'd be worth it to me to get to the summit

• 54:06Colin O'Brady?

  if I lost a pinkie. And I, I mean, to me, I'm just like, that's crazy. Like, I'm not trying to like injure myself permanently. And so just that fear, you know, it builds up in your mind and To Jenna's credit, she'll admit now that she was probably more scared than even I was. And certainly her and my mom sitting there, you know, taking this phone call were incredibly scared. But she was amazing, you know, she told me what I needed to hear in that moment was she said, "Colin, people are gonna summit Mount Everest today. You have trained so hard for this. You have put so much time and energy into this. There's no reason you can't be one of those people today. Go out there and, you know, achieve your dreams."

• 54:46Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it takes a strong person to say that.

• 54:47Colin O'Brady?

  Absolutely. When I know in all truth, what she wanted was to say, "People are gonna get hurt out there today? People are gonna die out there today? Like, go down. Why are you there? Like, get out of there, you know? And so..."

• 54:59Rich Roll?

  And yet had something happen to you, you know,

• 55:02Colin O'Brady?

  Right.

• 55:02Rich Roll?

  For her to have to live with that final push.

• 55:06Colin O'Brady?

  Right. So, it was a very intense summit day. To give some levity to the situation, I'll tell this story, which is, I'm climbing pretty well the first half of the day. I actually left at 11:00 PM, which I know now is, in back in the day, not that long ago, is on the earlier side of things. But these days, there's all this cat and mouse game when it gets crowded up there of, "Well, I'm gonna go earlier, well, I'm gonna go earlier, well, I'm gonna go earlier." People started leaving for the summit at 6:00 PM, 7:00 PM. The sun hasn't even come down yet. And I'm thinking, if it's gonna be that cold, the last place I wanna be is on the summit at 2:00 AM, when A, I don't even get to see this epic view that I've, I think, earned. But it's just gonna be so cold.

• 55:49Colin O'Brady?

  And so, Pasang Bodhi and I elected to leave at 11:00 PM. And I guess sticking with the theme of being the last person to arrive at base camp, I was also the very last person of 200 people to leave Camp Four for the summit. And so, we look up and there's just a stream of headlamps in front of us. And so, we make the decision. About halfway up the route, you know, 1,500 feet or so, 8,400 meters, is a place called the balcony. Up until that, up until there, it's a large snow slope. It's fairly steep, but given the snow conditions, we felt comfortable climbing, pretty much not being connected to the rope. And so, we, the benefit of doing that, of course, is you're not stuck in this traffic jam. So, we sort of walked beside the traffic jam and passed,

• 56:33Colin O'Brady?

  what I would estimate to be 100 or so climbers up to that point. So, we at least got ourselves back into the sort of middle of the pack, if you will.

• 56:42Rich Roll?

  That's so insane.

• 56:43Colin O'Brady?

  It's crazy. I mean, it's literally the last place you'd think you'd find a traffic jam, but that's the reality up there. But beyond the balcony, it actually gets pretty steep, pretty exposed on, you know, on right and left side. So sort of going around the standard route becomes very dangerous. We had been moving so quickly, and that's a relative term, so quickly, but quicker than the other people out there and not stuck in this traffic jam the first half that I actually wasn't even wearing my warmest jacket at this point. I elected to wear sort of a two-piece down suit. A lot of people have seen photos, people wearing one-piece down suit, which is a little more common, but the two-piece gives you a little more versatility. And finally, we get to a section where we're behind, we realize we're stuck in this traffic jam, we're clipped onto the rope, and we're not unclipping until

• 57:27Colin O'Brady?

  we get to the summit, basically. Really hard to pass in this, the next, you know, few hours. And I'm at a standstill. It's four, it's 4:00 a.m., it's the kind of the darkest, coldest hour of the day, the wind's starting to kick up, and I think, man, I better like put on my warmest jacket now and kind of settle into this pace. And once you stop moving, of course, you start getting a lot colder. So I take my gloves off to put on my biggest jacket, and I look down, and my right hand is completely black. Like-

• 57:54Rich Roll?

  Oh, no way.

• 57:55Colin O'Brady?

  Black. Black is black.

• 57:57Rich Roll?

  But you didn't, you weren't even aware?

• 57:58Colin O'Brady?

  Was completely unaware of the situation, and I'm like going, oh my god, like, maybe it's, the oxygen is like so, like, I'm feeling like I'm fit, but clearly I'm not realizing how cold it is out here. I'm not in touch with my body and my senses, which is like a really weird feeling for me. I'm nearing 28,000, you know, 27,500 feet at this point. I'm way higher than I've ever been, and I'm just going, what's going on here? And I freak out, and I look down, and this isn't like a little bit of frostbite, I'm thinking like, my right hand is gone, like, gone. Like, I will be losing this hand for sure. And all the emotions go through me. You know, is Jenna gonna still love me when I get down here from here? You know, what are people gonna think? Like, oh my gosh. And strangely,

• 58:41Colin O'Brady?

  and also the weird psychology of all this, I've got foot warmers in my boots, electric foot warmers. And they actually get quite hot, but I think, well, I'm not, I can't look at my toes, but if my hands look like this, what do my feet look like? So I turn those up to the absolute maximum level, thinking, well, at least I'm not gonna lose my toes if I'm gonna lose my hand. And so I actually continue upward.

• 59:03Rich Roll?

  Are you able to use your hand? Is it functioning?

• 59:06Colin O'Brady?

  So that's the weird thing is that my hand is working like perfectly fine. But when I was severely burned in Thailand, it was mostly my legs. After I was in the hospital for 24 hours, I didn't take a single step for three months, basically. Not even just to walk to, you know, the bathroom, one step away from my hospital bed. And so I think to myself, but I walked into the hospital when I was burned. And so I think to myself, maybe it's the same. There's just like the adrenaline's going 24 hours. My hand's gonna work so I can maybe get up and down the mountain. But after that, like my hand's frozen off, it's gone. And so I'm really scared at this point, obviously. But maybe it tells you something about the crazy psychology in my mind. I say, well, at least I'm gonna get the summit out of this if I'm gonna lose my hand.

• 59:47Colin O'Brady?

  It'd be, I'm gonna have to go home with no hand and no summit would be even worse than going home with no hand. I've already lost it, you know? So I keep going for a little while longer and I'm obviously kind of spiraling into a very negative headspace. Just kind of that depression, trying to assimilate this into my consciousness as well as continuing to climb up this ridiculously hard mountain. And the sun finally comes up. It's maybe 6 a.m. now and I have to change a few things around. And I think I'm actually switching an oxygen bottle or something where I actually need the dexterity in my hands. Cause the mittens you're wearing are just kind of big mittens. You can't do a whole lot with them. So I take off my glove for the second time of the day. And I've been out there for maybe six or seven hours at this point. I left at 11 a.m. so yeah, six a.m., seven hours probably.

• 1:00:29Colin O'Brady?

  And I look down and I start hysterically laughing because I realize that my hand warmer inside of my glove has broken open and those are filled with charcoal, charcoal and copper filings.

• 1:00:42Rich Roll?

  Oh no.

• 1:00:43Colin O'Brady?

  That have basically dyed my hand black.

• 1:00:47Rich Roll?

  Oh my god.

• 1:00:48Colin O'Brady?

  And so.

• 1:00:49Rich Roll?

  What like a total mind fuck.

• 1:00:51Colin O'Brady?

  It's crazy. So I'm going, ah, my hand's back, my hand's back. I'm gonna be fine. And that was, you know, about only thirty minutes or so below the summit. So I kind of have this kind of come out of this like dark place, emotional upswing of realizing I haven't frozen off my hand.

• 1:01:09Rich Roll?

  When, when you first saw it and it was black, did you show your sherpa?

• 1:01:13Colin O'Brady?

  Crazy enough, I didn't show it to Pessang, um, for a couple of reasons. I mean, one is I didn't want to turn around. And the other was, he was an incredibly strong climber, like just an amazing climber. Him and I got on extremely well. Like I couldn't have asked for a better partner. But there is a little bit of a language barrier, a little bit of a cultural difference. Neither of our minds are working great at that altitude anyways. It's dark, like, it's weird to say this, but like, the communication at that level, even with a partner who would be of the same culture as you, is pretty hard. Like, the wind's blowing.

• 1:01:51Colin O'Brady?

  You've got this oxygen mask on, like, it's not an easy, it's not just like, hey, let's have like a conversation and like, talk through the pros and cons of this, like, what you would do in a sort of normal circumstance. So, yeah, he had no idea. So when I was like fist pumping, like, my hand is back, he's like looking at me like, what the hell is this crazy?

• 1:02:08Rich Roll?

  We're not there yet.

• 1:02:09Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:02:20Rich Roll?

  So what is the elation like when you reach the summit? How long do you hang out up there? Like, what is, what is that all about?

• 1:02:26Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, you know, I was on the summit of Everest, um, for, I think, thirty or forty-five minutes, which is, which is a long amount of time. I kind of thought one minute would be cool with like a selfie or something. And, um, right as we got to the summit, believe it or not, the wind died down a little bit, the sun was out, you know, I was happy to not be up there at two thirty in the morning. Actually, a couple of days later, met a guy, the first guy who summited on the day, and he had, was in the hospital in Kathmandu with severe frostbite on his toes, because he got there up in the dark and tried to wait around for the sunrise. And, you know, you just can't be up there that long. But it was pretty nice when I was up there. Able to, you know, get my GoPro it out. Actually, my GoPro clip, I'm not sure I posted it yet, but it's pretty hilarious if I pull it out and I go, "I'm on the summit of..."

• 1:03:09Colin O'Brady?

  And I literally have to pull my oxygen mask back up to be like, "Okay, let me try that again." "I'm on the summit of Everest." Because I literally, it was like that little, I tried to pull my mask off and there's just no air up there. And, uh, but it was just an incredible feeling to be up there, you know, really just, uh, something I've dreamed about my entire life, a really special moment and, uh, you know, something I definitely won't forget. And, uh, you know, going back to the social media conversation, I did manage to, uh, what I'm told is the very first Snapchat from the actual summit of Everest. So, uh, that was-

• 1:03:42Rich Roll?

  You always have that, very first-

• 1:03:44Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, I've got that. Two world records doesn't matter, but I'm still the first Snapchatter no matter what.

• 1:03:49Rich Roll?

  Evan from Snapchat should have reached out to you after that. That's like a landmark thing. You know, you actually like broadcast, uh, you know, a video clip from the summit.

• 1:03:58Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, yeah. So that was super cool. But that just also goes to show, um, the way it was up there. I mean, to get your iPhone out and you obviously need your direct skin contact to use it, um, you gotta keep all your electronics basically in your inner layers to, uh, stay warm, uh, to keep the batteries warm. But, you know, I was able to pull it out and take my glove off for the seven seconds or so that of the clip I took. And yeah, I mean, it was cold and intense, but I actually was fortunate enough to really enjoy the summit.

