"I'm Breaking Everest's WORLD RECORD in 60 Days (Here's Why)" ft. Oliver Foran | Level Up Podcast

 Oliver Foran is attempting the impossible: breaking the world record for the fastest human-powered journey from sea level to the summit of Mount Everest in just 60 days.

Starting at the Bay of Bengal in India, Ollie will cycle 1,150 kilometers through West Bengal, then trek through the Makalu National Park before summiting the world's tallest mountain. The current record? 67 days. Ollie's aiming for 60.

But this isn't just about breaking records.

After losing his mother to cancer at 16, Ollie struggled with mental health for years before finding his path through adventure and community. Now he's raising funds to build youth mental health gyms across Australia - safe spaces where young people can access help before they reach crisis point. 

Check out Oliver and stay updated on his journey:
🔹https://www.instagram.com/oliverforan/
🔹Climbing for Young Minds Donation - https://youturn.org.au/how-you-can-help/climbing-for-young-minds/

Transcript

New Studio And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_04 0:00

I'm gonna be going into the world uh world record for the fastest unit growing from sea level to the summit of Mount Everest within 60 days. I'll fly over to the Bay of Bengal in India in the state of West Bengal and it would be like that off the moment on the page. I've been by it taking a fit a little bit, but start in the water, it's flipped, falls into a cravat. And I've just got his wife on this drive. I'm doing this for youth mental health here in Australia. It's a mindset and it's a decision to improve your life, and you can make that at any moment.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

G'day guys, welcome back to another episode of Level Up. We are in the new studio today. So uh this is a second podcast in the new studio. We're still getting a few things figured out, but um, I'm pretty bloody pumped to be honest. We'll um I'm looking forward to getting all our new signage and some neon lights and bits and pieces, but as always, we have an absolute cracker for you today. Um, and look, a massive shout out to uh a good mate of mine and one of our Live Life Build members, um Sam Carroll, for introducing me to today's guest. Um I I'm a little bit unsure how to introduce this bug today because I'm like the rest of you, I'm super interested to find out more about him and how he's managed to do what he is doing. But um, today is something very different. So today we have with us Ollie, who is a full-time adventurer and thrill seeker. So um Ollie's come from uh fibre optics and had a bit of success in real estate. But mate, how the hell do you get into full-time adventuring? Yeah, mate, um honestly spend a lot of money on it. Um honestly if I I'm keen to know how you afford to be a full-time adventurer.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've been lucky, like I do have uh a couple sponsors, um, and I still do dabble from time to time in the real estate world. Uh it's just something I enjoy and I think it's a cool industry. But I put a lot on the line quite fast to do this, um, and I was happy to do to do that because my whole mindset about it was you know, I have a crack, I try to chase a dream, it works out amazing. It doesn't. I'm back in Brisbane

Ollie’s Path: Sport, Loss, And Resilience

SPEAKER_04 2:28

doing real estate or a trade or something, and mate, it's not that bad either.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

So yeah, yeah. So we'll we're definitely we're gonna dive pretty deep into why Ollie's doing what he's doing and what he does, but um Ollie's actually on a mission to break a world record, so we'll come back to that in a minute. But mate, can you just give us a little bit of lead up to where you are now? Like, I guess if you want to start from sort of back at your schooling and and your career up until now.

SPEAKER_04 2:53

Yeah, definitely. So schooling, I was at Iona College and absolutely loved it there. Really normal childhood. Um, had mum and dad that loved me. We weren't the richest family out there, but had an awesome, awesome time growing up, kicking the soccer ball pretty much every day, chasing my brother and sister around, so that was awesome. And then went so Iona College, fantastic, from about year eight to year 12. And at school was just super sporty, always training for something, didn't know that it was gonna be Mount Everest, but at the time it was soccer, and basically, yeah, had a great time. But in year 11, had some pretty hard times. Uh my mum got sick kind of randomly and um found out that she had a stage four uh brain cancer, which rocked everyone's world and the family, and um within it was about a six month period, she passed away to that. Yeah, sorry to hear that, mate. Oh, thanks, man. Um yeah, so that that really like switched things up quite fast. Uh it was like, you know, the carpet just gets ripped out from under you instantly and you're just paddling up up creek from there. So that was a really hard time of my life. Uh year 12, I still like went to school and worked hard and stuff like that, but it was a bit of a write-off to be honest. Um, like my life changed pretty majorly. And then after school, I was um super lucky. I got a scholarship to go play soccer over in the States.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

So went over there to chase a dream. I reckon I was a bit young. Uh we we played it awesome seasons. The season went for about four months, but then the rest of the time I was there, it was just college life. Play on as always. Yeah. So a lot of um, a lot of partying, a lot of like the frat movies, which is good.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Um so how how did that come about? Like, obviously, you're very good to get it to get a scholarship to go over there.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we were just I wanted to go over there. Like I had a mate who was a bit older than me that went over there and he was telling me all about it, and that um that inspired me big time. And then we just put the feelers out. Uh film I had a lot of my games filmed as well. And I was playing in the National Premier League from about 16 in Australia, and um sent it over and got a few offers for scholarships, which I wish I focused more on the learning back then because I feel like I'd be a bit better equipped now. But um, yeah, went over and had a great time, yeah, which is good. And from there, uh came back after a year, and that's when I got into a trade.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Hey guys, we have got a huge announcement to make if you're a builder, or more importantly, the wife or partner of a builder in the construction industry. We are having a huge seminar on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of March, and you do not want to miss this. Live Life Build has events every single year, but we are making this one bigger and better than ever before. It's going to be an event across three days, and we've got an incredible lineup of guest speakers, mentors, and coaches to cover everything from imposter syndrome, building your confidence, estimating, uh, building software, holistic health, leadership, systems and processes, like you name it. This seminar is all about better businesses, better projects, and better life. So stay tuned, go to the Live Life Build website or go to the Live Life Build Instagram page or even my personal Instagram page. Stay tuned for the ads, click the links, and I look forward to seeing you at this event. You do not want to miss this one. What sort of trade did you get into?

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Yeah, so I I was um started basically in fibre optics and data, and I did that for two years. I absolutely loved it. I think that really taught me a work ethic because there are some hot days up on that roof.

Trade To Real Estate To Adventure

SPEAKER_04 6:47

It was brutal sometimes. Um, but yeah, we worked on everything. It was aged care focus, but new sites, um, some old sites as well, they were super interesting. You don't know what you'd come up with. You'd um start the day with a clean shirt and you'd end with a bunch of stuff all over you from some of the oldies sometimes. So it was interesting, but I really enjoyed it. I had a great boss too. Um, so he taught me a lot about working hard and you know, just putting others first, and yeah, it was a great experience.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

It's a bit of a uh change, mate, from going overseas to play soccer and then coming back and sweating off in hot hot roos playing cables.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

Yeah, I know, I know, it was humbling. But no, it was it was all part of the journey. Um, and like that my whole family are tradies, um, so it's just part of the blood to be honest, and I was happy to do it.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

And um, so I did that, got my got my ticket, and um did that a little bit after the ticket, but then I met a guy at my football club back home, and he gave me an opportunity in real estate. So I took the leap and started in real estate uh just about probably two and a half years after doing the trade, and yeah, I was off and away. And and so you became a real estate salesperson here in Brisbane? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here in Brisbane. So down in the Redlands I started, yeah, and then uh started building a business, uh, had a business partner come in as well, so we worked together, which was great, and yeah, did that for five years and got a lot from that. I really enjoyed that journey, which is good.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

So you had your own little branch, did you?

