In this episode Kayla Perez shares her journey from early challenges and self-discovery to conquering some of the world’s highest peaks, including Mount Everest. She discusses her experience with pulmonary edema, the importance of mental resilience, and visualization in achieving the impossible. The conversation delves into the culture of perseverance, the powerful impact of near-death experiences, and the ethos of living by actions, not words. Kayla also highlights her support for the Searing Fund, which helps provide education and opportunities to children in Nepal.
Episode Highlights:
08:27 Visualization and Mindset
10:45 Embracing Pain and Adversity
28:45 Surviving a Life-Threatening Event
34:49 The Journey to Climbing Everest
36:22 Facing Physical Challenges on the Mountain
You can learn more about Kayla and her journey here: misskayperez
Episode Transcript:
00:45
Acta Non Verba is a Latin phrase that means actions, not words. If you want to know what somebody truly believes, don’t listen to their words. Instead, observe their actions. I’m Marcus Aurelius Anderson. And my guest today truly embodies that phrase. Kayla Perez is a high altitude Mountaineer and first-form athlete who seeks the next biggest challenge in her life. She’s all in on everything that she does and dedicates 100% of her mental focus and energy to the specific task.
01:14
And when she’s not all over the globe doing other things, she also works on board private aircraft as a flight attendant when she’s not conquering the rest of the mountains around her. Thank you so much for being here today, Kayla. I’m really looking forward to this. Yes, thank you so much for having me on. Yeah, it’s incredible. I’ve been watching the footage that you have on Ms. Kay Perez on Instagram is just breathtaking being at the top of the mountain and summoning and all those things, but.
01:43
Before we get into that, I would love to know about this first warm experience and who this Andy Fasola guy is. Tell me about him. He’s an epic human being, right? Andy Fasola, I adore. He is just a solid human being, just the core of who he is and how he’s built such an amazing brand that stands for.
02:09
who we are, you know, it’s not just another supplement company. I had the pleasure of actually going to headquarters and visiting the whole family. And I was blown away. He has outdone himself, the whole team. And it really is just the whole ecosystem. Right. I call it that because you walk into the space and you are greeted and you’re supported in every way by every employee.
02:38
with integrity and authenticity. You know, everyone there has a piece to the huge inner making of it. And you wouldn’t have what he has if it wasn’t for every single employee and person that makes this possible. So, you know, they all are amazing humans and they’ve been so good to me and supporting me and believing that I can achieve what I thought once was impossible.
03:09
So yes, thank you, Andy. Thank you, whole team, Cody, everyone over there has just been such a huge piece to this equation. Absolutely, and the culture, like you said, it’s poppable when you walk in the room. It is, it’s mind blowing. I feel like every company should create this infrastructure and create this foundation because it really…
03:34
you know, is fluid with who he is and the success and outcome of the company. So I admire that so much. Yeah. Those values are key. And I don’t think people understand whether you have a business as big as first form in St. Louis, or you have just a couple of people working for you in your office, there’s a culture there. And if you are not mindful of that, and if you’re not the one that’s going to actually go build that, it’s going to be built without you and chances are, it’s not going to be the good representation that you believe it could be, right?
04:04
Exactly. And you know, he’s not just focusing on creating a product. Like you said, it’s a culture and focusing on the well-being of the employees, of the family that’s there. It’s more than just employees. It’s more than people just showing up for work. They love their job. You can tell there’s just this natural flowing energy across the board.
04:28
And one of the cleanest, largest facilities I’ve ever seen, you know, and there’s no cleaning person that goes in, um, you know, certain days of the week. Every employee has a, their play on, you know, this is their contribution. This is their home. So they take care of it and you walk into the warehouse and it’s the cleanest warehouse I’ve ever seen. So just awestruck from top to bottom. Yeah. He truly loves it. Emily truly loves it.
04:57
sell everybody over there. So for those of you that aren’t sure, even just go to a supplement super store and see how they conduct themselves, see how they conduct business, see how they’re trying to take care of you, show you, give you, provide for you. And even if you walk in and buy nothing, you’ll still get a tremendous amount of value out of that place. So, um, yeah, that’s why what Andy teaches and what Ed teaches us in the RDA syndicate truly, that’s what’s allowed me to have whatever success that I have today.
05:25
You can have talent, you can have certain capabilities, but unless you understand there’s other things that they do every single moment, you’re just gonna kinda be treading water, trying to figure it out. Yes, you mentioned that, that’s well said. And so you were saying how that achieving the things that you’ve achieved at one point seemed impossible. Yes. Describe to me what impossible felt like prior to some of these achievements, and then we’ll dive into your story.