• 1:04:24Rich Roll?

  Yeah, that's amazing, man. You know, I had, uh, I had this guy Wim Hoff on the podcast recently. Do you know this guy?

• 1:04:31Colin O'Brady?

  I'm familiar with him. Yeah, incredible.

• 1:04:33Rich Roll?

  So, this dude, apparently, uh, he didn't summit Everest, but he climbed up to the dust zone in just his shorts and no shirt. So-

• 1:04:43Colin O'Brady?

  It's insane.

• 1:04:44Rich Roll?

  After hearing what you're- And he's like, "Ugh, Everest is no big deal." Like, he's sort of like passing it off like this is not that big of a challenge.

• 1:04:52Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:53Rich Roll?

  He didn't go all the way to the summit, but still, he was, I mean, how high is the dust zone?

• 1:04:57Colin O'Brady?

  That's 26,000. That's Camp Four, that's where I'm talking about, yeah.

• 1:04:59Rich Roll?

  He went to Camp Four in his shorts.

• 1:05:00Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:00Rich Roll?

  It must've been a really nice day.

• 1:05:02Colin O'Brady?

  Well, like I was saying, it can be warm there. It can actually be incredibly warm there, so I can picture that. But, uh, even more impressive than that for what he's done- I don't know so much about him, but I do know that he's swum in some extremely cold water. I think I've seen some video of him swimming underneath like the Arctic Ocean or like something like.

• 1:05:19Rich Roll?

  Sixty-six meters under a meter of ice in Finland above the Arctic Circle.

• 1:05:23Colin O'Brady?

  There you go. Like I've said, that is insane to me because I mean, you're a swimmer. I have a swimming background and even to this day after the thousands of times I've jumped into pools and lakes and things like, I do not like that first like cold feeling. And so like, to be the guy that like takes that to such an extreme, like my hat's off, that's on a whole nother, another level.

• 1:05:42Rich Roll?

  Well, it puts it into perspective after hearing your story for sure. You can do that.

• 1:05:46Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:47Rich Roll?

  All right. So, so of all of the, you know, the, you know, the seven summits, the two poles was Everest. I know, I want to talk about Mount Elbrus because you had some difficulty there too. But was Everest the biggest challenge or were there other places you found to be more difficult? What was the lowest moment?

• 1:06:06Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, I think that Everest, if you, if you compartmentalized each one of the expeditions into their own expedition, it would be hard to not call Everest the toughest, particularly in the context of arriving so late, having to rush my acclimatization and just being there.

• 1:06:22Rich Roll?

  The accumulated fatigue though of six months of, five months of, you know, running around doing this.

• 1:06:28Colin O'Brady?

  Totally. So it's towards the end, I'm shattered. It was, it was tough. You know, one of the lower moments of the whole project actually came after the Everest summit day. And bless her heart, I called Jenna. Of course, there's a lot of, a lot of I called Jenna. I called Jenna's in this story, but you can tell she really was, was my rock through all of this.

• 1:06:47Rich Roll?

  Where is Jenna? I mean Jenna's where? In Portland?

• 1:06:49Colin O'Brady?

  Jenna's in Portland at this time. She came a couple of times throughout the course of the project. She came to Australia with me and did Cozy Osco, which is a small hill. She's actually climbed some pretty serious mountains in her day. We got engaged at 19,000 feet in Ecuador on the top of a big mountain over there in the Andes. That was a couple of years ago, um, but, uh, she, um, I know I called her and she's running all the logistics of this thing. You know, she's literally the one that's going like, and it's not simple logistics. We're talking about planes landing on ice. We're talking about, you know, going to Antarctica, one of the most remoteest places in the world. We're talking about, you know, helicopters from West Papua, Indonesia. I mean, the logistics are not, you know, your flight leaves at this time.

• 1:07:34Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, like it took a year in trying to figure out all this stuff, how to do that. But I call her from Camp Two on Everest to say, hey, I'm safe, I'm back, all this good stuff. And she immediately says, well, congratulations, that's awesome. Well, this other world record is now in play. If you basically can get your butt on a plane to Alaska, you know, tomorrow.

• 1:07:57Rich Roll?

  Were you even aware of the other world record?

• 1:07:59Colin O'Brady?

  Kind of a little bit, like peripherally, the Seven Summits record, but it definitely wasn't what I set out to do. Um, and it wasn't until I was done with Everest that I could even look past Everest. And so it was almost like, uh, they'd been tracking on it more at home. And she's like, it's May 19th, and if you can summit Denali by May 30th, like you will have set this record. And there's a lot of people that would argue that the Seven Summits record, because it's been attempted and held by, you know, various prestigious mountaineers over the years is, you know, an even more coveted record than the Explorers Grand Slam. So, um, was like, hey, I got it. And the guy who currently held the record before me, I know him and I actually had met him at the South Pole at the very beginning of this project.

• 1:08:37Colin O'Brady?

  And he had said to me, he's a 65 year old guy, he's Games Burn Teos, has climbed seven summits more than anyone else, 10 Everest summits, 55 Denalis. I mean, just a legend, legend guy. And he actually said to me, I think you have a shot at my record. He said it right at the beginning and I said, nah, like I was like, nah, I'm doing the polls and there's no way. And there's at the time, rain doesn't go on work.

• 1:08:59Rich Roll?

  It's kind of like breaking the 100 free world record on your way to breaking the world record for the 200 free.

• 1:09:05Colin O'Brady?

  Exactly, exactly, yeah.

• 1:09:06Rich Roll?

  That never happens.

• 1:09:07Colin O'Brady?

  Right, yeah. So it was amazing, we said that, but, so I call home, you know, here we are after this day I just described. I calm down, the emotions, the highs, the lows, the summoning, thinking I freeze my hand off, the... You know, the the second summit attempt, all these things happen. I get back down fine in my tent in camp two. It's the first time I've kind of let my guard down, even though you're not totally off the mountain. I'm like, I did it. Like I summited Everest today. And I called Jenna and she's like, awesome job. So. Like I said, if you can get on this helicopter that's leaving from base camp, get you to Kathmandu, we could fly you, you know, via Dubai, Seattle to Anchorage. And get you to the, you know, on a bush plane that would drop you off in the the base of Denali. You know, this other record might be in play. And I'm like, Jenna.

• 1:09:51Colin O'Brady?

  I love you sweetheart, but it literally just took me one hour to take my boots off. In my tent right now, that's how tired I am. Like. Climbing another mountain tomorrow on the other side of the world. Yeah, she's like, yeah, exactly. It was kind of one of those. So it was a little bit of a tough love moment, but uh, God, thanks. I'm thankful that she did that. Um, you know, I needed a little kick in the pants and the extra motivation, but um. Yeah, I think that was, those were some of the lower moments of this project, which are.

• 1:10:23Colin O'Brady?

  Now in totality, I'm incredibly proud of what I've accomplished. Um. But there were moments in this project that I'd finish a summit or I'd get down from somewhere, you know, Everest certainly is, you know, pretty iconic and epic, but even many of the other summits that were super important to me. Where I wanted to just kind of. Breathe in that experience for a second, you know, go, hey, I just climbed the tallest mountain in Europe. Like what a cool life experience. Or like, I was standing at the North Pole today. But instead it's like, yeah, you were staying at the North Pole today. Now you gotta get on a flight and fly here and go to Everest. And before I know it, like I'm just switched on into this. So it was.

• 1:10:58Rich Roll?

  Right. Like the whole purpose of doing it is at odds with the other purpose.

• 1:11:02Colin O'Brady?

  Totally.

• 1:11:03Rich Roll?

  The greater purpose, right? So the reason that you. That the the thing that compels people. Towards these challenges is the ability to, you know. Be in the moment of that experience, right?

• 1:11:15Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:16Rich Roll?

  You're sort of deprived of that.

• 1:11:17Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:18Rich Roll?

  The greater goal.

• 1:11:19Colin O'Brady?

  And definitely deprived of the, um.

• 1:11:23Colin O'Brady?

  Moment, you know, I was happy in the moment every time I made a summit or came back down safely, whatever, but immediately was the planning for the next one or the next one, the next one. And so, you know, those were also some of the lows was right after some of the achievements, you know, along the way was like, okay, but you're actually not really done. Which is what I signed up for and what I've always wanted to do and it's amazing in totality. But there were a few moments where I was like, can I just drink this one in for a second?

• 1:11:48Rich Roll?

  So does the, does the fatigue accumulate to such an extent that by the time you're at Denali, it's, it's a trudge or does something like Denali seem simplistic, simplistic is the wrong word, but you know, more kind of eminently doable in the wake of just having climbed Everest? Like the, the comparison, that, that like sense of relativity where for other people, or maybe even you, had it been an isolated event to climb Denali is a big thing. But given what had just occurred, you're like, okay, I'm just gonna go bang out this last thing.

• 1:12:22Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, you know, Denali is a serious mountain. It's not as if I had to do Everest and then finish with Kilimanjaro. Not to diminish Kilimanjaro, but like, there's not a lot of objective hazard on that mountain. There's not snow, you know, all this sort of stuff. But Denali is a serious mountain, you know, people die on Denali frequently just as much as people die on Everest. Like there's serious weather there, there's serious glacier, there's a, you know, arguably more objective hazard than there is on Everest because there's not a fixed rope the whole route, you know, all of these things. Like Denali is a very serious mountain.

• 1:12:52Rich Roll?

  So then for you, the challenge is you gotta get your head back in the game and not take it for granted and not think that it's gonna be a cakewalk.

• 1:12:59Colin O'Brady?