SPEAKER_04 8:29

Yeah, yeah, it was we had our own team. So uh within Harcourts, yeah, yeah, we had a team, it was called Team Foreign, and um yeah, mate, we sold heaps of properties, which is unreal. Well, you picked a good time to get into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was actually like in the midst of COVID, hey. Yeah. I took that leap, um, which actually worked out to be a really good time. It was scary, and like my whole family was telling me, like, nah, don't do it, it's not worth it. Times are uncertain, but just listen to intuition and it like it worked out, which was cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah, awesome. So, yeah, take us to now. Like, how do you so how do you go from real estate? Yeah, so you you must have always had some sort of thirst for adventure, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:08

So the whole time I've always been training for something. Um, and my weekends were spent, you know, four-wheel driving on Stratty or you know, going for a hike through the glasshouse mountains or just somewhere. Like I was never just stationary at home, I was always out doing something, and my love for adventure really grew uh after real estate. So, about five years into my real estate career, I was in my mid-20s and I just decided you know what, I'm just gonna have a crack. I just want to like see what else is out there in the world and just go traveling. So I ended up selling my part of the business to my business partner and stepping away, and then just I I flipped the property at the same time and started a little bit of cash, and I was like, Alright, I'm just gonna go see where I see where I end up. Yeah, and um that's when I took a flight over to Madrid and just started traveling from there, and that like taking that leap and just going out there, that really ignited my love for for adventure. And like sometimes I'd be staying in like a hotel and an Airbnb, but most of it was like a hostel or a tent, and I'd be somewhere random in a country like Morocco or Indonesia, absolutely having a great time.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

So, how long did you do that for?

SPEAKER_04 10:27

Yeah, so I travelled solidly for three months, and I started in Europe, then I went over to Africa, then I flew for a friend's wedding to Indonesia, and after that wedding, I went to Vietnam, and in Vietnam I met this. I was actually rock climbing on this little island off Vietnam in the South China Sea, and I met this uh this American, he's a mountain

The Sea-To-Summit Everest Record Plan

SPEAKER_04 10:51

guide, and we just hit it off like anything. We just started chatting, and he's telling me all these wild stories about the big mountains, and I was like, that's pretty sick. I'd love to try that. And um, yeah, eventually he's just like, Why don't you try that? And we spent about two weeks together, and I was like, you know what? I am gonna try that. So I booked a one-way ticket over to Nepal, and that was the start of this journey I'm on now, which is epic. Nah, I'm perfect position to do it.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Yeah, oh mate, like it's that's incredible. Like, I I take my hat off to people that are just courageous enough to just take the leap and have a crack. Like, it's just it's so exciting, you never know what where the world's gonna take you. Yeah, exactly. And I'm sure you met some incredible people on the way, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

Oh mate, and that's like that's half the fun, right? It's just you don't know who you're gonna meet or where you're gonna meet them, but you make so many lifelong friends just out there in the trails on an adventure, doing something because everyone's like-minded, and everyone's there just for the absolute love of it, and just to get outdoors and live that kind of life.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Yeah, yeah. You're you're obviously a very committed person because you're not holding back, but this is a pretty serious record attempt you're trying to do.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

Yeah, definitely, definitely. And it's taken all of me. Like I've been training for about six months solidly, just with this one goal in mind. So, what what's the tell the listeners, mate, what's the record? Yeah, so in April, May this year, I'm gonna be going for the world's uh world record for the fastest human power journey from sea level to the summit of Mount Everest within 60 days. 60 days. I'm aiming for 60 days. And what's the current record? 67 days.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

Yeah, so I've given myself a week of leeway, but 60's around number and it looks good, so that's what we're gonna be aiming for. And so where where will that start? Like, yeah, so it'll start. I'll fly over to the Bay of Bengal in India, in the state of West Bengal, and it'll be like, you know, that David Hasselhoff moment on the beach. I'll be in the budgie smugglers, taking the piss a little bit, but yeah, no, so it'll start in the water, um, and then yeah, I'll come out and I'll ride 1,150 kilometres north through West Bengal. On a pushy. On a pushy, yeah, yeah. So I'm trying aiming to do that between 11 to 15 days. It just depends on road conditions and everything like that. So we're averaging about 100Ks a day. Not over there, I've ridden in Nepal, so I've done quite a bit of training last year in Nepal. Yeah. But yeah, plenty here in Australia, uh, and that's part of the adventure, right? So then what we'll do is we'll get to the foothills of Mount Everest and we'll arrive there uh in a little town called Bung, and I'm gonna jump off the bike there, and that's when I'm gonna meet uh my climbing partner, and then what we're gonna do is we're gonna start the trek into I guess the Himalaya, which would be great. But instead of going the usual Everest base camp route, because you did base camp, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yeah, yeah, so we're gonna.

SPEAKER_04 13:53

Well, I didn't cheat, that's it. That's the only way I knew to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's solid art. Um, but yeah, instead of going in that way, I'm gonna come in the back way and um go through the Makalu National Park there and kind of pop out the back side of Everest and then come around to base camp from there. So I was we were told when we were over there that the back way is a lot harder than the way we went. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's just it's not as developed. Yeah, it hasn't had the infrastructure there yet, which is part of the reason why we want to go in that way. It is more direct, but we are filming a documentary, and we just thought that that way is just gonna be magical. It's gonna film well, it's also challenging, and this whole expedition is just about absolutely challenging myself for youth mental health. Like that, that's what we're aiming to do. And I just show people that if you really put your mind to something, anything is possible. Have you climbed Everest before? I've climbed most of the mountains around it, so I haven't climbed Everest, so this is going to be new for me. But I've climbed a really, really big technical mountain called Amadablam. Uh, you would have walked past that one.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:02

Yeah, and I did that uh about May last year.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

So that was um super technical mountain. I was also helping and guiding a friend on Lennon Peak, which is a 7,000 metre mountain, and that was August last year. Yeah, so I've been leading into it, which has been good.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

It's crazy, mate. Like I I love my adventure. We um I promised myself after doing base camp that I would do at least one big adventure every single year, and we obviously

Back Route Via Makalu And Purpose

SPEAKER_00 15:27

got um put off for those few years through um COVID, but we have done that this year. Um Shay and a couple of Livelot Bill members and some mates um are going to Dakota. Um but next week I go off with Glenazar. We're uh doing the Aussie 10, so it's the top ten highest mountains in Australia in two days. That's solid. But um, mate, they're all they they're all over 2,000 metres, but they're all within 50 kilometres of each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh like it's just Australia's just obviously different. Like, and it absolutely blew my mind when I went over to Nepal. Like, I'd I didn't know what to expect. Like you see it on documentaries and things, and like obviously, what's there, it's 8,600, 700 and something? 8848. Yeah, and um like I just in my mind I just had that from a distance you would just see this enormous mountain. But myself and most people don't understand, like it every single mountain in the pool is huge, massive, yeah. Like like Everest is here, but then you got another one that's just under it, and then like there's hundreds of them, and so you're up in altitude for a long time.