05:54
your motivation and your why? Well, when we look at impossible, we see it as separation from one. So it’s an idea. It is something that is realistic for others, but not your personal reality, because you haven’t created a foundation for that belief. You are…
06:19
not in relation to it directly. Your life and upbringing was a different reality than what is happening right now. So, you know, up until a few years ago, I didn’t even think Mount Everest or even mountains in general, the past four years, mountains in general was a reality until I started restructuring and rewiring the brain into a new belief system.
06:49
a new neural network, a new foundation on who I am, where I want to go in life, and how I want to make my tribe and my people around me part of that. And how do I co-create this into achieving the possible, the new norm? And it just, it didn’t happen overnight. So it was something that I had romanticized about.
07:19
and then slowly started piecing the puzzle together into creating this reality, starting small into Mount Shasta, creating a new flow into, okay, this is an intro to Mount Nearing, these are baby steps. Let me kind of take it a step further, go higher, and seeing myself and my ability to persevere through these little moments,
07:48
micro goals that turned into a summit every day. And I figured that would translate into life. So I started relating it to real life, you know, all these small barriers that I would go through on a daily basis weren’t as monumental anymore. It weren’t as big of a barrier anymore. They were working with my new belief system, I started developing this new way of thinking through mountains. So
08:17
before you know it, I knew that I could stand on top of the world. I knew it was possible and to stand on top of the world, you truly have to believe it. And using visualization was a big key for me. Visualizing myself, I have a poster of Mount Everest right next to my exercise bike and I would stare at it. And I would stare at it and visualize myself.
08:46
on top of the mountain, not just imagine, but visualize myself and bring in the emotional state of being because that’s what causes you to really change your neural network, your physiology. You know, your brain tells your body what to do. It’s very powerful. So visualization, believing, feeling emotions of how I would feel to stand on top of the world. And that
09:16
carried on throughout my whole day. You know, it prepped my body, my brain to follow through. So before you know it, each step was higher and higher until I got to the top. And so I’ll, I like to ask you sort of a nitty gritty one because a lot of people talk about the visualization. Do you visualize yourself from a first person perspective as if it’s you or do you visualize it from a third person perspective as if you’re on the outside observing it as you visualize?
09:46
I visualize myself as myself on the summit. First person. First person, because if you’re a third person, you’re still separating yourself from that vision. So you are creating still a barrier saying, oh no, that’s still not me. That’s an idea of myself on the mountain. However, it’s not me as a person. In a reality, you really have to look at it as if it’s already happened. You’re already there.
10:15
and all of those emotions that you would feel. So, you know, excitement, gratitude, you know you’re gonna be tired, exhausted, all these things are coming into the equation. And you have a small reference point, you know, you have these other mountains, you know what suffering feels like. You bring all of that and that reality starts to build up. And you start to create this flow state and it becomes effortless after a while.
10:44
one with the process, you don’t separate yourself from. I think that when people are experiencing hardship or adversity, they want to distance themselves from it. And when they do that, that actually is almost like holding a weight away from your body. It’s so much harder, but if you can bring it in close to you, make peace with it, understand that it’s literally a part of you, and then accept the fact that it’s there to make you stronger, it’s there to make you better, it’s there to demand more of you.
11:13
than what you would really normally do. That’s when all of a sudden it becomes a gift. Mm, embrace the pain, embrace the suffering because it will get you to where you need to go. And you appreciate it so much more. Pain is the biggest teacher. It’s only through the pain that you can realize what you’re capable of and how you can grow as a person. Obviously when you’re in the gym and you’re lifting, it’s pain.
11:42
but you’re gaining that the next day. Today’s suffering is tomorrow’s embrace. And that’s what the fruits of life come through the struggle. And most of the people that I’ve met that have this brilliant mind and that are doing things and they’re high performing, they have a story. It didn’t happen overnight. They’ve been through the trenches, they’ve been through the suffering, they’ve been through the heartache. And…
12:10
That’s part of your story and we have to share that. So much of that mountain, 99% of that mountain was suffering. And that 1% is that gratitude, but it was so worth it. It is, and it’s funny, we have the audacity to want to be stronger or to want to be greater, but then we wanna circumvent the hardship that’s required to get to that place. So if you’re asking for these things, if you’re asking for strength, if you’re asking for resilience,
12:40
understand that you’re also asking for the adversity that’s requisite to get to that place because if it were easy, you wouldn’t respect it anyway. If it was easy, everyone would be on top of the world. Everyone would be there and we wouldn’t be who we are. We are who we are through what we’ve been through. We were the sum of our experiences. So I always tell people, do everything that you can and don’t be afraid of failure.
13:09
people do not start because they’re afraid of looking a certain way or, you know, I went through immense failure prior to Everest, pulmonary diamon, two mountains and lung infections and all kinds of different illnesses and altitude barriers that taught me about myself, that I was suffering and all of these emotions would come in and try to steal away my mindset.