  Totally. So, you know, Denali is, you know, a serious mountain and, you know, we're on a really limited timeframe at this point. So Denali, usually people were there for, you know, three weeks is like a reasonable amount of time to think you could climb Denali. And even then, the summit success rate is usually something like 20, 30, 40%, certainly less than, well, less than 50% on Denali. Which has to do with, you know, just weather and it's a tough mountain and it's super cold. It can be a lot colder than Everest there, even though it's lower. But 20,000 foot mountain is still a 20,000 foot mountain, like it's no joke, you know? And thankfully, on this final mountain, I was climbing with one of my dear childhood friends, a guy named Tucker Cunningham, another friend of ours named Drew Poggy, and

• 1:13:42Colin O'Brady?

  they went over to Denali while I was still on Everest. And because we knew that, even not with the Seven Summits record, but just with the overall record, that I was going to be coming from Everest acclimatized and ready to go up the mountain, weather permitting. And if they were going to be able to climb with me, they needed to go and pre-acclimatize. So, they had been on the mountain for about seven, eight days, maybe, couldn't even even ten days by the time I got there. And, you know, they had actually established a couple of camps higher on the mountain, which of course, made it a bit easier for me. But we still arrived, you know, you get to the glacier, the way Denali works is you actually, there's no road to the, you know, where you start, the trailhead or something like that. You actually have to take a bush plane in that flies you to the base of the mountain on the

• 1:14:24Colin O'Brady?

  glacier. And you start at about 7,000 feet, and there's, again, just like Everest, there's progressive camps higher. And so Drew stayed up at our 14,000 foot camp to kind of hold down the fort, and Tucker came down and met me, and we put on skis and skinned uphill up to 14,000. We spent one night getting there and then got to 14,000, where it was basically our base camp, more or less. And then we immediately get there and just get like, lit up by a storm. Just absolutely hammered. And I'm so tired that, so we've got, at this point, we have two tents. There's one kind of really small, technically a two person tent, but more like a one person tent that I'm going to sleep in, and they've had

• 1:15:08Colin O'Brady?

  their tent there for a while. That's a three man tent that they're kind of settled into. And in Alaska, you gotta, you know, dig wind walls and kind of have a whole situation set up around it. So first night we get there, this huge storm blows in, and I say, hey guys, like, I'm pretty tired, like, whatever. And it's like 1pm the following day. And my tent is completely buried, like the tent poles are bending, like the snow is like touching my face and they're finally like Colin, Colin, are you in there? And I was like, yeah, what, why? And they're like, you've been asleep for 15 hours. You're like buried. Like the wind has been like howling and like, how could you possibly be asleep? And then I'm like, what? Oh yeah, man, guys, I've been asleep this whole time. Like, just like, that's how tired I was. Like, I mean, I was in a huge snowstorm, getting dumped on and like,

• 1:15:53Colin O'Brady?

  in basically a little coffin of a tent and I was still just like, uh, I'm so tired. Like, it doesn't matter. Let me sleep.

• 1:16:02Rich Roll?

  So does the weather clear? And you, how long are you up there before you can make your summit attempt?

• 1:16:07Colin O'Brady?

  So we're up there a couple of days and it's like that for a couple of days. And I mostly spend the time sleeping and just trying to get that little bit of recovery. I mean, I was really exhausted from Everest and wasn't coming back. Um, you know, I'd been, of all the climbing partnerships I had throughout this project, I was, you know, often the strongest person, if certainly of an equal of anyone I climbed with. Um, and I was clearly not the strongest person out there. And I had, you know, I said to both of them, I said, hey, guys, like, I'm not my full self. I'm not on full steam. I'm gonna, you know, not need your help in terms of like actually carrying me up this mountain, but you gotta understand where I'm at right now and we gotta be cognizant of that, you know, to make safe choices. Um, but the seven summit record was looming over our heads. And so we looked at the weather forecast and it didn't look like the weather was getting any better

• 1:16:52Colin O'Brady?

  before the sort of time was expiring on the additional world record. And so the sort of day of reckoning came and we said, well, the record expires in two days. The next day is definitely like horrible, horrible, but today is like kind of horrible. Let's see if we could like give it a go. And so

• 1:17:11Rich Roll?

  Another potentially fatalistic decision.

• 1:17:13Colin O'Brady?

  Totally, totally. Um, and any of these decisions that I've described in this podcast, I mean, you could look back if they've gone the wrong way.

• 1:17:21Rich Roll?

  You're not making that decision based on an objective, uh, analysis of the weather and safety. You're doing it based on a ticking clock.

• 1:17:29Colin O'Brady?

  Totally. And I, I had this conversation with my family before I left. Um, as supportive as they are, of course, they had a small amount of, you know, trepidation before I left. And I said, hey, I promise that I'm gonna make decisions on this trip in a vacuum. The same way I would if I were climbing just in a day with, you know, a buddy to try to get to the summit. But, you know, always making, I've turned around on tons of mountains in my life, tons. You know, I've not summited objectives like plenty because of way lesser weather than I was facing. And the truth is, I'll be the first to admit, like,

• 1:18:01Rich Roll?

  You broke that rule.

• 1:18:01Colin O'Brady?

  I definitely broke that promise for sure.

• 1:18:04Rich Roll?

  You broke that promise a lot.

• 1:18:05Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, yeah. And, um, you know, it's nice to sit here with a smile on my face and say, oh, it worked out. But that is, I mean, you're absolutely right. That's when you do make some wrong decisions and it can go wrong. But, um, so much so that our partner, uh, Drew Poggi, who's an incredibly strong guy,

• 1:18:22Colin O'Brady?

  said, hey, guys, like, I, it's not for me today. Like, he's like, he's a great skier and that's what he loves to do. And you're probably familiar with the type one, type two fun. He's like, I'm kind of a type one guy. I want to ski down this mountain. There's no skiing that's happening. It's 50, 60 mile per hour winds. Like, that's, that's just off the books, not happening. And he's like, walking up there and that for the next 12 hours is just like, not safe. And I, I'm, I'm not going. And so to his credit, actually, and I said this to him afterwards, I said, you know, you probably, I mean, yeah, we summited, we, it worked out for us, but like, you know, he probably did make, I mean, he made the right decision. I will, I will say in, in terms of safety.

• 1:19:00Rich Roll?

  But he didn't try to talk you out of it.

• 1:19:02Colin O'Brady?

  And, you know, so we made a plan. So Tucker and I made a plan and we said, let's leave camp. Let's check in with each other every, you know, 10, 15, 20 minutes. Just, we were mostly worried about our fingers and toes because it was, it was ambient temperature minus 30, minus 40, wind chills up in the minus 60, minus 70 range. So we were really worried about, you know, cold fingers and toes. And then just kind of checking with the safety along the way, you know? We were leaving camp, um, and you normally, uh, Denali is climbed from 17,000 feet. But there was no way we were going to be able to survive a night in, up higher from where we were. And so we decided to actually go from the summit from 14,000 feet, which makes the summit day twice as long as it normally is in adverse conditions.

• 1:19:47Colin O'Brady?

  And so we're walking out of 14 camp on the day and Denali is actually this time of year, quite a crowded mountain, nowhere near like Everest, but there's a fair few people trying to, you know, finish the seven summits or just climb Denali. It's just a very iconic mountain, you know, tallest mountain in North America. And so there's probably, I'm by my estimation, At least fifty, maybe a hundred people in Camp Fourteen Camp when we're there. And we're walking out of camp. No one's going up the mountain, no one's going down the mountain. A couple of people unzip like the crack of their tent in this like fifty mile per hour winds. It was like, "Where are you guys going?" And we're like, "We're gonna try this summit." And they're like literally laughing at us like, "Get back in your tent." Like, "You guys are messing around." And we're like, "No, we're gonna see how we go."

• 1:20:30Colin O'Brady?

  We actually in the first little bit, you know, got, you know, kind of blown so hard that kind of down on hands and knees, kind of knocked down on hands and knees, putting an ice axe into the snow and waiting for the gust to pass and then walking a little further and doing the same thing. So, um, it was pretty, it was a really, really brutal day, um, for sure.

• 1:20:48Rich Roll?

  Did the hundred people at base camp, fourteen thousand foot base camp, know that you were on the precipice of breaking this record? Or were you just an anonymous climber to everybody?

• 1:20:56Colin O'Brady?

  Um, there was a little bit of both. There's interesting wrinkle in this whole story, which is by a complete coincidence, Vern Tejas, whose record I eventually did break, was in Fourteen Camp on this day. And so I had seen him the day before and like I said, we'd met each other at the South Pole when this whole thing started. And he was like, "You gonna go for it?" Like, kind of like, he was kind of like, not looking like great weather next couple of days.

• 1:21:20Rich Roll?

  But he knew there was, you got two days left.

• 1:21:22Colin O'Brady?

  But he knew, oh, he absolutely knew. And so that was, uh, an interesting thing. And, uh, to the amazing credit of him, he was the first person I saw when I returned, you know, many hours later that day, successful.

• 1:21:34Rich Roll?

  You can't script that.

• 1:21:35Colin O'Brady?

  And...

• 1:21:36Rich Roll?

  If that was in a movie, you'd be like, "That's a false now."

• 1:21:39Colin O'Brady?

  That's ridiculous.

• 1:21:39Rich Roll?

  Yeah, that would never happen.

• 1:21:40Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, and so, and, uh, for me, he's someone I've always looked up to. I mean, he's just a legend, like I said. So to, so to, you know, have, take a record that he had is just, uh, I'm humbled by that. And he couldn't have been more graceful in that, just giving me a big hug and congratulating me on the achievement. And so that was just to finish the project with that, you know, sort of that whole narrative there.

• 1:22:02Rich Roll?

  Right, other than your buddy, to see him as the first guy.

• 1:22:04Colin O'Brady?

  Totally, totally. So, so one of the things that was special though is we were alone on the mountain all day. I mean, you know, usually you're climbing up there, there's other people up there. Um, and we just had the mountain to ourselves. Because no one was stupid enough to leave their tents other than us. And it was a crazy summit day. I mean, I describe it as the wheels were really starting to fall off the bus. Like I was shattered, tired. Hadn't been for Tucker, who was incredibly strong guy, actually a Stanford swimmer. So you got that. He's one year older than me in school, so he'd have been like 2005 from college. So contemporary of, I don't know, like Jamie Kramer, Matt McDonald. I don't know if you know like that era of guy.

• 1:22:44Rich Roll?

  Those names sound familiar to me.

• 1:22:45Colin O'Brady?

  Some of those guys, you know, Charles, the guys, Marcus Rogan, you know, that sort of era. Yeah, that era of guys. Yeah, hard to not know who he is.

• 1:22:54Rich Roll?

  Interesting. Well, I'm sure you have, you know, eight million stories like this for every single one of the expeditions. And we, you know, it would be a 45 hour podcast to go through all of that episodically. But I am interested in what happened on, on, it's Elbrus, right? Mount Elbrus. Where like your Sherpa basically abandoned you? Like what happened?

• 1:23:14Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah. So I just, first of all, I want to just shout out to everyone out there that Rich is really pulling out the Colin looks like a knucklehead making bad, dangerous decisions stories here.

• 1:23:24Rich Roll?

  I'm trying to hit the dramatic notes here.

• 1:23:26Colin O'Brady?

  But we're really hitting the dramatic notes. No, in truth, these are the most dramatic moments of the story.

• 1:23:32Rich Roll?

  Foundationally though, that it is kind of a beautiful thing that you complete this crazy adventure on Denali and that you really had to work for it. Like if it had been a super nice day and it was like a breeze up there and it had been totally mellow, it almost doesn't seem right. Like the fact that you really were, the wheels were falling off the wagon and you were down on hands and knees and it was not a good day. And probably not a good idea to do it. And the fact that you persevered through that, maybe not the smartest thing you ever did, but the fact that you made it and came out the other side. There's, there's some poetry in that. And then to be able to have, have, you know, the guy whose record you broke standing right there. Like this is, that's, that's, that's quite something.