SPEAKER_04 16:38

Yeah, and the wild thing about Everest is once you get to base camp, you actually can't see it, which is you would have experienced as well. Yeah, because there's so many big peaks in front of it, you know, there's Lotse there, which is 8,500, you got an upsey, which is just shy of 8,000, and like it all drowns seeing Everest out. The only time I got a good look at Everest was or two times Everest View Hotel, which you would have checked it out, yeah, and on the summit of Amadabla. Yeah, so it's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

I think it's an incredible place, mate. I I'm really looking forward to following your journey, and I I have no doubt you're gonna kill it. But um, that whole environment, like this, like that last night. Um I forget the last little village that you stay at before you get to base camp. Like you're you're basically sleeping on a glacier, and like all night you can just hear the ice cracking and moving, and yeah, yeah. And then um we actually got to base camp sort of right at the end of the season. There were there was literally just some piles of gear and that they were sort of still getting out of there. Yeah. Um, and there was an enormous like we just heard this I can't even explain the noise. I it was just like this massive cracking, and um yeah, it's pretty much like thunder. And like we'd turn around and like up in one of the valleys, there's just this enormous avalanche, and like the guides like it's okay, it's a long way away. Like, but it's just it's an incredible environment to be in. Um, yeah, I wish I was coming with you. Yeah, but um welcome to mate, what's it for? Like, tell us what you're doing this for.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Yeah, yeah. So I'm doing this for youth mental health uh here in Australia. That is what we're building this whole project for. So I always, since I started I started mountaineering, wanted to do Everest. It was always, you know, the apple of my eye. It's where I wanted to head with my career in this space. And I wanted it to do it for someone bigger than myself. Now, when I lost my mum to cancer, I didn't really know how to deal with that being a young fella, and I just internalized. I didn't know who to talk to, what to say, or how to say it. And seven years later it bit me on the ass because I hadn't spoken about it and I hadn't dealt with any of the trauma. And I had some really dark thoughts,

First Big Peaks And Altitude Lessons

SPEAKER_04 18:52

but I was super lucky that I had a community in place. They caught me, got me the help I needed, and then started to set me on a better path. But what I realized is, especially after talking to U-turn, a lot of people aren't that fortunate. And it's not until they reach crisis point that they actually get offered any help at all. So through this expedition, we're gonna be raising money to build uh alongside U-turn, which is the charity partner that I'm working with, to build youth mental health gyms here in Australia. The first one's gonna be in Southeast Queensland.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 19:24

And we're gonna try to prove the model so then hopefully everything going well and we get you know a big enough coverage, then we can prove it nationally. And um, instead of meeting people at crisis point, we want to meet them where they are before they reach that, and that's the idea behind these gyms and to get them involved sweating outdoors as well. So we'll take some adventures from there and just really build a community. So when things do get hard, they've got people that they can now rely on. And the idea is all the um the gym workers are gonna be mental health workers as well, so there's gonna be a real big safety net, which would be great.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

It's probably something that's needed more and more now, like given that a lot of like the amount of time that we all spend on social media and um just avoiding real connection, real conversations. Definitely. I'm massive about vulnerability, mate. Like we're there's been plenty of conversation on this podcast with tears and people um being vulnerable. And I'm I'm a big believer that the more vulnerable you are, like that I I used to call it the floodgates open, like you can really start to become your true self once you let trauma out. Definitely. Um that's a pretty incredible story, like because obviously dealing with the death of your mum. Um so what, grade 11? You're like, what's that, sixteen? Yeah, I was sixteen. Um yeah, it's hard, eh? Like yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

The um it was it was shit as. But like when it all happened, because like so she went into a coma um for a few months, and like we didn't know because she was in a coma, but she kept having seizure after seizure after seizure. So then when she came out of the coma, she didn't have any like motor skills or general functions or anything. And that was one of the most breaking moments, is like knowing that I'm probably never gonna have like a a proper uh conversation with my mum again. And yeah, so that really rattled me. And then when she passed, it was just so peaceful, but it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I was like, man, like I'm never gonna see my mum again. And that um that was heartbreaking, man. That was really heartbreaking. But my brother and sister, so I was in the room when mum passed, and my brother and sister were downstairs, and this was in a Nazareth house, and I remember being told, like, you gotta go and look after your brother and sister, you have to let them know that this just happened. I remember uh taking this elevator down to the bottom of the Nazareth's house and I was just trying to comprehend what just happened. Could hear an ambulance coming and knowing like I had to go and have a conversation with my little brother and my little sister. And trying to like juggle those three things happening like all at once was wild. So I just did like what my default setting was, and it was just to kind of like basically step in the back of my mind and then just try. Where's your old man? It was in with mum. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um so yeah, man, that was hard.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

That's that's uh it's not something that a 16-year-old should have to um go through or or deal with. Yeah. So like how's your your siblings now, your brother and sister? Yeah, good, good, mate. They've um remarkable.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Like, especially my little brother, because he was nine. So like we got good years, right? And but he was still so young and still very impressionable. So yeah, for he's like a he's a landscaper now, and he's just out there enjoying his mates, but yeah, obviously like went through a hard

Adventure As Catalyst For Business And Life

SPEAKER_04 23:05

path. I'm super proud of what how he's made it out, and same with my sister. My sister's an incredible person, she finished university, she's now an interior designer. So yeah, I'm super proud of both of them for getting through that. Yeah. Um, and you never really like through it, I think, either. You learn to live with it and you learn to kind of do good from it and do good because of it. But yeah, I'm proud of it, man.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Yeah, it's awesome, mate. It's awesome. So what what's some um things that you've learned to deal with it? Because I I guess it it doesn't matter whether you're you're 16, you're 40, you're 10, like at some point in our lives we all deal with people passing away. Yeah. Um, and like you pointed out that it took you until your mid to late twenties to deal with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um I feel like there'd be a lot of people that listen to this podcast that have bottled it up and and possibly haven't dealt with dealt with the trauma of uh having someone pass away.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Mate, I guess, and like I'm not a mental health professional, but what it took me a long time to realise this and what helps me, and this is what I try to do with other people and try to speak about as much as possible, is the hardest thing for you to do is have the first conversation. And we really like as humans need community and we need to find who our community is, and we can all do that. Like, you can do that if you're listening to this in your car, if you're at home. Just have a think about it and be like, who who do I trust? Who is I know if I call, they will pick up or at least call me back. They're your people. Yeah. And just go and have a genuine conversation with one of them because this conversation works two ways. One, you share a problem, so you just halved it. The second is you've probably just inspired them to go and have a conversation as well. Or maybe they've opened the door to having a conversation with you about what they're struggling with. And especially as young men, we think we've just got to keep head down, marching forwards, and you know, it's fine, it's all good. But everyone feels mate, everyone's got emotions, everyone's got a heart, everyone's got good inside them. So it's important to just you know, let the guard down and go have a conversation with someone you trust. And that's the first step, because the first one's always the hardest into building, I guess, a better, a better mental um yeah, yeah, mental health mindset.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

So with the um with the gyms that you're raising money to um get off the ground, like is that like there'll only be a like an age group to or an age limit to sort of who can come to those gyms or so the focus of it will be 12 to 25, because that's I feel like where we can make the most impact and probably where we need to really focus in.

SPEAKER_04 26:02

But there's not going to be a cap, no. Um we want anyone and everyone to come and have a chat and just work on bettering themselves.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Yeah, yeah. Because like physical exercise is a good way to deal with stress and anxiety, and um just getting the blood moving, getting the body feeling feeling good, like it benefits everyone. Like, and if you I guess if you're doing that with you at the same time that you're surrounding yourself with um like-minded people, I I think it's only a good thing. Yeah, um this like ever Everest was a well basecamp, I'm not gonna say Everest, Basecamp um was a turning point in my life. Like I was um so I was in my mid to yeah, mid to late 30s, um, and like my early 30s were the hardest time of my life. Like we um late 20s, early 30s, like I had a business that was almost went bankrupt and nearly lost everything, and I sort of um had had turned around and was working out of that. But and then since I'd left school, like I'd never and even at school, like I was never a really um sporty person, like it my sport it had to it had to have a motor. Like um, I was never really interested in running or bloody kicking balls and all that sort of shit. I played a bit of football, did a bit of tennis and stuff, but and so that when a mate asked me to go to base camp, um, and I've talked about it on this podcast before, like I definitely didn't do very well at school, but um he's like, I'm I'm gonna go to base camp. I need a challenge, and it's it's at Mount Everest. And I'm like, oh beauty, where's that? Like I didn't know where it was. Um and uh it was definitely a turning point in my life because it the the the hike itself, like the three weeks that we were away, was incredible. Like the the friendships made, the the locals we met, like it was amazing. But it was the biggest thing I took away from it was the lead up to it. So like for eight months, just mates that I was already talking to, but on it was never it wasn't the same. Like you'd call and

Kyrgyzstan Rescue Scare And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_00 28:12

or you'd have a beer every now and then, or maybe too many beers, or you'd pick up the phone and say, let's how you going? But just doing training with them, like getting out, walking, talking, like sharing just day-to-day shit, yeah, like just did me a world of good, and I became addicted to it. And I still tell people now, like, if someone had told me for the first 30 years of my life that you should get out and go hiking, you're gonna like the outdoors, I would have told them to go jump. Like, unless it's got an engine, I'm not interested in it. But yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it now, and I I'm almost probably a little bit addicted to it, and I'm definitely keen to talk to you about teaming up and let's doing it, do some level up adventures.