13:39
planting seeds of failure, doubt. There were so many times I wanted to give up and you have to reinforce that mindset and look at what the fuck you’ve done in this life. What you’ve been through, what, you know, who, how did you get to where you are? And all of those little bits are there up for grabs so that you can utilize this into your new inner strength.
14:07
You know, they are there to support you and to remind you of your fullest potential. So I tell people all the time, don’t be afraid, keep going and you know, the rest will follow. Yeah, I think that people underestimate that they think that there’s a trick or a hack or some way to get there quickly. But honestly, you have to go through those things in that order. You have to fail to have that resilience. And here’s the other part.
14:37
Parasotes physically and mentally to the best of our capacity. Having said that, there will absolutely be a point where we feel like we’re in over our head, where we’re like, this is not what I signed up for. This is way too big for me. And in that moment, you still have to decide. Take a breath, take a step, and just keep moving. And all of a sudden, like you said, that impossibility where it steps behind you, and now you’ve just continued and you’re smiling because does this sound familiar?
15:07
It’s so true every single moment of that journey is battling yourself and believing, reinforcing power of thought of this is my reality. My body is physically able to do what I need to do. It’s my mind that’s either trying to keep me alive and saying this is not a good idea, go home, go sit on the couch, you know, have a nice warm meal, a nice hot shower.
15:35
You know, you could hit the spa. Someone once told me I’m Mount Everest. Let’s go party in Bali. I’ll take a heli out of here. I’ve heard it all. And it really takes this reinforcement of what you set as your new tone, as your true self. You know, my body is physically capable of doing this and I need to believe that. I need to believe in myself and stop creating so much doubt
16:04
you know, knocked out out of the equation. Yeah, and that will always be there. But like you said, adversity is always going to question us. But for us, it’s just the opportunity to reaffirm what we truly want. Because that’s what it does. It’s like, do you really want this? It’s like, yes. And then two steps later, about now, you’re like, yeah, about now, just shut up. I’m going to keep going. You don’t have to keep asking. It’s going to keep coming back. But it’s nice because it keeps us
16:32
It’s not like a cold bath, right? Like a ice, you know, anything like that. We have no other option other than to be completely present because it’s so extreme. Right. But within that, like you said, it makes everything else fall away. You don’t give a shit about what’s going on in politics or on social media. Like right now is all that matters. This breath, this step, this pick, this position. That’s it. And you know, living in that present moment is.
17:01
powerful. It is a moment to moment practice. It’s infinite. You always have to bring yourself back to present moment, back to that flow state, back to synchronicity of creating that alignment and rather than fighting the mountain, you’re working with your body. You know your body is capable of it. It may be a little exhausted, malnourished, but you know what? You’re physically capable.
17:29
So creating that flow state in the mountain, embracing it, loving the moment, loving the pain in a way that you develop a new relationship with pain. Pain is now your new friend. The pain house teaches you, it allows you to grow, it allows for so much room to develop this new mindset. So…
17:58
I call it my Mount Everest mindset now is I have this reference point. I know what I’m capable of. We all are. Every single person here is capable of it. It’s how much you want to be in that position, how much you want to grow, how much you want to challenge yourself. And it’s really just, it boils down to creating this really strong, positive mindset so that I can show up for others around me.
18:28
It’s not for myself. It’s not so I can get on top of the mountain. It’s to create this new perspective and share it with my friends and inspire others that you can easily do this if they plug in everything that they need to and really believe in themselves. Yeah, and that all dovetails that aligns that allows you to push through. When we have alignment, it’s much easier to just drive forward than if I’m here now I have to go over here.
18:56
and I’m wasting time, I’m creating friction unnecessarily. And now that attrition will stop me from summoning, especially when I feel like I’m getting close and I realize that there’s a lot further to go still. Have you always had this resilience and this mentality as a child, or is this a skillset that you cultivated as you went on? That’s a good question. I, as a child, was a bit of a loner. I had two older brothers and…
19:25
I grew up in the dirt. I grew up, it kind of helps to be active as a child, but I always had a different type of thinking, a different mindset. Not this particular mindset, this is definitely grown into what it is now, but it was in the infant stages of it. I always was very passionate person. I was a very shy kid, didn’t wanna talk to anyone, didn’t have a voice.
19:55
and grew into the person I am now. So moved out when I was 17 years old, moved to Vegas when I was 23, and really just create a little life for myself that I wanted. I needed to design what I had, but it was a great foundation. And I didn’t have the best childhood. I went through a lot of stuff as a child. So there was a lot of…
20:22
pushing, you know, or reinforcing a new brain, a new way of thinking. So through all the hardships, you know, having that passion and having that foundation and then going through what I went through and then redeveloping a new mindset, releasing what didn’t serve me. I needed to face myself in a lot of different ways. I needed to test myself. I needed to grow. I needed new friends.