• 1:24:14Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, it's incredible. And, you know, it was definitely going through my mind those last couple hours up to now. I mean, it wasn't really till we were on the summit ridge that we both believed we were going to be on that summit because it just kept being like. Should we turn around now? Should we? I mean, we asked ourselves that a hundred times that day from just how bad the conditions were. Uh, the one thing to our advantage was the sun was out, so we weren't in like a whiteout snowstorm. It was just so much wind. Um, but you know, we get to the bottom of what's called Pig Hill, which is kind of the last big hill before you're on the summit. You're at, you know, nineteen thousand seven hundred feet at this point, something like that. And Tucker starts fist pumping. He's in front of me and I literally, the only thing going through my mind is, how does he have enough energy to fist pump right now? Like I'm, I'm that on, on the last step.

• 1:24:58Colin O'Brady?

  So it's like you said, you know, it was going through my mind that whole time, which is maybe this is what it takes to truly break a record like this. Like if it had come easy, like it never is going to come easy. You're trying to, you know, do something that's really, you know, never been done before. And this is the price you pay.

• 1:25:13Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it'll deepen your appreciation for it over time.

• 1:25:16Colin O'Brady?

  For sure. But yeah, Mount Elbrus. So what happened on Mount Elbrus? So Mount Elbrus is the tallest mountain in Europe. Uh, it's in Russia, um, in the Caucasus. Really actually for me, there was a lot of-

• 1:25:28Rich Roll?

  Is Russia in Europe?

• 1:25:29Colin O'Brady?

  Yes. So the western part of Russia, on the other side of the year, the western most, the western side of the Euro Mountains counts as the European continent. There's all these rules governing this. I didn't make this up.

• 1:25:40Rich Roll?

  So it's considered Europe? That's interesting.

• 1:25:42Colin O'Brady?

  It's considered Europe. Yeah. So of course, if you're on the other side of the Euro Mountains, um, you're considered in the Asian plate. But, uh, on, on where Mount Elbrus is on the western part of Russia and the southwestern part of Russia is considered Europe. So people often mistake the tallest mountain in Europe as, uh, Mont Blanc in France. Um, but, uh, it's, uh, yeah, it's actually Mount Elbrus, which is a good four thousand feet taller than Mont Blanc. Um, so eighteen thousand five hundred foot mountain. And Mount Elbrus is pretty much always climbed in summer. So June, July. Um, but for me, and part of the way I was able to break the Explorers Grand Slam record by so much is because the guy whose record I broke climbed Anali and then went to Russia and climbed, uh, Mount Elbrus in July. And so instead I attempted it in early March, which is, you

• 1:26:26Colin O'Brady?

  know, winter in Russia.

• 1:26:28Rich Roll?

  Comes down to schedule. The calendar.

• 1:26:31Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:32Rich Roll?

  Right, so nobody climbs it in winter.

• 1:26:34Colin O'Brady?

  People aren't climbing it, you know, in very few people. I did in March, yes, sorry, I did in March 10th was when I summited. So, we, I'm in Karsten's Pyramid before that, which is the opposite. It's the only one that's, you know, actually Kilimanjaro is warm-ish, but there's still a little bit of snow up there, but Karsten's Pyramid is in, this'll get ya, this is in Indonesia, which is of course politically a part of Asia, but it is part of the Austral Asian continental plate. Yeah, exactly, so that is also why you're climbing that, it's the tallest part in Australia. But there's controversy, so I actually climbed an eighth summit, which was Koziyosko in Australia.

• 1:27:13Rich Roll?

  I was wondering, because it's beyond seven too, but you actually did 10?

• 1:27:16Colin O'Brady?

  Yes, yes, I actually did 10, but that's because in Australia, there's two, there's, there's no controversy about what the other six are, but there's a controversy about what defines Australia, so I figured I'd just do them both.

• 1:27:27Rich Roll?

  Be safe and do both.

• 1:27:27Colin O'Brady?

  Exactly, exactly, so one of those I did with Jenna, and the other is in this sort of rock climbing spire at 16,000 feet in this deep jungles of Indonesia. And so, we finally get a helicopter pickup from there, from the base camp, and you're in a very, very remote part of the world, you fly over the world's largest copper and gold mine, which is just a crazy thing to see this like ridiculous hole in the ground, really hard to put into words. Anyways, we get to this small town of Tamika, my climbing partner who I'm with, we, we look at the weather, because we're both gonna go to Russia, and we go, oh no, like, the weather's good in Russia tomorrow, and then the next two weeks are predicted for even

• 1:28:11Colin O'Brady?

  weather I wouldn't go at, and so we're talking 100 mile per hour winds, two feet of snow per day, like stupid bad storm is coming, because our plan was to fly from this mountain, go to Moscow for a couple of days, catch our breath, and get ready to climb Mount Elbrus. And so, again, my lifeline, I call home to Jenna, and I say, hey Jenna, check the weather, it looks like you maybe try to figure out how to get me there today. And so I literally get on a plane from this town, come down from a helicopter, plane from Tamika to Bali, Bali to Jakarta, Jakarta to Doha, Doha to Moscow, Moscow to Min, five planes, and like, whatever, it's ridiculous.

• 1:28:49Colin O'Brady?

  The reason that's important is we get to the base of Mount Elbrus and I say to my partner, I say, "You know, we've been traveling for forty-eight hours straight. We have to leave for that climb in the middle of the night. You start that climb at two o'clock in the morning. It's dark. I don't know the route very well and it's, you know, we're just shattered and tired." And our plan had just been the two of us to climb it. Like, we didn't feel like we needed a guide or any of this sort of stuff. Very, you know, competent enough to climb this mountain, no problem. And just realized, you know what, like, just out of safety, like, let's get a local guy here who's climbed this mountain a hundred times and let's, you know, let's just like have another set of eyes, another person here who

• 1:29:32Colin O'Brady?

  knows this mountain, given like where we're at physically and emotionally. And so, we make these arrangements with this Russian guy named Sasha. And it seems like a totally legit guy. He's climbed, like I said, a hundred times a mountain, knows the mountain super well, big, strong, you know, Russian guy. And so we're, you know, as you do with climbing partners, we're dividing up the group gear, because obviously you have your personal effects and you have the stuff that we're all gonna use at some point on the mountain and just kind of dividing the way. And he says, "Oh, I'll carry the rope," which is one of the more heavy, you know, big pieces of group gear generally. And we're like, "Okay, great. You carry the rope. I'll carry this. You'll carry that, whatever." So again, we're planning to ski down as much of this mountain as we can on the way down. So again, we strap skins on to walk up the mountain. And it's really cold night, because it's

• 1:30:17Colin O'Brady?

  winter. It's not quite as cold as Everest and Al was talking about. It's cold. Cold enough that you just wanna keep moving, you know? You don't wanna stand still for long and it's windy. And so- No traffic jam, though. No traffic jam. We're out in this just big, black abyss, completely, you know, alone. And the first part of the mountain is not particularly technical. It's kind of a big, big snow slope that starts off and it gets a lot more technical after that. But, um, so we're kinda trudging along. I'm in the lead. My other partner's right behind me and, you know, Sasha's third. And I look back after about an hour and there's only one headlamp behind me, about a good, you know, fifteen, twenty feet behind me, just out of sort of talking reach. And I look back-

• 1:30:59Colin O'Brady?

  And I say to my client, I'm like, where, where's Sasha? And she's like, um, what do you mean? She looks back, assuming he's right behind her. And it turns out, uh, there's no headlamp. So at first we freak out because we're like, oh my God, like, does something happen to him? Like, that's so weird, you know, all this sort of stuff. But like, there hasn't been any terrain that would like, make you think, there was not like a cliff you could have fallen off of or a cravat, you know, there's no glacier there, no crevasse and palm, we're saying, this is weird. So we wait for a little while longer, but we're getting cold standing there, no sign of him, no sign of him, no sign of him. Turns out, he turned around without saying anything to us.

• 1:31:38Rich Roll?

  You couldn't have found that out until later, right? Until you'd completed this, or?

• 1:31:41Colin O'Brady?

  So, we realized he wasn't there. We didn't know why, but we realized he wasn't there. So of course, we were like, worried, the whole thing, like, well, is he hurt? Is he this? Like, but then he turned around, it doesn't seem like you could have gotten hurt where we were, so we're assuming he's fine, but thinking he had just like, turned around and like, left us. Would have been totally fine for us to climb this mountain, hadn't it been for the fact that he was carrying our rope.

• 1:32:05Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 1:32:06Colin O'Brady?

  So, we have this, you know, conversation together.

• 1:32:10Rich Roll?

  But he turns around without telling you, you have no idea. I mean, there must have been a conversation, like, we gotta go back down and just make sure he didn't, you know, basically have a heart attack.

• 1:32:20Colin O'Brady?

  Totally. You know, we have that conversation, but it just seems like, really strange. Like, it just doesn't, like, the things don't add up. There's a hut that we had left from, which is at the top of, um, you, you start sort of at, at these huts, basically. Um, and there's people who caretake the huts. So, we actually called back down to the huts and said, hey, like, if you see this guy, like, or if you guys, they have like, snowmobiles or snow cats in the lower part of the mountain there, like, maybe like, you know, go find out, but he's not here, we don't know what to do, all this sort of stuff. Um, so it's just a weird situation, like, we can't figure it out, but it's the middle of the night, in Russia, the wind is like, blowing in our face, and like, we basically said, well, if we're going up or we're going down, it doesn't matter, but like, we can't

• 1:33:03Colin O'Brady?

  stand here any longer, like, standing here is what is like, the most dangerous thing to do right now, we're freezing. And so, we decide to continue onwards a little bit, say like, I say, okay, let's try this without a rope, we know we pretty much need a rope, so we're probably not gonna go, but let's, you know, continue onwards. And so, we go, we go up a little bit further on the mountain and it's, it's fairly icy on this mountain and there's a couple other climbers who we had met. And we elected to not do this, that you can actually take a snowcat about a thousand meters or 3,000 feet higher than where the traditional starting point is. For us, that didn't feel like the integrity of actually climbing the mountain, so we climbed from the hut.

• 1:33:46Colin O'Brady?