SPEAKER_04 28:53

But um, yeah, mate, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

It's and so this year, like part of Live Life Building our um our elevate community. Like, I'm introducing adventures, so part of our yearly schedule will be um taking our members on um regular adventures. Nice, and so we've actually got one coming the first one's coming up next week. Uh, like I said, we're doing the the uh Aussie 10 with Glenn. And just seeing, so we've set up a a little WhatsApp group for the the guys that are coming on that trek, and just seeing the commitment, like I think that's the thing, like once you commit to a challenge like that, yeah, you have to put in some effort. And I really I guess probably um have to give that base camp trip some credit to why I've got all the businesses and I've had all the the good fortune that I've had so far because a trekker I think is exactly the same as a business. Like if you like if you wanted to do this um record attempt and you didn't do any training and you just went out there and tried to to do it. Look like a turkey. You're gonna look like a turkey, you're gonna get injuries because you haven't trained, you're gonna be underprepared, and ultimately you're gonna fail. Yeah. Or you could accomplish it, but it it's gonna be very difficult. Definitely. But if you put in the training, you talk to the right people, you get the right advice, as you said, you hang around the right community, there's a 99.9% chance that you're gonna kill this thing and smash it out of the park. And it's no different to business. Yeah. Like, if you get into a business, and this is I did this for the first 10 or 12 years, like if you're just flogging your ass, putting your boots on every day, just hoping that things are gonna get better and improve, you're literally just working your ass off, just hoping for the best, and just thinking that turnover's everything, the reality is you're gonna fail. But if you put in the effort, you do some training, you talk to the right people, you surround yourself with the right community, you you're gonna win. Yeah, like so. Yeah, I think it's fantastic, mate, what you're doing, and I um I can't wait to, like I said, follow you and see where you where you end up with it.

SPEAKER_04 31:01

But definitely, um I've just got something to add to that as well. Like, so what you've done now with regimenting these adventures is genius because one thing when we're all in business and we're all working hard towards stuff, you don't take time to stop and smell the roses. And having these scheduled out adventures kind of forces and builders, mate, they're busy as anything, forces people to go and actually smell the roses, take the time away from the business, breathe, and just realise how far you've come and what you've actually done and accomplished so far. Yeah, so I think it's a great idea, and we were talking about it before the potty as well. Being outdoors, it changes people's mindsets, it changes people's perspective. Yeah, it's so important.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

And I think there's like I definitely so in our Everest uh when we went to Base Camp, the um like there's probably four um blokes in the group that I didn't know. Yeah, and so it was very interesting seeing um like we all had businesses, we all like we we paid for choppers to fly in and out of Lookler, and we paid for a chopper to fly us back from base camp to Lookla, so we didn't have to walk back. Um, or it was just a time thing, yeah, yeah. Um mate, that walk back is tough. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm I'm I obviously didn't know at the time, but mate, I'm glad I did because yeah, walking if I had to walk down what we'd just walked up, it was um man, my knees would have been flogged. But but um just seeing how different people react to different things, deal with different things, yeah. Um it was very confronting seeing like we had uh I was the only one in our group that didn't really struggle with the altitude sickness, and I I put that down to um like I got asthma when I was very young, yeah, or up until my early 20s, and I I didn't have it when I went on that trip, but I I took my um venelin just in case. And up in the altitude I did start feeling a bit wheezy, so I was taking my venelin, and I think the vent that opened my airways and gave me more oxygen, but um yeah, it was pretty confronting seeing grown men like in the fetal position on the ground, like telling us to tell their wives and kids that they love them and all that sort of stuff, and it really opened my eyes up to think like that's how quick your life can change. Oh it was drop of a pin, mate, like snap of the fingers so fast. And so you gotta make the most of every single bloody minute, like it's yeah, it's pretty simple. Definitely.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

I um like my first time of an altitude was not pretty, let's just say that. I um I was at Loboche,

Getting Started With Adventure And Mindset

SPEAKER_04 33:47

and we'd been moving quickly, and we're like, alright, let's punch out Lobouche to Everest Base Camp and let's see how fast we can get there. And so the sh the guide I was with was like, okay, way too confident, way too confident. And I just took out like a bullets out of the gates and just started moving way too fast, not taking my time. I got to base camp and my vision just went blurry, started vomiting, and the altitude just like fully humbled me, completely humbled me. I had to actually get this is my first ever uh trek to base camp. I had to get a horse back down, back down to Dingbo She. So like, well, that's like three villages down, yeah, and I had to rest there for two days before I went and climbed my first 6,000 meter peak. And I just remember I was like, I'm gonna take everything a little bit slower from here on in. Yeah. Because that's the thing, like, and we say this in mountaineering is like go slow to go far. If you just try and huck it out the gates and move quickly, you will get humbled eventually. Go slow, acclimatize properly, and that's been my ethos ever since with all the climbing I've done is just slow it down, slow it down, let your body take time to adjust because it needs to, and just yeah, enjoy the journey.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

That's a great um statement for business too, mate. Like go slow, go far. Yeah, like it's it's the same thing. So, how many mountains have you climbed?

SPEAKER_04 35:16

Yeah, so above the 6,000, I've climbed four major ones, and then under 6,000 a heap. Yeah, because some of the expeditions I went on last year, we would climb like 5,000 meter peaks just to train. Um, so for example, I was on expedition, I was guiding a friend of mine on a peak in Kyrgyzstan in August last year called Lenin Peak, and wild story from there. So we got to base camp, and base camp in Kyrgyzstan is not like Nepal, it's just like this lush green valley, river running through it, horses everywhere, like it's proper Mongolian. I loved it. Yeah, I loved it. I felt like Angus Khan.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

And it sounds like I want to go there, mate. Base camp at Everest like uh it's the closest thing, I guess, to the moon. I get I think like stones and ice, so arid, hey, it's it's insane.

SPEAKER_04 36:09

Um but yeah, and then so we're at base camp. Base camp's about 3,800 metres, and the summit of Lennon Peaks 7,100. So there's a it's quite a big climb there. And I'm with my Russian body, and everyone there was Russian. So I was the odd one out speaking English. I had no idea what anyone was saying at any moment. So I was relying on him with the language, but we ended up acclimatizing. We climbed a few smaller peaks nearby just to really and we went and spent a night on top of one as well, and we were going to do this unsupported, and we acclimatised really well. We did a rotation uh on the rotation. We got some bad weather, so we had to come down a little bit shy of where we wanted to get height-wise on the rotation, and we came back, we rested for a few days, and then we went back to camp one. And now camp one's at about four and a half thousand metres, the summit's 7,100. We get there and we go check in with a mountain uh rescue guy, and he's this old Russian mountaineer. And we walk into his tent, he'd polished off a bottle of vodka, and he's on his second, it's 3 p.m. in the Avo. And we start chatting to him, and he just like starts saying in Russian, which I didn't know at the time, which I was thankful for. But he starts telling my friend, like, I'm done for the year. If you guys want to go, I'll come get your bodies next year, and just fully cycling my mate out. But I walked away because I had no idea what he was saying. So I'm like going preparing all the gear and everything like that. Then my mate comes out, he's like, We can't go. I'm like, why not? And he's like, Oh, this Russian guy told us we're gonna die if we go. And I was like, Why? And he's like, because he doesn't want to help us. So I'm like, Alright, whatever, mate. Um, I'm gonna go talk to a Sherpa, you come with me, we'll see what they think. And the Sherpa's like, it's fine, it's fine. Like, we'll go up, it'll be all good. So I convinced him, and I'm like, Alright, we we worked this hard to get to this point, we're going on this summit push now, let's do it. So we started out at about midnight, we're going through the glacier, and then about a few hours into the glacier, there's this massive hundred meter high ice wall, and just before we reach the ice wall, my mate's cramp-on breaks, which are like crampons, uh, the spikes on our feet to keep us from slipping. So