20:51
So it really is a piece by piece road to where I am now. But I honored the path and what I was given, good or bad, no matter how horrible it was, I honor that because it is a piece of who I am today. And what was it about Vegas that attracted you because some people go to New York, some go to LA, some go to…
21:17
Miami, Houston, different areas. What was it about Vegas that was the allure? Vegas is a very special place and I don’t think that people understand basically everything that we are provided with. So we have a beautiful lake that we can go boating and hang out with friends on the lake. We have world-class rock climbing where people come from all over the world and climb.
21:46
We have Mount Charleston, which is a small ski resort. So it kind of has, as a person that loves outdoors and adventure, it kind of has this little ecosystem of different activities that you can do. But I was actually in the service industry when I was younger. So I started bartending when I was 18 years old in El Paso. And from there, I decided
22:14
Vegas was a great way to make quick money in that instance of where I had time available to do what I wanted to do and build the person that I needed to. There was great opportunity and it was very centrally located. So you have California, Utah, Arizona, all within a couple hours that you want to go to the beach or you want to go here or there.
22:44
It’s a little bit of now, but you know, it just kind of fit and made sense. But there was also this just driving force to Vegas and I can’t explain to you exactly what that is, but it was meant to happen this way. I was meant to be in the city and it’s the power that’s higher than me. Right. Like I was just pulled in this direction and it made sense. I said, all right, I don’t have a job. I don’t have a place to live. Let’s go all in.
23:13
So here I am now 11 years later and it’s been a beautiful ride. Yeah. I used to bartend in Atlanta for a while. So I absolutely understand what you mean about the industry. Uh, there is money. Um, we had to be very resolute on what it is we’re trying to accomplish or else we can get lulled into this lifestyle or this easy money kind of idea. And all of a sudden, if we don’t have that thing to keep us going, well,
23:42
become complacent in it. And all of a sudden, you know, it’s five years and it’s like, oh, I was going to do this side hustle or I was going to create this business or I was going to, you know, climb mountains. But, you know, I’ll do that later. I have to sleep until 1pm just to try to give myself some sort of energy. And then all of a sudden we get caught in that. And so I applaud you for having that tenacity and that focus of your intention within those realms.
24:08
Yeah, no thank you. It’s been a journey and as you’re right, it’s very easy to get caught up in the service industry. You know, one year turns into 10 and it kind of, if you lose focus, you can lose focus of why you’re here, what your purpose is. And I never lost that. I always realigned myself. I always grounded in myself and what I wanted to do in life and
24:35
you know, using discernment and using my compass, my moral compass of where I needed to go and how I needed it to show up. Because there was one thing on the back of my mind that one thing you’re not going to get back is time. So I’ve always been one to just do things now and make it happen because tomorrow is never promised. It’s a very cliche thing to say, but it’s there’s so much
25:04
when you have these near-death experiences and when you have people around you pass away or transition, it puts things into perspective that nothing is promised in this life. So show up, do the best you can, and remember your purpose, remember your focus, remember your strength. And chasing money was never my purpose. You know, it was always a bonus to make life easier, but it didn’t change who I was or…
25:32
why I needed to go in that direction. It was just allowing me to pay my bills in the way that I needed to go. And I discovered a deviation and allowed me to travel and see the world and work and meet people of similar mindsets. And that just kind of fruited from my journey and honoring that path. So yeah, it’s been very interesting. Interesting path for sure. And
26:00
A goal is only as attainable as it is specific. When I work with people, I’m always repeating that because if we don’t know exactly what it is that we want or at least what we don’t want, then things that are actually distractions become what we think are opportunities. And then we’ll chase them down this road that does not go where we want it to go. Or we know in our mind that this is a distraction or that this is just for fun or this is empty.
26:29
and hollow, but yet we still seek it out. So I applaud you with that. You mentioned earlier about how tomorrow’s promise for none of us. You mentioned those things. Can you tell us about an adversity that you went through that at the time? You didn’t think you were going to be able to make it through, but yet after you were able to look back in hindsight and see how much strength and resilience and the woman that had created that I’m speaking to today.
26:56
Yeah, absolutely. There’s been a few moments in my life where it was traumatic and life altering in a way that created, tried to create a certain mindset. You know, you go through a specific trauma and you can either come out of that as a victim or as a person that has learned from that, has overcome this obstacle.