  But these people, although climbing slower than us at this point, were in front of us. We had talked to the guide, it was a Russian guide, "Oh, I've climbed K2, oh, I've this", whatever. And they're on a part of the route that we think is not the route. They're on the left, we think it's more to the right, but we're thinking, "Well, this guy, again, another Russian guide out there with a ton of experience, we're thinking, "Well, they know better than we do." And so we follow in their footsteps, we're still far away from them, but we follow in their footsteps. And walking in their exact footsteps, I fall waist-deep into a crevasse. Oh, my god. Unroped. You're usually on a rope down a glacier for this exact reason, that if you do, heaven forbid, fall into a crevasse, your partner can pull you out with a rope. And I'm now in a, I'm waist-deep, thankfully not beyond my waist, but in this slot little

• 1:34:31Colin O'Brady?

  crevasse, have to take my socks out, anchor myself, pull myself out. And at this point, like, I say, "Nah, like, we're done. We're done, we're turning around." But of course, it's weighing on me and us, that there's this huge storm coming, not a two or three-day storm, but like, this mountain is unclimbable for the next two weeks. The clock's ticking, I need to get to the North Pole after this, what to do, what to do. But I'm still just too freaked out from the series of things that have happened, and it's just like, "This is no longer safe." But we're in a really strange spot on the mountain, where it's actually, particularly without a rope and being able to rappel, what you would do with a rope if you had the rope, it was actually a little bit safer to sort of go up and traverse, it's hard

• 1:35:14Colin O'Brady?

  to describe if you're not looking at it, but it was safer to go up and traverse to the right to like, basically get to this ridge, that then allows you a more gentler descent, hopefully where you don't need to rappel, because it was so super icy where we were. It wasn't the steepness, it was more just like how icy it was, is why it was really dangerous to descend. It's often easier to go up than it is to go down, basically. And so we decide to continue up to this ridge, which is another sort of fifteen to twenty to thirty minutes up.

• 1:35:41Rich Roll?

  Yeah, then you get to the ridge.

• 1:35:43Colin O'Brady?

  Then we get to the ridge and we're like, and you see where this is going.

• 1:35:45Rich Roll?

  Well, I'm starting to feel good again. There are so many times that this probably should have gone the other way for you.

• 1:35:54Colin O'Brady?

  Yes, yes. And again, I feel like we're really pulling out these stories, but I'm fine with it. No, it shows the adversity.

• 1:36:01Rich Roll?

  Yeah, you know what I mean?

• 1:36:03Colin O'Brady?

  It, uh, yeah, no, there was certainly a number of moments than the ones that I've described where things are right on the edge. You know, things were right on the borderline and never once did I feel, to be perfectly honest, that I was just doing something blatantly reckless. Did I feel on this mountain that there was a lot more danger in climbing the mountain with a rope than without a rope? Sure. But I've climbed many mountains solo, which implies climbing without a rope, that were of similar grades, you know, in the Cascades and whatnot. And so it was still sort of just right, you know, just like anything, right on that boundary between comfort zone, not comfort zone. Pushing just a little bit out of the comfort zone, which I think we would probably both agree inspires growth.

• 1:36:44Colin O'Brady?

  Versus going, you know, so crazy beyond that where it's just, you know, stupidity. So it's a, it has, this journey has been a true test of myself, my personality, um, understanding those limits, pushing those limits, finding those limits. Um, but there were several other times on this journey where actually I did turn around and have to go, you know, on Everest at Camp Four, knew the wind was too bad, turned around, had to summon the, you know, ability to climb again. Same thing happened climbing completely solo on Okonkogo. I got up to about twenty thousand feet, got caught out in some bad weather and turned around and went all the way back down to base camp at fourteen thousand feet and summoned the energy to climb again. So there were, you know, prudent decisions made, but when you're trying to set a record and you're trying to push the boundaries of what's never been done,

• 1:37:29Colin O'Brady?

  you're kind of on that edge the whole time.

• 1:37:31Rich Roll?

  Yeah, objectivity becomes a sliding scale and you begin to rationalize and come up with arguments for pushing forward, which I think brings up, you know, the subject of fear and your relationship to fear. You know, I know in my experience of talking to Conrad Anker and listening to, you know, interviews with guys like Alex Honnold, like they have a very interesting relationship with fear and risk. You know, Alex will tell you that he's calculated all the risks and what he's doing is rational in his mind. So his definition, his personal definition, you know, of objective risk is going to be very different from the average human being. So where do you think you fall on that spectrum?

• 1:38:14Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, you know, Conrad Anker, Alex Honnold are in just a whole nother stratosphere of what they have accomplished and, you know, what they can do, particularly, you know, what Alex can do on big walls without ropes, completely freestiling stuff.

• 1:38:29Rich Roll?

  It's a completely different kind of climbing, but what he does is insane.

• 1:38:32Colin O'Brady?

  It's insane. I mean, I'll sit here right now and say, I mean, that's crazy. I admire the heck out of it, but you know, that is beyond my personal threshold for that, for sure.

• 1:38:41Rich Roll?

  I would hope so.

• 1:38:42Colin O'Brady?

  And ability. Let's be clear about that as well. But yeah, it is an interesting relationship because, like you said, I think that everyone, you know, we're using them as this very extreme example in this case, something that I admittedly has far surpassed my comfort level. But most of the stories I described would far surpass the comfort level of the next person. And so I think it is really, in truth, the ability to know yourself, know your own personal limits, and be inspired to push beyond those limits. For me, this entire project and its relationship to the successes and setbacks we've set along the way.

• 1:39:24Colin O'Brady?

  Are really a function of being an athlete and pushing my body since I was five years old. You know, a lot of people have asked me throughout the course of this, what was the divergence in, you know, mountaineering all of a sudden after being a swimmer or being a triathlete or being like, where's the connection there? And that mind-body connection as it relates to fear, as it relates to your own abilities, your belief in yourself, all of that is something that I've been honing at a very high level for decades. And it's a special gift or something that I've worked very hard for, to be able to look within myself and ask myself, can you still do this? Do you still believe you can do this? Is this the right thing?

• 1:40:08Colin O'Brady?

  And sure, some of these decisions and these stories we've, you know, I'm telling here with a smile on my face, are pushing those boundaries. But that comes from a lifetime of pushing those boundaries. And I think that that's probably, you know, I'm not inside Alex Honnold's mind, but I imagine that's what he's getting at when he's saying, I have climbed so many rocks in my life and done so much this, and I know, you know, what I know I can do and can't do in this, that he believes based on sort of empirical evidence of a life's work, that he can do this. And so he can tune out that fear because it's a really strength and inner belief in himself. And I can relate to that in some regard.

• 1:40:47Rich Roll?

  I think that's a really important point. You know, it's very Malcolm Gladwell, 10,000 Hours-esque, I suppose. And essentially, you know, kind of what you're saying is, it's not like you're, you know, unlike Alex Honnold, it's not like you were this crazy gifted climber from day one, but you're somebody who has put in their 10,000 hours in terms of, you know, pushing your body and training. Like, your preparedness for this began when you started waking up for mornings from practice.

• 1:41:18Colin O'Brady?

  Totally.

• 1:41:19Rich Roll?

  When you were, you know, 14 or whatever, you started doing double workouts, right?

• 1:41:22Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:23Rich Roll?

  Like, and your experience of traveling the world as a professional triathlete, training for the Olympics, like, all of these things, you're overcoming your, you know, injury to your legs, all of these things inform.

• 1:41:34Rich Roll?

  Your ability to craft judgment, you know, in the, in the, in the moment of duress on that mountain.

• 1:41:41Colin O'Brady?

  Absolutely.

• 1:41:42Rich Roll?

  You're not some hedge fund trader that woke up one day and, you know, had a bucket list thing you wanted to check.

• 1:41:46Colin O'Brady?

  Totally, and I think it's all interrelated and it's special to know your body and mind connection in that way. And it allows you to, you know, push beyond perceived limits, but in a way that feels strangely controlled. You know, it's this, it's this interesting place. And certainly the, the mental capacity, the mental strength and endurance that I think this all took was, was far outweighed than, you know, far stronger than the physical side of it, really. And that piece of it, again, is just a cultivation, you know, you, you've put in your hours in the swimming pool as well as many other endurance, amazing endurance feats you've accomplished in your life. And you know, people say like, well, what did you think about when you were dragging

• 1:42:29Colin O'Brady?

  a hundred pound sled to the South Pole for a week and had no one to talk to? And you're like, let me tell you about staring at a black line for four hours a day since I was, you know, six years old. Like you, you build that.

• 1:42:40Rich Roll?

  That's the, that's the real acclimatization. You know what I mean? It's not just getting your heart and lungs ready for thin air.

• 1:42:47Colin O'Brady?

  Right.

• 1:42:48Rich Roll?

  It's the mental, you know, drudgery of, you know, what that must entail for you.

• 1:42:53Colin O'Brady?

  Totally, totally. And that, I mean, so many times on this, you know, I felt, you know, at least to this point in my life, obviously, this is an amazing, you know, accomplishment in my sort of whole life of athleticism, but it's, it's a testament to that entire life in athleticism. And it's also a testament to the numerous times that I've set myself a goal and failed. It just straight up failed. Like I haven't come back an Olympic champion. I haven't come back, you know, a world record holder in the 100 breaststroke, you know, like, and those are things that I've tried to do over my life. And so it's amazing now to be sitting here at 31 years of age and be able to look you in the eye and say, hey, I just set two world records. Isn't that cool? But like.

• 1:43:35Rich Roll?

  In a way you'd never imagined as, that your athletic career, you know.

• 1:43:39Colin O'Brady?

  Absolutely.

• 1:43:40Rich Roll?

  Would develop.

• 1:43:41Colin O'Brady?

  Absolutely. And, and to pick yourself up again after, you know, losing or getting knocked down again is, is tough, but you learn from it and it makes you stronger for the next one.

• 1:43:49Rich Roll?

  What does it all mean to you?

• 1:43:51Colin O'Brady?

  What does it all mean to me?

• 1:43:57Colin O'Brady?

  There's certainly an interesting relationship to what I take away from my racing career, which is it's been such a privilege to experience this side by side with Jenna. Maybe for me, a lot of my personal truth is having that balance in my life. Jenna and I are very different people. She's a lot more calm and patient than I am. I hope so. Very complimentary in a lot of different ways. But, you know, when I look back on my racing career in triathlon, I don't even really remember so much the wins and the losses, but I remember, you know, some silly taxi ride we took in Zimbabwe and the funny thing the guy said to us.

• 1:44:39Colin O'Brady?

  You know, it's these little pieces and the simple things, the fabric of our experience. And it's interesting to have that parallel in this, in that we spent all this time not together. We didn't have the experience, we weren't looking through the same lens, the same we have in different aspects of our life. But we both, two years ago, committed fully to this process and playing our roles in that process. And, you know, for me, it was the guy training my body and mind to climb a bunch of mountains faster than anyone's ever done. And for her, it was being the support network, the web, the logistics coordinator, and not navigating the waters of all these various other things that go into it.