Training, Breathwork, And Daily Discipline

SPEAKER_04 38:24

I take it off, I try to fix it with him, we fix it. Thank god for the trade background, and a multi-tool, and then put it back on. We start climbing, and we get about halfway up this um ice wall and it breaks again, and we're on our own. It's probably like thr or 4 a.m. at this point, like it's late, uh sorry, early, early. And I say to him, I'm like, mate, you've got the radio. Can you radio back to Camp One, the mountain rescue guy, and let him know that we're coming back to get some new gear? And he's like, Yep. Checks his pockets, he's lost the radio. Yeah, and I'm like, You're kidding me. So I did what like I'd been trained to do, and I tied into like a short rope, and I lowered him back down first, sorry, and then I tied into a short rope with him, and we started crossing the glacier, but he had one cramp on less, so he was really relying on one foot. About five minutes in, it's still very dark, he slips, falls into a crevasse, and I've just got his weight on this rope, but he didn't knock himself out, luckily, so he was still conscious, and like we got him out of the crevasse. Um, but what happened was he fell through like an ice sheet and it was running water underneath, and he was drenched, and it's about minus 15 degrees outside. So, in that moment, had to like strip him off, put my summit gear, which I had on me luckily, on him, and start like walking him back to base camp. And um, mate, we got him back, he didn't lose any toes and fingers, luckily, thanks to duct tape. It's um great insulator. Um, and yeah, that was like one of my like wildest mountaineering moments. It was we didn't end up summoning that year because of the incident, and then I didn't have a partner to climb again with. Um, but I think from that expedition, I learned invaluable lessons about mountaineering and about being in these very wild, adventurous situations and how you react to pressure. I think when you get in those situations, you learn a lot about yourself, and it gives you the confidence then to go bite off something a bit bigger the next time. Yeah. You read um Dick Smith's book?

SPEAKER_00 40:30

Dick Smith's, yeah. I was reading it on that trip. I I think that's awesome. He um he inspires me. He uh he's an awesome Aussie. But um mate, like how do you like that? Yeah, that's an all incredible story. Like I um I just can't imagine being in that situation where you're like it's literally you could die. Like it's pretty full on.

SPEAKER_04 40:56

Yeah, it um it was scary, definitely. But what was wild was like didn't really get scared, kind of just kicked into like what your training is, what your preparation is, and alright, this you know has been bought up in the past, this is what you do here. You get the wet clothes off them, you try put dry ones on, you insulate the feet, you put some hand warmers in with the feet and the hands, and you try to keep them warm. And like it's like anything in business, it just goes back to the preparation, goes back to what you've learned, what's in your med kit, what's in your backpack, alright, you got duct tape, sweet, let's use that. So I think, yeah, so many like you know links to life there as well, right?

SPEAKER_00 41:38

So, what would what would you say to someone that's listening that thinks they like a bit of adventure and stuff and wants to have a go at something?

SPEAKER_04 41:46

I'd say just go out and do something, you know what I mean? Like, and it didn't start for me like Blend and Peak or now this expedition from sea level to the summit of Everest, like it definitely didn't start like that. It started just by getting outdoors. Like for me, like my first adventures probably going camping with my family, you know what I mean? Going like we had a wilderness camp in year 10 where I reckon that was some of the wildest camping I'd ever done. Um, but it's just getting outdoors, finding the time to do it, and like even though we are time poor, we always have time.

Solo Riding, Crew, And Fuel Strategy

SPEAKER_04 42:20

You can always make time for something you care about, and just going and doing it, buying a tent, going and setting it up on a beach somewhere, just start to transition your life outside a little bit, get used to it, find the enjoyment in it, and then build from there.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

I think where my um passion's coming from now is I I definitely love the adventure, I love the adrenaline, I love the ch I definitely love the challenge, but it's also a huge part of it is just the locations that you can get to by hiking. There's no other way to get there. No, um, yeah, I've like I said, I can't wait to Kokoda, like just to get in the jungle and see where we end up there. Um, we've done a fair bit of hiking down around Milford in New South uh in New Zealand, so it's just the the noises, like that was probably a big thing for me, like coming from just loving all types of motorsport and just having engine screaming all the time, to literally just be walking along listening to the wind and the the possible like water or the birds or the animals, like yeah, and to be honest, you're your own thoughts. Yeah. Like just taking that time out to just I think I've become very um I don't know, I'm just I'm just humble within myself. Like I think and I think that's important. Like a lot of people miss that these days. Like they think that they've got to be flat out all the time, they've got to be connected all the time. Like it it's such a well, my opinion is it's a very Horrible way to live. Like if you're you've got to be happy to be yourself.

SPEAKER_04 44:04

Oh, big time. Do you think now you are more successful because of it?

SPEAKER_00 44:08

100%.

SPEAKER_04 44:09

Yeah. And and it it doesn't like where before you did this, it felt counterintuitive, right? Yeah. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

I can um even just on the training walks that I've been doing for the last few months, mate, um, leading up to this this one next week and then Kakoda in April, I am completely okay with going on a 20k walk on my own. Um I take my dog most of the time, but nice. Um I don't I don't have my phone. Like I have my phone in my pocket, but I don't listen to anything, I don't have ear pods in. Um and I just I can come back from a three, well, even a 45-minute walk, but um I can come up with so much structure, so many ideas, so much clarity in that time. So the f a lot of the time the first thing I do after I get back from a from a hike is journaling. Yeah. Um and just make sure I don't lose those incredible ideas that I've come up with, like write them down, or um some of my team members hate it because they know they know if I've been training because they I smash them with Slack messages or emails. But um, yeah, just for me, it just gives me so much clarity. Yeah. And um I just yeah, you gotta find the next thing to aim for. But it's definitely helped me out with all my businesses. I I definitely believe I wouldn't be as successful as I am now if I wasn't doing uh locking those adventures in. And yeah, like through I guess that COVID period, like we did very well, we survived it, we got through it, businesses went good, but I felt like there was this um it just got stale, yeah. Like lost a bit of drive and things, and now the adventures are back, and then I like we locked Cakoda in probably over 12 months ago now, and then um last year I was like, Oh, I just it's too far away. Like I need I need something now. So then last year Shane and I did the um the 48k Cocada challenge, so that gave me something to aim for, and then that's the one on the Gold Coast? Uh we did the one up at Kennelworth. Kennelworth, yeah, yeah, nice. Oh man, it flogged us. Like it was um Is that like a solid push that one? Oh man, 48k in 48k's we did like 2600 metres of elevation and um and descent, and uh we were slow.

Culture, Food, And Respect In The Himalaya

SPEAKER_00 46:35

We did it in just under th or just over 13 hours. Man, that's solid art. In the rain. Moon for eight hours.

SPEAKER_04 46:41

Uh it rained for eight, yeah. But um when the rain comes, it it changes things, doesn't it? Yeah, adds that extra layer of complexity big time.

SPEAKER_00 46:50

Yeah, but even with that, like you You can't do anything about it.