27:24
It was character building, it was rewiring the mind into a new, I wouldn’t say callous mind, but a positive mind, an optimistic mind, a resilient mind. And I mean, there’s been things from, I think one major event that happened was actually here in Las Vegas, and it was the mass shooting and the Route 91. And I was bartending at that event.
27:55
And I actually, it was the last night and I heard a bunch of pops and thought it was fireworks. And then one thing led to another and complete chaos started to un-leash and there was this huge abrupt change in energy because everyone was dancing, having fun, you know, country concerts are so…
28:20
just feel good, right? You’re there because you want to experience that energy and flow. And I remember running for my life. And when people say their life flashes before their eyes, there was moments of, I don’t know if I’m going to come out of this alive because there are people dropping right in front of me as I’m running. And it was a very traumatic experience, right? You’re literally seeking shelter anywhere you can to not die.
28:50
And that event really, you’re in full fight or flight survival mode, but you’re also, for me, I was looking out for my brothers and sisters and people around me because I wanted everyone to get out of that place alive. You feel the certain energy and community and then something like this happens. And then everyone just, you know, their brain flips into survival mode and you really truly actually see.
29:20
yourself in that scenario, almost like outside looking in, who are you truly, how do you operate in these situations, and what are you going to do? And after taking cover from bullet fire, I try to get as many people out as I can, and you see people actually coming together immediately, putting people in their cars, taking them to the hospital, helping, doing what you can, creating
29:47
It’s a whole community that happens at that moment and moving past that and having survived that and creating, you know, there was a lot of community that happened in Las Vegas after that. I really saw this, people come together in a way I never had in this city. But there was also, you know, there was a lot of a victim mindset in a way. And I kind of fell into that in the beginning of all.
30:16
you know, this happened to me at PTSD, and it was kind of a, a fall zone of a cushion of, oh, you know, this is what happened to me, I identify as a victim of this, I’m survivor, all these things, and you label yourself. And then you start to pull yourself out and say, that’s not who I am. That’s not at all who I am. I have overcome this obstacle. I’m working to create a new mindset to reinforce.
30:44
positive outcome from this. And it took a lot of restructuring the mind and not allowing the mind to run my life, but controlling my mind in a way that promoted wellbeing. And it was, I think, the start to my journey in helping this positive mindset and this positive of creating a mindset for mountains and really believing that I can do anything in life.
31:13
But that was definitely one instance that I can say changed the game for me. Wow. And I absolutely agree when you have a near death experience, when you brush up against death enough times, you realize that it’s so much closer than we think it can happen at any given time. And so it gives you this appreciation, but it gives you this powerful urgency.
31:39
to go towards the things that you really want or to at least stop bullshitting yourself about the things you don’t want. It helps you get rid of the things that everybody else thinks is important. It strips away all that bullshit and it gets you to this place of, you know what? This is what I want and it doesn’t matter if somebody else thinks it’s a good idea or if somebody else understands because it’s not their life, it’s yours. And there is a finite amount of time on it. And I always say that people think that they need more time but they need a deadline.
32:08
And there is no greater deadline in this life than the knowledge that adversity is in route to us as we speak. And if you approach everything as if this is my last workout, my last conversation, it will be robust, it will be powerful, and there will be substance. But if we don’t challenge ourselves to do those things, then again, that complacency will creep in. And before you know it, we’re sitting on our fat asses eating bonbons watching reality TV.
32:37
You know, it’s so easy to be in that space to write, you just like this is simple and you catch yourself in these kind of lazy spells and you have to. That’s actually when you grow is when you peel yourself off of that, whatever it is you sit down and you have the intention of just relaxing the rest of the day. You’re like, Oh, no, I deserved it. And then you start to restructure the mind and Hey, wait a minute.
33:07
If this was my last day, if this was a moment, you know, what would I do if I had my last moment in life? I’m not going to sit here and this is not how I’m going to go. I have so much more to do and give and train. And you start to fulfill yourself in that way. You start creating that lifestyle and creating those things because that’s what gives you that growth mindset.
33:36
passion for life, it fuels you and it helps inspire others too. You know, you have to not only remind yourself, you have to call out your people too sometimes, because you’re like, you’re a lazy motherfucker right now. Like, get up and run with me. Let’s go. Let’s get up and do something today. And I think those are the friends that I really value in this life. I love to be called out on my bullshit. Sometimes we all need that. So.
34:04
But I will say, no one’s going to call you on your bullshit more than yourself. So you got to hold yourself accountable more than anything. Yeah. We have to expect more from ourselves and have a standard of excellence that exceeds what anybody outside of us could possibly try to impose on us. And whether that be on our own or again, the knowledge that in a competitive standpoint, whatever it is, you have to have a little bit of that. And when you can channel that all of a sudden.