• 1:45:22Colin O'Brady?

  And learning and growing together throughout this process has been the most special thing about it all, I think.

• 1:45:30Rich Roll?

  It's her turn now, though, right? You're gonna have to support her in doing something, right?

• 1:45:34Colin O'Brady?

  Absolutely.

• 1:45:35Rich Roll?

  I think she's earned that. Jenna, are you here? Where is she? Come over here.

• 1:45:39Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, get over here.

• 1:45:40Rich Roll?

  I wanna hear from her a little bit.

• 1:45:41Colin O'Brady?

  I think we need Jenna on the mic.

• 1:45:42Rich Roll?

  I need a little Jenna perspective. She's doing some work in the background. All right, sit down there for a second. I want to hear, you know, what this, this whole thing has meant to you and also like clearly you're the anchor in this whole thing like without you this doesn't happen at all like behind the scenes you like making basically you know creating all of these opportunities right all the logistic I can't even begin to imagine like I would think for something like this so vast and incomprehensible you would have a team of people that know how to do all this kind of stuff who would come in like some kind of crack advanced team or something like that but you're the one literally who's booking and crafting all the logistics behind the scenes right

• 1:46:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's been a wild ride absolutely I mean of course this never would have come into fruition at all had it not been for Colin thinking up this crazy idea so I give him all the world of credit for putting himself out there and really setting this massive goal but yeah it was a bootstraps learn on the fly really quick learning curve for so many things from how do you brand a project to how do we fly you know Colin from some of the most remote places in the world to

• 1:46:58Rich Roll?

  Yeah like how do you know like I need a helicopter like who do you call like how does that even work and like what you're in Portland like trying to figure this out at some point you're in Argentina right like you were kind of in different places throughout this whole adventure as well

• 1:47:11Speaker 02

  I did I did get to go stop in and see him to make sure he had all those fingers and toes that we talked about coming home safely with so

• 1:47:18Colin O'Brady?

  And funny enough it's one of the logistic pieces which is I had to trade in and out of gear so it was a double benefit of seeing her but she'd also sort of figured out the logistics like okay you need this duffel bag here and I'm gonna bring this from here so

• 1:47:31Speaker 02

  Yeah um yeah how do you do it uh learn on the fly that's my biggest piece of advice

• 1:47:38Rich Roll?

  You should move to Hollywood and become a movie producer because you basically just produced an epic blockbuster

• 1:47:43Speaker 02

  Yeah hopefully one that I'll never have to produce again

• 1:47:48Speaker 02

  It went so right and so wrong in so many different times.

• 1:47:51Rich Roll?

  Of course.

• 1:47:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:47:52Rich Roll?

  So, how did you, you know, what was your relationship to fear and risk? I mean, it must have been challenging and difficult to, to, you know, sort of go through long stretches of not knowing what's going on.

• 1:48:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I think it was an absolute blessing and a curse to know all the details, because I felt like I was really there, living it with Colin. At the same time, I also knew all the details and I was really living it there. So, the fear was real in a lot of moments, but I also felt so close to him that I kind of felt like I was there. So, we could kind of talk through some of those things and make sure that we were both on the same page. And now, hey Colin, like, where's your mind at? What's your headspace? Are you okay to make these decisions? What's our safety word? Let's not, like, go over the limit here.

• 1:48:38Rich Roll?

  Was there any moment where you thought he was, because it sounds like you were, he would butt up against that and you were the one pushing him through, but was there ever a moment where you're like, no, you gotta stop?

• 1:48:48Speaker 02

  At the end of the day, I so trust Colin's judgment and skills. I've seen him make really amazing decisions in critical environments before, that I knew that if he could make the decision himself and I could support that decision, that it was gonna be okay.

• 1:49:04Rich Roll?

  But you'd have to know that he's making that decision objectively, right? You have to have the barometer to know, like, he's not in his mind right now, like, I need to make, help him make the right decision here or push him in a different direction.

• 1:49:16Speaker 02

  Absolutely. And I had so many other resources too, so like, on Everest, for example, the logistic coordination from Adventure Consultants, like, I was in touch with Basecamp probably in an annoyingly amount of time, but they gave me a ton of perspective. And I have, you know, been living alongside Colin throughout his whole entire triathlon career, and so I can tell when he's on his limit and when he's really making. Good decisions.

• 1:49:42Colin O'Brady?

  I think one of the great values of, you know, Jenna, of course, is very humble in this whole thing, but she just deserves, to me, deserves all the praise, but really, an amazing sounding board through the process. So she's saying, diverting here, like, I'm making these decisions, and she's not pulling the strings, but it's really an ability to call home to somebody who does know all the things, who has collected the data on her own objectively, talking to base camp, really, tell me what the weather's really doing, because Colin's up at Camp Four, kind of out of his mind, freaking out, but let's talk through what that really is, and then she can help sort of synthesize that information and really ground it.

• 1:50:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, definitely. It was a team effort.

• 1:50:20Rich Roll?

  Was there one crazy scary moment that stands out?

• 1:50:24Speaker 02

  Um, yeah, I, you know, Everest, of course, comes to mind. It was probably the most intense time. It was also the craziest time zone change for us, so he was literally 12 hours different from me. And it was a lot of sleepless nights, but I think, you know, I mean, I'm sure you remember this, Colin, but you called me from Camp Four, and you were crying, and you were really scared, and in that moment, all I wanted to do was say, please come down, please come home, like, this is too much, let's not do this. But I needed to play the role of protector, motivator, supporter, you can do this. It can be done today. And so,

• 1:51:08Speaker 02

  that was a really hard moment for me, because, I mean, Colin is an emotional guy, but he's not usually crying about things, and so I needed to really kind of pull myself together in that moment and support him.

• 1:51:21Rich Roll?

  What do you think Colin's sort of greatest talent, or, you know, what is his edge? Like, what do you think it is that powered him or allowed him to conquer this in a way that nobody has before? That distinguishes him from, perhaps, you know, the other experienced climbers or athletes out there?

• 1:51:45Speaker 02

  Yeah. I think it really goes back to perseverance and discipline. Colin is the most disciplined person I have ever met, and that is the big things and the little things. So. On Everest, just making sure you're taking care of yourself, really, on all these mountains. Applying sunscreen, you know, when you need to, making sure that you're being proactive in feeding yourself up there. Um, just paying attention to your hydration, all of those diligent, tiny details that you really need to pay attention to.

• 1:52:14Rich Roll?

  Like the pilot mentality, like of having checklists of all the little things you gotta make sure that you're doing, instead of just winging it.

• 1:52:20Speaker 02

  Exactly. And then when those times get tough and you're feeling out of sorts, I mean, Colin's perseverance just is remarkable. It always has been, and it's actually such a pleasure to climb with him because he's so self-aware, and he can almost do that without thinking about it, that he can kind of be my protector when we're out there together. So, it's, it's kind of nice to have him on your team when you're out there climbing.

• 1:52:47Rich Roll?

  Colin, what has been the reception within the climbing community?

• 1:52:51Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, you know, um, for the most part, it's been incredibly positive. Um, I've gotten, you know, congratulatory response from so many people. Um, and I think that the people that met me along the way, uh, see not only the, the authenticity of the adventure, but the authenticity behind the mission, um, and really seeing, you know, people that were in expeditions with me for a long time, uh, you know, didn't, didn't go along without me, you know, talking about the kids that were, you know, following along, and how excited I was to share my story with them, or about Jenna and the whole sort of thing. So that's, you know, the reception, you know, from those folks have been, uh, you know, really, really fantastic.

• 1:53:31Colin O'Brady?

  Of course, you know, there's always, uh, that little bit of, you know, well, it is the tallest mountain in each of the seven continents, but it's not the seven hardest mountains in the world. Or like, there's always a, you know, I climbed, you know, the standard route on a lot of these mountains. I climbed some of them slightly more challenging routes than the standard route, but for the most part, like, I was going for speed and whatever.

• 1:53:53Rich Roll?

  You didn't make it hard enough on yourself.

• 1:53:55Colin O'Brady?

  Right. You know, there's always that, like, and I'm sure you've run into that yourself in various other capacities, so there's always...

• 1:54:00Rich Roll?

  Well, yeah, I mean, there was that when Diana Nyad did her Cuba swim, uh, they wanted to nullify the record. Because she she touched the boat like she never used the boat to move forward, but she hung on to the side of the boat and perhaps that violates some kind of unspoken rule about open water swimming. I don't know.

• 1:54:15Colin O'Brady?

  Right. So it's the same type of thing. And I think that, you know, in any sort of in any sort of feat, um, you know, there's going to be, you know, a few detractors out there. But I'd say overwhelming 99% of the response has been really positive. And to me, even more than looking for a general acceptance or love from the mountaineering or climbing community, which of course I have a high level of respect for, and I would appreciate the love and respect there. And it's been received. To have the love and respect of the teachers who have reached out, the students who have written me letters, like, that's what means the world to me. That's who I was always trying to reach with this project. I wasn't ever trying to go out and show the, you know, Alex Honnold's

• 1:54:58Colin O'Brady?

  of the world that I'm a true badass or something like that. Like, I, you know, I wanted to reach the kids with an inspirational mission around goal setting, dreaming big, chasing your dreams, and living an active, outdoor, healthy life. And so the reception we've gotten in that space has been so incredibly positive and has fueled me to continue to push for my reach my fundraising goal, you know, really be out in the schools, like we said, in the fall. And so for me, that that's the the greatest success of it all and who I really care about.

• 1:55:27Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I appreciate that. And I think that that comes through pretty loud and clear. Uh, you know, there's no shortage of people out, you know, doing crazy adventures and races, etc., and tying it to a charity. But that relationship between the challenge and the charity always seems, not always, but at times can seem not strained, but almost

• 1:55:50Colin O'Brady?

  Tacked on.

• 1:55:51Rich Roll?

  Tacked on. Yeah, it's like, yeah, you're not really doing this for the charity. It's just you can say that, but it's really for you. You know, it's really so. You know, I'm getting that from you, that that really is what's behind this and...

• 1:56:04Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, absolutely, and it really, you know, I agree with you. And we, we kind of surveyed the landscape of the space and also felt the same way about some other projects that we, you know, witnessed. Um, and wanted to make sure that that was, you know, really, I mean, it really is clearly our mission, so our hope is the authenticity of that, uh, has shown through. And it's been amazing that my passion for this is very deep. You know, growing up in a family that supported me in such a way that I, you know, had these great opportunities and lived a very healthy life growing up and giving back in that way. But it's been amazing how even as I've been in this, my relationship and passion has grown for this cause with even more depth than I would have really realized. And I think that goes back to what I said about thinking I was trying to provide inspiration

• 1:56:49Colin O'Brady?

  out there, but at the end of the day, it was the people, those people who inspired me. And so to continue that sort of reciprocal, um, mutual benefit of just, you know, encouragement in this space is just a, a special thing and, and, and humbling to walk into schools and have these kids, you know, want me to sign their T-shirt or, you know, you know, give them a hug or something like that. It's, uh, it's just amazing to see the love and joy in that room and to be a small part of that is, is really, you know, special.