SPEAKER_04 46:54

Nah, you just gotta keep tracking along.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

Yeah, you just gotta get it done. Yeah, yeah. Um so mate, how how what's your preparation for this record attempt?

SPEAKER_04 47:02

Like, yeah, yeah, um I'll go into a bit of detail. So I got back from that Lennon Peak expedition, um, and I was really lucky. About four months last year was spent above 5,000 metres. I spent a lot of time at altitude, so I learned a lot of good lessons there, and came back to Australia, and because of all the experience, I knew exactly what I needed to train, I knew what my weaknesses were up there, and just started like going towards it. So I really realized quickly that I needed to build endurance and I could only take so much load on my knees. So the best way to build endurance without hurting yourself was cycling. So I bought a bike, got on the bike, and actually I jumped on a gym bike first for like a solid few months there, and then got to the road bike and then just started punching out Ks and building like quite a big base. So that was the first thing I did. Then I did the typical mountaineering training. Uh you spend hours on the Stairmaster with weight on, you spend hours on the stairmaster with your big boots on and just getting comfortable with all of that, and that's kind of something I'd been doing for the whole year. So I built on that. Then I realized a lot of people go wrong in mountaineering when they freak out. It's when your heart rate increases and you don't have any way to regulate. So a really big focus was then breath work. So I'm I'm doing breath work every day. I have two breath work coaches, um, and yeah, I see them multiple times a week. So now a lot of my training, uh, which you might see on my Instagram, is breath hold stuff. So I'll do squats, but I'll be holding my breath while I'm doing it because I'm trying to get myself into that hypoxic state where my muscles are needing oxygen and then to do activities. So you're trying to teach your muscles in your brain that even with the lack of oxygen, you can still operate, there's no need to freak out. And then through that as well, one of the breath work coaches, um, he's a great mental health advocate as well, but he has taught me how to regulate, how to, you know, when I'm in these stressful situations, how to regulate my nervous system so my heart rate stays low, or if it does spike, how to bring it back quickly. Because when you're up on altitude and you start and starts to spike and you start to freak out a little bit, it's exponentially harder to bring it back, as you would have known at base camp. And that's why a lot of people on that base camp trek kind of get humbled, is because we don't have that issue here, but over there it's massive. So that's been the core focus of my training, and it's just about stacking good days after good days. Um, and they don't all need to be perfect, like some days, even showing up is a win, but it's about showing up, it's about not missing the sessions and getting it in. So at the moment, we're running mostly two sessions a day, sometimes one, just depending on the day. Um, but it's a daily thing, except we have one rest day, and that rest day is just don't do anything, just let your body recover because you put it under that big load, you need it to recover.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

Who who goes with you? Like, do you have a support crew or a yeah, mate, or like what's a go there?

SPEAKER_04 50:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've got an Australian filmmaker that's coming with me. Uh, I've got some friends in the pool that I've met over my time there that are also going to be coming with me. So we've got a good crew there. Um, this first, like the cycling part of it, it is quite a solo thing. Um, we will have a support vehicle with all the nutrition and spare parts and everything in there, and the filmmaker will go. Uh, the filmmaker's from Brisbane, so he will go with uh the support vehicle, but the cycling is just gonna be me, head down, bum up, just getting into it every day. Yeah, so it's gonna be I'm excited for it. I think it's gonna be a great adventure.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

So you're you're obviously comfortable with yourself, you don't you don't need to have noise in your ears and all that shit.

SPEAKER_04 50:58

Well, I I just I've spent so much time alone. Like, I I think, especially after losing my mum, like I did spend a lot of time alone and a lot of soul searching, and you just get comfortable by yourself and then you realise oh

Guides, Oxygen, And Risk On Everest

SPEAKER_04 51:12

you don't actually need like a bunch of people around, but it's important to have community. They're two different things, I think. Like, you've got to be comfortable in your own presence and in your own skin, but then you also have to keep relationships and good people around. Um, so yeah, I'm comfortable hanging out by myself for eight hours a day, definitely. But the thing is when you're doing it, you're not really thinking about much else. You're just there, you're taking in where you are, what's around you, you're making decisions on the fly. Eight hours feels like two. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

Yeah, when you're when you're doing what you love. Yeah. What's um you mentioned nutrition, mate. What what does a nutrition plan look like for an epic trip like this?

SPEAKER_04 51:51

Yeah, so I'm working with a mate of mine who's a nutritionist at the moment, and we've basically worked it out with what I'll be burning on that ride. We're gonna be at around 6,500 to 7,000 cal intake a day. So we've come up with a plan on how to get that, and at the moment, what I'm just trying to do is I'm just trying to get my gut ready for that. So I've just been basically building my calories per day, which has been a mission. Um, but nutrition beforehand is I'm always trying to stay in a calorie surplus, and on the big training days, I'm trying to hit four and a half thousand cows. So, what what sort of food are you eating? Yeah, so a lot of just whole foods, like big meals, whole foods, and then what we'll do is we do have supplements as well. So we do have carb drinks, gels when you're training, because you're trying to get in a certain amount of carbs per hour when you're training, and it's just really sticking to that. So Morton Gels is what I kind of can stomach pretty easily, so that's what we're focusing on there. Um, there's some carb drinks as well that we'll bring a lot of olive oil, um, my food, a lot of just whole foods, potatoes, chickens, veggies, all of that, meat, and just a lot, to be honest. Just always eating, which is good, but it doesn't look like it, and I'm spewing about that. I've been trying to put on weight, but every time I hit the scale, I'm like back down to 75. I'm like, geez, man.

SPEAKER_00 53:13

All the little Nephilese people couldn't believe it when because you would know like they're tiny, they're only even the tall ones are five foot high. Yeah, the um nothing against them, but um the we just we were eating a lot, yeah. And uh, it it really proves like even though you we weren't really sweating, but just at that altitude, how much your body's actually working, because we were yeah, we got to the lodges and places where we would have lunch or morning tea or whatever, and like every meal we're pretty much eating two or three meals. Yeah. Um, and even the amount of water we drank, like was insane. Like were you having Dalbut? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, love that stuff. There was only uh I think it was two or three things on the menu that we just kept eating because I obviously we didn't want to eat eat anything that had been um boiled in their water or had anything to do with their water, yeah, in case it was bloody um no good, contaminated and stuff, but yeah, yeah, it's a different I don't know, but it's all part of the adventure, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 54:14

Yeah, exactly. And like kind of adopting their culture while you're there, I think that's a very important thing to do as well. Like you you hear stories, and I haven't it hasn't happened in front of me, but you hear stories in the mountaineering world of people coming in and trying to conquer this and conquer that and not being super respectful to the people that have been there for 5,000 years. And that's one thing I've really focused on is just going in and embracing where you are, embracing the culture, trying to eat their food as much as you can if it agrees with you, and just being part of it because it's like if the listeners here have been or plan to go to the Himalaya, it's nothing like it. You're walking through and there's just towering peaks either side of you, it's one of the it makes you feel small.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

Oh mate perspective. Yeah, I reckon I highly recommend it. I I think it's just do yourself a favour and just try one adventure, like whether it's Kilimanjaro, Kokoda, Base Camp, like just you've gotta experience that. Even just being up in the Himalayas, like going to those um Buddhist temples and like hanging out with the monks and stuff, like just incredibly peaceful. Yeah. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:29

Did you did you stop in at a few of those monasteries?

SPEAKER_00 55:31

Yeah. Which ones? Oh mate, I couldn't tell you. I've I'll show you when you're finished. I I got a um I've got a big sign in my office. So I got the the map um print or yeah, printed, and then I sort of stuck photos along the map as we went. So yeah, I've got some photos out with some monks and stuff there, but um one of them is one of them like well it would be, one of them's a higher

How To Follow, Donate, And Dates

SPEAKER_00 55:58

world's highest monastery or something, and it's quite big. It was a lot bigger than we were expecting.