34:33
It becomes this energy source that is unending and it’s omnipresent and it’s constantly renewing. So it’s powerful. But it’s like fire. If we don’t control it, we will be consumed by it in a negative capacity. So it’s important for sure. So for those that don’t know, you don’t just sign up to say, Hey, I want to go to Everest and I’ll see you guys. Like, do I buy a backpack? There’s many steps or many requirements, many iterations.
35:02
So first of all, tell us, was there a moment in time when you said, I want to climb Everest, I want to summit Everest, and then from that moment until it actually happened in May, tell us about that. So it’s again been a long time of just blood, sweat and tears, training, focus, building my mind up to even visualize myself on the mountain. And it came…
35:32
when I truly believed it and when I started putting the pieces together, it really didn’t hit me until I started preparing for Mount Everest. And it was okay, so my last mount was Mount Monosleux. And Monosleux is an 8,000 meter peak. It’s also in Nepal. And I actually developed pulmonary edema on that mountain. So
35:58
that swelling of the lungs and you’re essentially drowning in your lungs. So previously now on with the Blom, it initially developed. So it develops at high altitude. And when you go through this, you actually have to descend within 24 hours and you have to basically call that expedition. That is it. You’re done. No more climbing. It’s life or death. So my previous two Himalayan mountains, I developed this.
36:26
And I reached out to a doctor in Colorado and he put me on a program. Dr. Peter Hackett. Thank you. Um, because I wanted to, I needed to do this for myself. I needed to make it possible. And my body was telling me one thing, but I needed to just restructure my plan. I knew there was going to be a way to do it. I could easily gave up and said, altitude’s not for me. Maybe I’ll try.
36:56
more technical, less high peak, but Everest was a dream and I was going to make that possible one way or another. So Dr. Peter Hackett put together a program that basically I have climatized really slow. So it started at 4,000 meters and had me on calcium channel blockers, lowered blood pressure physiologically. It just, my body needed that to help prevent it.
37:26
program, it was also, there’s so many components to it. So I had that dialed in and I said, after these two mountains, I’m going to summit Lobache and Lobache is 6,000 meter peak, about 20,000, 21,000 feet maybe. And Palmiridima had developed at 19,000 feet. So I would go on the same exact track as Everest kind of trace that.
37:55
you know, in the next coming year, it would give me an outline of what my body would be physically capable of doing. If I was more susceptible to developing it again, it would happen. And I would be at a lower peak, I would be a lot safer rescue, you know, all these things are, you have to think of. Because you got to be smart about it too. You can’t just be like, okay, well, I’ve had pulmonary edema twice, and we just climb Everest and see what happens because
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that’s when death brushes you in the face. So I reached base camp, which base camp is shared by the two mountains, so Loa Shea Group and Everest Group. It’s all climbed within one week of year. And I developed a lung infection. And I had this really horrible cough. So there’s a kumbu cough that everyone develops. It’s a really dry cough.
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And then there’s this really deep lung cough. And it’s almost like, you hear like this undertone of just, it’s just an aggressive cough. And the team doctor said I had a lung infection. So they actually prescribed me, you know, some meds and said, look, you gotta descend for say,
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two days and then come back up, see the body will heal or not. Well, my team had already pushed for the summit to Loa Shea and I had came there for Loa Shea, so I said, okay, well that’s out of the picture now. I’m starting to get better. I know that I’m not developing pulmonary edema because my lungs are great. This, this acclimatization package is good.
39:53
what can I do? I’m prepared, I’m ready, I’ve done the homework. Everest was supposed to be next year in 2025. And I said, look, if I don’t do this now, I’m going to have to do this track all over again, I’m going to have to spend the money to get here, all these things. I can do this now. And I told my team this. And I called first form, I kind of restructured it and expedited it to this year. And I said, I can do this. I have
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full faith that I’m going to climb Everest this year. I know it was supposed to be next year, but I’m ready. Let’s get it dialed in. And everyone was on board. So we got last minute permits, which are easy to obtain. And my team, if they didn’t believe that I was ready, they would not let me go up there. We developed a relationship. They’re also a very, they’re founded on integrity. This company, I, Aliax, but I have been
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coming with for three years now. And they have made the calls to save my life and the lives of others that they don’t even need to go in and rescue but they go in there risk their lives for other teams. And it’s just such an incredible operation that I knew that if they said, yes, you can do it. I knew I could, we’re gonna make it happen. And so I recalibrated everything and said, okay.