• 1:57:16Rich Roll?

  So as a young dude, how old are you now?

• 1:57:18Colin O'Brady?

  Thirty-one.

• 1:57:19Rich Roll?

  Thirty-one.

• 1:57:20Colin O'Brady?

  Like a young, you're so...

• 1:57:21Rich Roll?

  A young guy who's accomplished, you know, so much in your thirty-one years. Um, for somebody who's listening, who, who, you know, maybe is contemplating a challenge or getting out of their comfort zone, trying something new, you know, what are some of the principles and the tools that kind of guide your approach or that, you know, find themselves front and center in your rulebook in terms of how you live your life on a daily basis or how you approach, you know, tackling, uh, you know, obstacles in your life?

• 1:57:52Colin O'Brady?

  You know, for me, you know, the one of, one of the criticisms we have gotten about this project is that it was not an inexpensive thing to do. We had to have some...

• 1:58:01Rich Roll?

  No way it could have been.

• 1:58:02Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 1:58:03Rich Roll?

  I mean, it's, I can't imagine what this thing cost. I'm afraid to ask.

• 1:58:05Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 1:58:06Rich Roll?

  You probably wouldn't tell me anyway, but...

• 1:58:08Colin O'Brady?

  It wasn't inexpensive and we're fortunate to have some really strong sponsors to, you know, support that effort. But we've drawn a very clear distinction around our charitable efforts versus the project. So when people are donating to our million dollar fundraising goal, we're not saying, "Oh, but that actually climbed Everest, but then the rest is going to kids." A hundred percent of what's donated is going directly to kids. Clear distinction there. But the reason that I bring that up is that my hope with this project and what I talk about when I'm in schools is not, "Hey, I climbed Mount Everest. One day, maybe you could climb Mount Everest." It's the complete opposite about that. It's finding what is, to use the same metaphor, your Everest in your life. What is a goal that you can set

• 1:58:51Colin O'Brady?

  for yourself? You know, what's around the block from you? What are things that are, you know, inexpensive to do as parents in terms of, you know, you know, teaching your kids these principles? Like, most people have some sort of green space, even if living in a very urban environment. You could live in New York City and you've got Central Park. There's a way to get outside, to unplug from the TV, get active, and play. You know, as a kid, this word "play," we lose it as adults sometimes, but just this idea of play. So, I, you know, one of the core principles, you know, to your question, in my daily life is, you know, what's immediately surrounding me? Like, what can I do to enrich my life in a healthful, fun, happy, playful way? Because I think when you nurture those things in your life, it not only makes you feel better, but it makes the people around you

• 1:59:34Colin O'Brady?

  feel better. It can, you know, people don't always put the direct correlation into, you know, better grades in school or better focus in the, you know, career boardroom with exercise. But I mean, I think that there's this very strong correlation there between that. I think, I imagine you would feel the same. And so, you know, that's what I think that I would instill is, it doesn't have to be. I'm a big believer in dream big. Set a massive goal for yourself, like I, you know, like I did for myself, perhaps. But that's just a series of twenty years of incremental goal-setting. You know, what's one step in front of me? What's the next thing? What's the next thing? And so, you know, don't be shy about, if you've never run before, hey, running your local 5K three months from now, like, that's an awesome goal. Like, good

• 2:00:17Colin O'Brady?

  For you, like that should be celebrated just as greatly as for me, setting a world record. You know, it's just the dedication to whatever process that is that you're passionate about. You know, go for it.

• 2:00:28Rich Roll?

  What do you think would be something that people would misunderstand about you? Or the adventure that you just tackled, like misconceptions or projections that people place on you about who you are and what you've accomplished?

• 2:00:42Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, you know, I think that a lot of what we've talked about, um, you know, makes for a great discussion and I love that you tied it back into fear and my perception of that. Um, and sort of, you know, even getting me to drill down on some things I haven't thought about in my relationship with that. But there are certainly people out there, um, that look at this or maybe listen to this podcast and hear some of those stories and go, this is reckless, like.

• 2:01:10Rich Roll?

  This guy's unhinged.

• 2:01:11Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, like you've, you know, you've got this lovely partner who's probably too supportive of me. You know, like you said, it's time for her.

• 2:01:20Colin O'Brady?

  It's time for her to do her thing and me support that, which I have a side note a hundred percent for. But, you know, I think that that is one of the misconceptions, you know, how, how could you put your mother through this? How could you put Jenna through this, you know, that sort of thing? It would really, it would take someone so like into themselves to, you know, do something like this.

• 2:01:40Rich Roll?

  Well, it's that weird thing where we love to see people do impossible things. But then the minute it's accomplished, it becomes a process of tearing them like, well, that was irresponsible. Or, you know, like that, why, you know, what kind of person are you that would do that? Right. It's like those things go together.

• 2:01:57Colin O'Brady?

  Right, right. And so I hope in, in, in broad strokes, that's, that's not the, the general take home from all of this. But I would say, yeah, in terms of a.

• 2:02:06Rich Roll?

  Are you feeling bad that we like highlighted these?

• 2:02:09Colin O'Brady?

  No, you know, actually I like it. I actually really like it. Cause I mean, I love this podcasting format. Um, I love the, the long form. I mean, you have a special talent and gift for it. I feel like when I'm sitting here talking with you, I'm really locked in in a way that, you know, that you don't provide the space and time, even with family, friends to really just have a long-term conversation. Thank you and gratitude. That's a special, special place that you create with this. But, you know, I think that in anything, those are great narrative learning pieces. Whether it's I learned from them myself moving forwards, or it's a just interesting story to hear, but the person listening might have made a different decision. I think that it sparks, you know, thoughtful conversation and for that, I appreciate it.

• 2:02:51Rich Roll?

  Is there anything you would have changed about how you, you know, navigated the adventure?

• 2:02:57Colin O'Brady?

  There's nothing directly that I would change, and I'm certainly not setting out to do this ever again. But funny enough, like, I can see how you could do it faster.

• 2:03:05Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:05Colin O'Brady?

  You know, that's a funny thing to say.

• 2:03:07Rich Roll?

  Yeah, well, the closing question was gonna be like, what's next? Like, what's gonna get you out of bed now? Other than the fundraising and the, and the kids, is there another adventure on the horizon? Or are your, so are your gears already turning on that? You can't do this again.

• 2:03:19Colin O'Brady?

  You know, marriage is on the horizon, so, uh, ending our very long engagement to actually be married is on the horizon.

• 2:03:26Rich Roll?

  Married on the summit of some mountain? Please tell me you're going to like a beach.

• 2:03:29Colin O'Brady?

  The opposite, the opposite. We're going to the Berkshires, Massachusetts. Jenna's hometown, a beautiful place in Western Mass. So, uh, we're gonna get married in her beautiful hometown, so excited about that, uh, next spring. Yeah, and then, um, you know, there's not any specific adventure on the horizon, you know. Uh, honestly, I'm still so tired and exhausted from this one. I haven't really caught up from this. I almost feel like I'm still in this adventure, so to think about the next is that. But certainly, the charitable work, the fundraising, that's really the primary focus, to continue to not just set the one goal of the world record, but get our second goal of the, the million dollar fundraiser, spread the word.

• 2:04:07Rich Roll?

  Have you had your blood work done?

• 2:04:09Colin O'Brady?

  I have had my blood worked on. It was actually the first thing I did when I came home. I was only in Portland for one day, um, and I, I made sure to do that, because I've been sort of really... Moderately obsessive with that through my athletic career because I have gotten sick and overtrained at times and that's what's really picked up on it is being really good about that. So I was more curious than anything because I'm going to recover no matter, I'm going to take the time to not push my body for a little while and recover from all this madness. But my blood work came back completely normal.

• 2:04:40Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:41Colin O'Brady?

  Except for my hermetic rate, which is the blood oxygen saturation was off the charts. In fact, I think that if I were in like a cycling race or something right now and I got tested.

• 2:04:54Rich Roll?

  Immediately get on the bike, see how it feels.

• 2:04:56Colin O'Brady?

  Like I would like test, but like my body, the truth, my body is so, they'd be like, no, he's not doping because he's way too tired. But like my blood level just from being up at high altitude for so long is about, you know, a good 20, 30% higher than it normally is, which is like dramatic for sure.

• 2:05:11Rich Roll?

  But that, but that goes away.

• 2:05:13Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, I think probably already now, it's been a couple of weeks since that blood test.

• 2:05:16Rich Roll?

  But you had no like deficiencies or any other kind of red flags?

• 2:05:20Colin O'Brady?

  You know, it's, it's really wild because you know, I've, you know, I've flown, I remember, you know, flying to Asia for races a couple of times, falling sick the day before the race and go, man, I just flew halfway around the world and like DNF'd after five minutes because I was so sick. And so one of my biggest, it's like, how are we going to string together 139 days of that not happening? And that happening once is enough to derail this whole project.

• 2:05:42Rich Roll?

  Being in weird places where you can't eat the way that you want to eat and all right.

• 2:05:45Colin O'Brady?

  All of that. And so amazingly, I'm actually kind of still anticipating the crash at some point, but my body held out long enough. I was actually extremely healthy through this entire process. And that's a great blessing.

• 2:06:00Rich Roll?

  And in between each one of the, when you had a little bit of time, you know, some of these, there was a little bit of time in between the ascents, right? So what did your training look like? Your maintenance training or your preparation?

• 2:06:11Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, there was, there was a couple of breaks. I think the, the couple, you know, one and two week breaks throughout this process based on weather windows we were waiting for. Strangely enough, uh, one of my biggest tactics there was to eat a lot, actually put weight back on. Because my body was just getting so depleted and it's getting ready to do something, North Pole, Everest and I, people sometimes lose 20, 30 pounds just climbing Everest and there's no way. You can lose that and then think you're gonna climb another mountain.

• 2:06:37Rich Roll?

  Lose 30 pounds climbing Everest?

• 2:06:38Colin O'Brady?

  That's not uncommon. That is really not uncommon. Yeah, like that's actually more the norm than not losing weight. And so actually nutrition and food was more of a focus than uh, physical uh, training. But uh, you know, when I was in Australia, I swam a bit in the ocean, just kind of keep the body active. And uh, it's a weird thing to train for something like this in comparison to what you and I have both done a lot of, which is single day big events or maybe a few day big, you know, endurance events. Like an ultimate or something, there still is that taper period, that preparation and then you're, you know, you're, you're jamming, even if it's a long race for a couple of days. This is six months, five, you know, in the end, just under five months, I guess. You can't just be like, fit for that the whole time.