SPEAKER_04 56:02

Yeah, that was uh Tangbo She. Yeah, I believe. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

And um we turned up, mate, just perfect time in the afternoon, and they were doing a ceremony and things, and it was just it was yeah, it's just incredible. Yeah. You just had to be there and and like just sit down and watch and listen and tag it all in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:20

Um Did you see when you were there, did you see those big Himalayan dogs as well? Yeah, mate. So I heard a pretty cool story about that. Is um they're actually bred to fight off tigers because there was a massive tiger population in that side of the Himalaya, so they bred these dogs to defend like the monasteries and stuff. Yeah. But you look at them and they're like horse-sized dogs.

SPEAKER_00 56:42

Yeah, it looks it's like something you'd see on a cartoon or something. Yeah. Um, so mate, what's next on the cards? Obviously, you you're focused on this adventure and getting it out of the way, but like um you mentioned before you really want to get into doing some some trekking and touring.

SPEAKER_04 56:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So after this expedition, like this project is all of my focus and raising money for this um youth mental health gym, that's where 100% of my energy is at the moment. But afterwards, like I've been super fortunate to have these amazing adventures over the last few years, and I would love the opportunity to start bringing people with me, and like not big groups at a big boutique, but just letting other people experience these humbling things that I've seen and had done to me and done and everything like that. Just bringing other people into the fold and giving them the opportunity to go and you know, see the wild horses in Kyrgyzstan or go into the Himalaya and being told stories about the mountains and the you know, the lore about you know, the monasteries back in the 1300s. It's just these experiences that money can't buy. And it's part of us being human, right?

SPEAKER_00 57:55

What's um you keep mentioning mountaineering, like I haven't done anything with with ropes and things. Yeah. Like what what's that like? Like what are you I I would love to give it a go, but like obviously you it's that's not something that you can just sign up to a trip and go and do, is it? Like, or do is there some sort of training place you can go to? Like, how do you get started in that?

SPEAKER_04 58:16

Yeah, so um how I got started, I probably wouldn't recommend it. I kind of just dove in the deep end and you know I made it through, but I paid the price, it it broke me a few times. But um, you can go over to New Zealand and do an alpine course. That's probably a good place to start. You learn a lot of useful skills there. You can also just start by trekking, get a trek done the next time you go to the area, maybe go put in a 6,000 meter peak to climb, um, one of the non-technical ones. You buy the gear or you can rent it as well, and you go up and you experience it first. It won't be technical, and that's probably a good thing because the technical uh side of things you've got to be comfortable with ropes,

Decisions, Goals, And Level Up Mindset

SPEAKER_04 58:57

um, and also just being quite exposed, but it's a great start, and you can do that here, you can do that over in Kyrgyzstan, you can do it at Killy as well. Um, and then from there you find some passion, maybe go join a rock climbing gym. Oh, I do a lot of climbing as well, which is something I do to just be comfortable on the ropes. Um, and then yeah, you just build it. So when you started climbing, like just feet and hands. Yeah, no, yeah. Yeah, yeah, and and so feet and hands, but you also you need to be comfortable taking a fall on a rope and just tying knots and yeah, those just general rope management skills and everything like that, they're super handy in mountaineering.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

Have you had a fall where you've ropes caught you?

SPEAKER_04 59:40

Yeah, yeah. Oh, lee climbing all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the mountains, no, not really. Like, I've had some moments where like I've been pretty lucky to not slip. Um, but no, I think up there it's it's very dire if you do take a major fall even on a fixed rope just because of where you are, and it's hard to get help up there as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:03

So on on these peaks that you're talking about, like are they and you said there was a uh rescue guy there, like are you putting the ropes in as you go or is is there already ropes at some of these places?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:15

No, so most of the places there's uh and most of the commercial places, they're already fixed. So a team of Sherpers will come in at the beginning of the season and they'll fix the rope basically from wherever that it starts to get somewhat technical up to the summit. And what you do is you've got this tool called a Jumar, it's an ascender, and you clip it onto the row, and basically you can only go forwards, and if you go back, it catches you because it's tied into your harness, and then you've got another safety on the rope as well, so you'll walk up with that most of the time. I was in New Zealand a few months ago for my cousin's wedding, which I'd selfishly turned into a climbing trip, and that was a beautiful wedding. And um, I did a bunch of climbing there as well, alpine stuff, and that's a bit different because there's no routes that are set, and that's more of the technical side of things. So that's why going to New Zealand and doing that course in the first place, that'll set you up for a really good career in climbing mountains. Yeah, just because you learn the skills, as we're saying, like you you've learned that you get the foundation, yeah, then you can start chipping away and building, you know, the bigger project here, and then you do that, then the next thing you're gonna go for something a little bit more remote, and yeah, but once you're in there, it's addictive.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:31

Yeah, it's addictive. So um I'm just thinking about now what you're talking about. Do any Aussies hold any records for mountaineering and climbing?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a guy that I um was lucky enough to have a few conversations with about this project who was the original one to do the project. His name's Tim McCartney Snape. So he's the first what's his name? Tim McCartney Snape. So he's the first Australian to summit Mount Everest without bottled oxygen, and he did that in '86 uh with another guy named Greg Mortimer. And he is the original person to do the Ceta summit. So he went from the Bay of Bengali in India. He didn't go on a bike, he went on foot to the summit of Everest and climbed up there back in 1990. How long did he take? He did it in 96 days, but he yeah, he did it on foot. Like what he did is just incredible. Yeah, and he did it the climb as well without bottled oxygen. Like, those old mountaineers are just tough, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:28

So are you you're doing oxygen?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll I'll do oxygen. Yeah. I

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SPEAKER_04 1:02:34

for me, like, I don't think I'm ready to go without it yet. Um, I wanna do it a few times and then I'll have a crack in the future without oxygen once I'm comfortable with the mountain. Yeah. But this is gonna be with bottled oxygen, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:49

After I like when we went over and did base camp, I'm I'm I think this year in May will be our ninth anniversary, but um I didn't think anything, like I loved the trip, I thought it was fantastic, and yeah, didn't think I'd ever go back. And then I got back and probably only was back for four or five months, and I um I'm like, oh, I want to do that. Yeah. Like uh and I set myself a target to do it by the time I'm 50, so I still got five or six years to go. But um back then, like even nine years ago, eight, nine years ago, um, so we we asked a few people over there that were doing it, and the cost varied ridiculously. Like some people had paid 18 grand, others had paid like a hundred US, so like lots of money. Um, but most of it, a lot of it was getting done with no oxygen. Um, the more expensive guides it was were doing it with oxygen. But um, like I have done a little bit of homework on it since, and it seems to have gotten super expensive. It's like a rich man's game to go to the top. It is, yeah. And from what I heard, like you we started talking about this before, but from what I heard, you you have to use oxygen now. Like most to most track guides won't take you if you don't want to use oxygen.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:06

It's got to be very specific, like it's not a law or a rule, but it's it's gotta be very specific. You've got to have the experience to do it without oxygen. You have to have you know the trust of the company because at the end of the day, like there's massive liability if a company's gonna do the logistics and send you up there without bottled oxygen, it's a lot of risk because there's a lot that can go wrong. You're pretty much above 8,000, you're dying. Like it's just a really slow death. Um, there's not enough oxygen to kind of sustain us up there, so that's why supplemental uh supplementary oxygen makes a big difference. But there are a few special projects of well-known climbers that really are pushing the limit of alpinism and going up there without uh one day. I hope that'll be me. Um, but yeah, you've got to be super careful, and a lot of companies won't take people on unless they've kind of got that track record, which I think's fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:07