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we’re gonna go for Everest and I started my rotations a week after that. But not everyone should just go in and say, I can do Everest, this was years in the making. I started at a very, 14-er, Mount Shasta was my first mountain and Mount Baker and Hood and Rainier and developing the skills, developing the mindset of waking up at midnight in the freezing cold
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forcing food down you, getting your crampons on, saddling up mentally and just going for it. And those are the hardest days as summit pushes. And once you have all of that dialed in, then sky’s the limit, you can do anything. And yeah, I went for it and ended up reaching the summit eventually. Wow. That’s a…
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crazy target of opportunity that just kind of presents itself. But like you said, had you not done your homework, had you not been prepared and that had been offered to you, you may have made the amateurish egotistical decision and say, yeah, I’ll do it. And then you’re like, I’m not prepared. And I don’t know if people understand the complexity there. There’s technical, this is technical climbing, but there’s also the idea that there are people that don’t understand that.
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If they see the summit or they see that they’re close enough, it’s not as if you just go up, get a couple of pictures, and then all of a sudden everything’s great. You still have to descend. You still have to come down. And I was with 10th Mountain Light Infantry and they were telling us many times, listen, you don’t break your leg on the way up, you break it on the way down. Yeah. That’s, that’s a very valid point. And that’s actually the, one of the most important to focus on, not just
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the summit fever, if you only look at the summit, you’re up for a really, really rude awakening. And I saw it firsthand and it’s people that aren’t in the physical or mental shape to even get themselves up. So when they, you know, scratch their weight, claw their way up the mountain, they don’t understand that it is a.
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very, it’s the highest peak in the world. It’s a very steep mountain. And it takes so much more energy to get down because you’re on a fixed line and you’re ascending up. So you actually have that resistance. You could kind of rely on that on the way up. So you’re kind of doing this dance with walking and ascending up. So you’re using full body. When you’re on the way down, if it’s warm, the snow is melted, it’s slippery.
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you’re coming down, people are coming up, you’re unclipping and you’re going around people. And I’ve seen it where they unclip and they fall off of cornice and it collapsed. And that is actually wrong place, wrong time, but that that’s a possibility. If you are unclipped and you don’t make a conscious decision or a fast, your brain starts to fatigue and you’re not in that right state of mind. So you have to bring yourself back to that focus. And…
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As you’re coming down, you’re holding the rope, your ascender only goes up. So it’s not like you have that resistance going down. Your muscle strength is a resistance. So you’re gripping this rope and you’re summit pushing from camp four summit and you’re actually going all the way down to camp two. So it took me 24 hours straight to get to camp two on summit day. So basically you only stop at camp four to pack up.
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get some tea in you and breathe a bit and maybe like an hour or so, but we were in white out all the way down. So you’re just wanting to get out. And I had blisters on the bottom of my feet. I was limping. You’re already a shallow human. So if you are that going up, I highly recommend just turning around because I’ve seen it where things can go wrong. And when they go wrong, they go really wrong. And
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It’s life or death up there. And you’re not just jeopardizing your own life. You have your team, your Sherpa, the teammates around you. You’re compromising their wellbeing. So you really have to create a focus of, it’s not just me up here. This is a team effort, you know, and that really, I didn’t realize how much strength it.
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it took me to get down to camp two. So once you get to camp two, you sleep maybe like three, four hours and I was like blisters were just throbbing. And you have to go all the way down to base camp the next day. And that was tough because at this time, the Khumbu Icefall, which is the most dangerous part is all these glaciers that are just kind of collapsed and there’s these huge crevasses and ladders.
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And so they’re supposed to be fixed lines through this ice fall. And towards the end of the season, it’s kind of not maintained properly. So they’ve stopped fixing the lines in the way they need to. So some of the ladders are, are now melted out and they’re wobbly. There’s no ropes to hold onto. You’re completely batigued. So it’s actually super dangerous. And a lot of people don’t realize that you have to go through the ice fall to get.
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back to base camp. So there’s a lot of people that hell eat out or they’re just like, I tap, I can’t do this anymore. But it is, you have to be present every moment of that mountain because if you get caught slipping, that’s your life. Yeah, it’s, that’s so crazy. And again, imagine the amount, I mean, I don’t have to tell you to imagine because you experienced it, but for those listening, imagine this massive adrenaline dump. You’re at the top, you’re…
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taking the picture, you’re wahooing, and now you’re like, shit, now I gotta climb down. And then, like you say, because if people have not done that before, they don’t realize it’s so much harder to come back down. It’s so much harder to keep that tension. It’s so much harder to maintain your balance. And then as you were saying, going up 12 hours is tough. Coming back down 12, 14, 20 hours as you had to, that’s even more brutal.
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So in those moments when you wanted to give up, what kept you going? What did you tell yourself? What was your internal dialogue? Well, one, if you give up, you die. So. There’s some motivation. There’s a fight or flight in there as well. Your body’s on peritoneal in as well. But more than anything, it’s the why.