• 2:07:22Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 2:07:22Colin O'Brady?

  Like, so it's more of just this, getting my body to this plateau of being able to do a lot, but the higher, different than traditional high performance. So that was unique for me.

• 2:07:34Rich Roll?

  Yeah, interesting.

• 2:07:35Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:35Rich Roll?

  It's almost like it should be, you know, stu- like somebody should have studied the whole thing to, you know, dial in the preparation. So when you go for it again, because you clearly figured out how you can do it faster.

• 2:07:45Colin O'Brady?

  No, that, that was a, uh, Jenna's shaking her head over here. Uh, no, that, uh, that is not gonna be another attempt. I was just saying, after you-

• 2:07:53Rich Roll?

  It can be done faster.

• 2:07:54Colin O'Brady?

  Uh, just throwing it out there, it can be done faster. I might not tell the secret of what I did.

• 2:07:57Rich Roll?

  I was gonna say, like, how much for the, uh, for the route that's gonna make it work? To the highest bidder.

• 2:08:03Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 2:08:04Rich Roll?

  So, did you have, is there gonna be like a documentary? You guys working on any kind of media related stuff?

• 2:08:11Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, so, you know, kinda just doing a bunch of fun media stuff. Just in the immediate stuff, you know, CBS Sunday Morning, being on some great podcasts like yourself is really, really fun. But in the longer term, media, I'd like to write a book about this.

• 2:08:26Rich Roll?

  You should.

• 2:08:27Colin O'Brady?

  You know, you've gone through that whole process, so I think that's a whole nother mountain to climb is that whole process and diving into this. But I'm an avid daily journaler, and I have been throughout my whole life, not just through this project. So, that would be fun for me to kinda really put a pen to paper.

• 2:08:40Rich Roll?

  You would be able to document it pretty thoroughly throughout.

• 2:08:43Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 2:08:43Rich Roll?

  When you weren't watching, uh, episodes of HBO's Girls.

• 2:08:46Colin O'Brady?

  Exactly. That was a big-

• 2:08:48Rich Roll?

  A big base camp? I saw the tweet.

• 2:08:50Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, well, believe it or not, there were some times when I'm like, I remember being at the North Pole, or on our way to the North Pole. It's minus forty outside, I'm in this little tent getting blown around, and I just pull up my phone, I've got this like, you know, girls. What better way to like, Manhattan, people joking around, drinking cocktails, like, what's the opposite of my life right now? Put my head literally inside of my sleeping bag and just like, get away from the world for a second.

• 2:09:13Rich Roll?

  I felt like, I felt like, Leonard Donham really should have responded to that. It's so unique, you know?

• 2:09:20Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, so, yeah, no, Girls, the, all five seasons of Girls, I downloaded them all and they got me through in times. They're great, they're like-

• 2:09:26Rich Roll?

  That's the secret!

• 2:09:27Colin O'Brady?

  That's the secret right there. Damn, I gave it away. But then, yeah, a book and then also, you know, we really, I try to document this project as best I can. There was a few moments when different people caught some more professional footage of me, but most of it is, is me and handheld. And I'm far from a professional documentarian, but I kinda live by that. I had three different cameras with me and I figured if I got out my camera as much as possible, maybe at least a little bit, it'd be decent. And so, we're actually-

• 2:09:52Rich Roll?

  You need a Jimmy Chin with you.

• 2:09:53Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah, exactly. I'm not quite on that cinematography level, but, no, I think we have a great story to tell in documentary form, really. And just seeing, just from even the little clips that we've released and Snapchats and things like that right now. We just put out a six-minute sort of retelling of my Everest story. And I think for people to really lay eyes on those places, gives another amazing fabric to the sort of whole adventure. So, we'll hopefully be able to put something together if we can find a production partner for that, you know, in the next little bit here.

• 2:10:22Rich Roll?

  Very cool. Well, I feel like your story is somewhat similar to the Iron Cowboy in the sense that you did this extraordinary thing. You did it, you know, did something no one's ever done before. And you're getting media attention. You did CBS this morning.

• 2:10:36Colin O'Brady?

  CBS Sunday Morning.

• 2:10:37Rich Roll?

  CBS Sunday Morning. That's a big deal. Like, you're getting some press recognition. But I also feel like you're not really getting the due that you deserve.

• 2:10:46Colin O'Brady?

  That's kind.

• 2:10:47Rich Roll?

  You know, like, I feel like people really should know more about, like, what's going on. In the same way that I feel that way about the Iron Cowboy. I'm like, I don't think people really understand, like, how incredible that was. And I feel this is very similar to that in that, you know, you're making an impression and you're getting it out there. But I feel like more people should perk up and pay attention and tap into this story because it really is remarkable and incredible. And my hat is off to you, Matt. I commend you. It's really something special.

• 2:11:12Colin O'Brady?

  Thank you. Yeah, I got to, last but not least, I know, I'll give you the last word because you got to have the last word.

• 2:11:17Rich Roll?

  Of course, it's my show.

• 2:11:19Colin O'Brady?

  But I have one last word for me, which is, I totally agree with, you said to me about the Iron Cowboy. Wow, what an amazing feat. Unless you've kind of lived in that space, you don't quite recognize how remarkable that is. So, that was incredible. And just, my last word is just a final shout out to the Rich Roll Podcast listeners. You guys have been some of our most vocal, amazing advocates throughout this process. So, so much gratitude to be on the show right before this was happening. But just filling up our Instagram feed with comments and likes, just so many people. I heard your story on Rich Roll Podcast. This is incredible. And thank you for following along. It's a testament to you, Rich, and the amazing stuff you put out. Of just like, you have a great following of listeners out there. And you obviously are putting out some amazing stuff. So, it's

• 2:12:03Colin O'Brady?

  been a blessing to be in, small part in the Rich Roll family this year. So, thank you to everyone out there with all the shout outs.

• 2:12:10Rich Roll?

  It's all the audience, man. Thank you. That's, that means a lot to me. I really appreciate that. And it's, you know, it's my privilege to be able to put a microphone in front of you and share your story, man. It's really, you know, it's touching to hear you say that. But, you know, it's your story, dude. And they're flocking to you because you have something to say and you did something extraordinary, the two of you together, actually. And it's inspiring, dude. And it just, it really makes me think about...

• 2:12:45Rich Roll?

  The boundaries of human limitations, you know, and how we think about that. Because when I see somebody like you, who hasn't been, you know, you weren't a professional mountaineer for 20 years before you did that. You're an incredible athlete. You obviously are extremely talented, very, you know, devoted and dedicated to, you know, achieving your goals. But the fact that you were able to do what you were able to do, really just makes me, you know, question other things in my life and what I see around me. Because I think as human beings, and I say this all the time, it's almost like a trope, but, you know, we're all capable of doing so much more than we often allow ourselves to believe. And when I see somebody like you, who blows the lid off something, that helps me and inspires

• 2:13:29Rich Roll?

  me to look at my own life and examine it and try to be better. So, thank you for that.

• 2:13:34Colin O'Brady?

  Thank you for having me.

• 2:13:35Rich Roll?

  All right, man. We did it.

• 2:13:37Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 2:13:38Rich Roll?

  How you feel?

• 2:13:39Colin O'Brady?

  I feel great. Love it.

• 2:13:41Rich Roll?

  Anything else you want to say?

• 2:13:42Colin O'Brady?

  I think that's it. Anyone who wants to check out at Beyond72, we still got all the photos and stuff up of retelling this story, but again, just a deep gratitude and thank you to you, Rich, and the Rich Roll family for embracing us so much.

• 2:13:54Rich Roll?

  Yeah, cool. So, so definitely check out all your social, their social media accounts, @Beyond underscore seven two, right, is basically where everything

• 2:14:02Colin O'Brady?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:03Rich Roll?

  Lives. And go back and listen to, if you're, if you're new to the show, go back and listen to our first podcast, I don't remember the number, it was, I think I posted it in January.

• 2:14:12Colin O'Brady?

  Two oh seven or something like that.

• 2:14:14Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I'll put links in the show notes, up to everything, including that little documentary, like I watched that earlier today, I'll put links up to that. And tap into this guy, man, and check out his story. And if you are involved in any kind of school, high school, elementary school, whatever, get in touch with Colin and Jenna, and he will come and visit and inspire your kids. Right?

• 2:14:36Colin O'Brady?

  Yes, absolutely. It'd be our pleasure.

• 2:14:38Rich Roll?

  Cool, man. Thanks. Peace.

• 2:14:41Colin O'Brady?

  Bye, Lance.

• 2:14:48Rich Roll?

  Where to even begin? I mean, incredible accomplishment, perhaps an even more incredible human. Really hope you guys enjoyed that. To learn more, check out beyond72.com and definitely check out the episode page, show notes at richroll.com. I've got lots of cool stuff there to delve deeper into Colin's world, including some really great videos that will give you a glimpse on what this expedition was all about. What else can I tell you? Well, check out my YouTube channel and subscribe for vlogs and more at youtube.com/richroll. For all your plant power merch and swag needs, go to richroll.com. I've got signed copies of Finding Ultra and The Plant Power Way. We've got cool plant power t-shirts, we've got tech tees, we've got swag, we've got merch, we've got stickers, all kinds of cool stuff.

• 2:15:31Rich Roll?

  And if you're interested in following me online and you're not doing that already, I'm easy to find, @richroll on Twitter and Instagram, and on Snapchat, it's I Am Rich Roll. I want to thank everybody who helped put this episode together today. Of course, Colin O'Brien for being an amazing guest, Jason Camiolo for all his wizardry with audio engineering and production, thank you Jason, Sean Patterson for all his graphic work, always appreciated Sean, Chris Swan for production assistance. Chris spends a lot of time helping me with the show notes, takes a lot of time, he helps pull quotes for the episode, it's some heavy lifting, so thank you so much, Chris. That's it, thanks for all the support, you guys, I love you, I appreciate you tuning in, and I've got a final thought for you.

• 2:16:14Rich Roll?

  What Colin achieved is superhuman, but again, I find his commitment to tackling childhood obesity, to giving back, perhaps the most inspiring aspect of his story. So, the question I want to leave with you is this: How can we all do better at merging our interests, our professions, our extracurricular activities, our hobbies and our pursuits, to something beyond ourselves, something outside of ourselves, something with greater meaning and positive impact than simple self-satisfaction? To me, this is the key to living a life of meaning and purpose and satisfaction. And I'm going to take a deeper look at this in my own life, and my hope is that you do as well.

• 2:16:59Rich Roll?

  See you guys soon. Peace. Plants.