From what I saw him when I was over there, mate, it it's awesome that they're getting some more rules in place. Like every day there was choppers flying past with with dead bodies in them. Like from well, not just from summer, from base, like people just going to base camp as well. Yeah, the um it actually freaks me out. Like they the afternoon before we started um in Kathmandu, um, we had a briefing and the track company said there's like there's 13 of you in this group, um 12 of you uh um I think it said three of you won't make it, and we're like, What are you talking about? Um they're like, Nah, the altitude will get you and um yeah, it said don't on average sort of uh thirty to forty percent of the group doesn't make it, but like all of our group ended up making it to base camp. But yeah, like I said, they all got sick. Two of 'em got very sick, but um Yeah, it's incredible how much. And I think that was something else I learned from that doing that, like not taking advantage of my body. Yeah. Like realizing like shit, my body actually needs this shit to survive. Like oxygen's a bloody to God sent. Yeah, like but um yeah, it's incredible, mate. Look, I definitely um I take my hat off to you. Super keen to follow your journey. And um so how can we follow you, mate? What what's the best way? Like what's your yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:31

Um so best way to follow me would just be social media, I'd say. Um what's your so my my handle's OliverForein. Uh super easy. You'll put it in the descriptions and everything if that's all good. Yep. Um if you do want to support the project as well, all funds raised are going towards building these gyms, and that is climbingforyoungminds.com.au and every bit of support, whether it's a donation or you share it to your mates, makes massive difference because the bigger this gets, the faster we can build this gym and prove the model and get it out to as many communities as we possibly can. Because I think there's a massive need for it in Australia.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:12

Yeah, 100%. So um just um tell us the dates again when you're doing this.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:16

Yeah, so I'll be leaving the country um the 26th of March and I'll be starting the expedition on the 1st of April. Um there are we're talking to some news outlets in Australia that will cover parts of it. But if you want to get the in-depth, the behind the scenes, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly, follow the Instagram and we'll be posting daily content and trying to take as many people on the journey with us.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:41

Yeah. And what you've mentioned that it's you're doing a bit of a doco, like when when can we expect to sort of see that?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:47

That won't oh, that'll probably be 27, I'd say. Um, we'll need a time. I to be honest, after this expedition, I think I'm gonna break myself, so I'll probably take a month off or so before we get into the doco and everything like that. But yeah, we are filming a documentary, and that documentary is just gonna it's gonna cover the world record attempt from sea level to the summit, but it's also gonna be a journey on mental health and how even with the hands that are dealt to you, you can do incredible things, and you can change your life through a decision at any moment, and that's just what we're trying to show is that where you are now is not where you're gonna be forever. So just keep plugging away, and it's incredible. Can you dive into that a bit more, mate?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:31

Because that that's huge. The Docker? No, like what you just said about every decision you make has an outcome. Like you the decision you make now can change your life forever.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:41

Like, well, and and that's the thing, is like, and that's what we're trying to show through this whole project. You know, mate, I'm the most normal bloke on the planet. Like, I've there's no special bone in my body, it's just I've worked hard, you know, and put the work in and bitten off way more than I can chew. But we're just trying to show that even if you're in the dumps, you're down in the dark, you feel like there's nothing else out there, and you feel like this is it, it's not. And it's a mindset and it's a decision to improve your life, and you can make that at any moment. You can make that driving the car to work in the morning, you can make it, you know, having a beer with your mates like it it's just a decision. And how the decision gets made is you think, what do I want? What do I want to do in this life? What is it that I'm going for? You make the decision, you write down the goal, you work backwards, you take actionable step towards it every day, you wake up and you remember why you're doing it, and you plug away, and you watch within six, twelve months, your life will completely change, and you'll be out of that place that you were, and you'll be into a better place. And even if you go back there, now you've got the roadmap to get out and to keep going. And yeah, I think that's what we're trying to throw through this documentary.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:01

Yeah, I love it, mate. Look, um, we'll wrap it up. I really appreciate your time this afternoon to um come over here, hang out in the studio, and uh get on the podcast. You've definitely inspired me. Like, I'll I'll yeah, I'll be following for sure, and um I am uh I want to know what we can do in the future. But um, mate, last thing before we get out of here, what does level up mean to you?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:22

Level up to me means doing the work now for what you want in the future. I think it's putting in the hard yards now for that big goal like we just spoke about before, and just changing the mindset from damn this happened to me to let's go, how can I improve? Let's do it, let's get better. 1%. Love it. I've got a question for you as well. Go for it, mate. Alright, so I've been on a few podcasts and I feel like sometimes being a terrible guest because I haven't bought a present. So my present's this question if you could have anyone past, present, future on this podcast, who would it be and why?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:02

Oh, it's hard to give it's hard to make it um it's hard to pick one. It'd be it'd be a toss-up between uh Peter Brock and Steve Owen. Love it.

unknown 1:11:16

Love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:17

I feel like I know the reason why Steve Owen. Why Peter Brock? Oh mate, I'm I'm a rev head from way back. And I just I yeah, well, I grew up watching touring cars and just loved Holdens and um Um I love the stuff he did once he left the touring cars and like Target Tasmania and that sort of stuff. I I love his passion for the for motor vehicles and he's just an old hoon. And I saw some of I saw a little bit of a doco once, and he I think he was a bit of a Larrican, so I think I'd just yeah, I'd love to have a chat to him. Oh mate, I'll tune in for that one for sure. Uh mate, really appreciate your time, like I said, and um yeah, please get behind Ollie, support this. Um we'll put all the links in uh this podcast when it comes out and um yeah, get behind him, sponsor him, help him out, uh follow him on social media so we can keep an eye on the track. But uh look, guys, as always, make sure you uh like, subscribe, share, all those types of things so we continue to make this an incredible podcast. Um go to the DwaynePearce.com website to check out all of our merch so that you can help us with our mission to create a new industry. Um and look, if you haven't seen it, my training business Live Life Build is having a lot of changes at the moment, and this year is going to be absolutely incredible. We've got some amazing live events coming up that um will be uh well, will tickets will be available for everybody. You don't have to be a Live Life Build member. So um, if you're in the building industry and you want to make change, you want to have an incredible business, you want to be have a sustainable business and most importantly a profitable building business, then you cannot afford to miss these live events that we've got coming up. So um keep an eye on the socials and uh the websites for those. But as always, look forward to seeing you on the next one. Don't forget to level up. Level up. All right, guys. I want to introduce you to a really exciting new product that I believe is going to play a massive role in Australia building healthier homes. As you all know, I am extremely passionate about healthy homes and I'm doing a lot of research and putting a lot of time and effort into making sure my construction business is leading the way when it comes to building healthy homes here in Australia. We've teamed up with the guys from Highwood Timber. Highwood Timber are pioneering condensation management with their high flow ventilated LVL batten system. High flow battons give builders a stronger, straighter, and smarter way to create a ventilated cavity behind cladding and underneath roofs without compromising on structural performance. While tackling condensation to improve building health and ease of insulation, highwood battons are built to perform. When it comes to dealing with condensation and ventilation, high flow battons will help you create continuous ventilated cavities behind all your cladding and underneath your roof sheeting. They reduce condensation risk and support healthier, longer lasting buildings. Highwood timber battons are also in alignment with the proposed NCC condensation management requirements as well as passive house ventilation requirements. Being an engineered LVL product, they are stronger, straighter, and more dimensionally stable than a solid material such as pine. This helps resist warping, twisting, and shrinkage, ensuring more consistent installs less prone to splitting than solid timber. Howwood timber batten are precisely manufactured, meaning that your installation will be faster and easier than other products on the market. The part that I like the most about these batons are they are H3 treated for long-term protection against decay and turmoiles. They use a waterborne H3 treatment which reduces reactivity with membranes and adhesives when compared to LOSP. These are the exact battens that you want to be using on your homes and your build if you are considering building healthier homes or passive homes. Check 'em out. How are we timber products?