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the why of why we’re doing this. Why are you putting yourself through this torture and this pain and you could easily be on the couch or taking this hot shower or eating a hot soup. You haven’t had like good food in two months and you hadn’t slept in a bed or you haven’t had the simple pleasures of life. And so when your brain goes to a different place, it’s like you really have to restructure and say, this is why.
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I need to get up here for myself. I need to do this and because I know I can’t. There’s this infinite possibility that I could do anything in life. The moment you start believing that again and bringing that gratitude and embracing all of that, I just started loving it. I love the struggle, you know, and you crack a smile, you change your whole physiology, right? It didn’t
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my team and Sherpas in particular, they are always having fun. No matter what, they’re carrying so much weight and they’re true superheroes because they really are carrying so much, you know, oxygen and supplies and all these things. And yeah, they’re born and bred in the mountains, but they’re struggling too. They’re not going to show it, but you know what? They’re laughing, they’re dancing, they’re really keeping their spirit’s light. And I always thought that was
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hilarious until I knew I understood why, why they’re doing that. And it is the mental health. It is the creating that morale around, creating that energy and that transfers to everyone around them. And I saw myself giving that to someone else. So I see someone completely self-burdening. I’m giving out compliments and jokes and you’re really trying to make light of this really heavy situation because it is
50:24
It is so heavy and it’s so like, you just want to watch everyone when they say that, but then you start cracking a smile too. You’re like, okay, that was funny. And you’re just, you know, you’re all in this together. You’re all suffering. People are at their bottom at this point. At the rock bottom, you are just a shell of a human and you’re running on adrenaline. So you really have to redevelop that light mind. And adversity will, has momentum almost like an avalanche. So.
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If you don’t use humor to break that or to stop that, even for a moment, then that will give you that opportunity to stop, breathe, and now take this next step, stop, breathe, make this decision to endeavor on. And like you say, it just is something that we have to do consistently. And this is not your only attempt to Everest, are you going next year?
51:19
I’m not going to Everest, however, I am going to attempt another 8,000 meter peak. Beautiful. It is going to be, I haven’t really announced it yet, it is going to be more technical than Everest. It is going to be a lot tougher in my opinion of what I’ve researched and it’s going to be a whole level up from Mount Everest and a lot of people don’t understand the risks.
51:47
and you know Mount Everest is the most well known because it is the highest. However some of these other peaks are a lot more technical, there’s more avalanche, there’s the weather that comes into factor, the location, how to get there, all the logistics involved. So this particular mountain is going to be definitely, we’ll say Everest is a stepping stone to this mountain. So wow.
52:11
I’ll announce that once I lock it in with everyone and I am really excited. I’ve already started training for it and test visualizing perfect. Yeah so we can all go to miss Kay Perez at Instagram to Learn more about this to see as it develops and then we can even support you there as well, correct? Yes, absolutely. I actually am working with a charity. So searing fund is in Nepal and it is a orphanage that
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is created through donation and it allows both boys and girls to have the opportunity to go through boarding school and have a shot at life. Otherwise, you know, there’s heavy trafficking in Nepal. Over 2,000 girls every year get trafficked and they really get caught into this false marriage and so the Searing Fund actually uprooted and created this opportunity for
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for kids to have a shot at, you know, what they want to dream in this life. They’re free to dream, they’re free to become doctors or nurses or whatever they wanna be. And they have come out of this program, out of these boarding schools and gone to college and become nurses and, you know, have professional life and or show a buzz or whatever they wanted to be in life, they are given this chance at life and opportunity. So,
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I am very passionate about it. So you can actually donate to Searing Fund, 100% of the proceeds go to the fund and the program and the girls. And it is just, you know, I try to go every year and make an impact on, you know, let them know that anything is possible. So not just the monetary donations. I want to really be part of it and immerse in it. So if you feel that something that aligns with you, you want to be part of it, I would love.
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I would love all the help we can get. And can you spell the name of it? The Serene Fund. Serene Fund with a T. It starts with the T silent T S E R I N G. It is on my bio on the bottom. It is a GoFundMe. So 100% of the proceeds will go to the foundation. Outstanding. I cannot thank you enough for your time. I know you’re incredibly busy and you’ve got so much going on, but more importantly, thank you for your demonstration.
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strength and resilience in the face of adversity, because the way that you chose to conduct yourself in the face of adversity is literally changing the lives of others to empower them, to endeavor, to ask more, to chase excellence in every way. So thank you. Thank you. And it’s such an honor to share my story. And it’s only just begun. I can’t wait to share it in the next chapter and just know that anything’s possible in this life. It all starts with you here.
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and have an open mind, open heart to it, and enjoy the process. Absolutely. So thank you, thank you for all the kind words, encouragement, and thank you for the opportunity for me to share. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Acta Non Verba.
