Horacio Galanti: Death Zone CAO

What does it take to manage 100,000 people and a $500 Million budget? For Horacio Galanti, the answer was found at 8,000 meters in the "Death Zone."

In this episode of Airdrie Inside, Chris Glass sits down with Horacio Galanti—Civil Engineer, world-class mountaineer, and the Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Airdrie.

Horacio doesn't just "climb mountains" as a hobby. He has summited the Seven Summits, reached both the North and South Poles by foot, and completed the gruelling Canadian Death Race six times. But the real story isn't the altitude—it's the discipline.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Many climbers at high altitude they die just just pure exhaustion. They are just exhausted, they just cannot move anymore.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

It doesn't matter if you give them glucose or fluids, electrolytes, they're just too exhausted.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Air Dream Inside. I am your host, Chris Glass, and I am here with an absolutely fascinating guest, Horacio Galanti. Welcome to the show. Thank you, Chris. And how do I do with the name? Because I've heard 20 different uh Horacio. Horacio. Sometimes I feel gaslit by everybody else, but I'm right.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

That's the way it is. Horacio.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Okay, perfect. And Horacio, you are the CAO, the chief administrative officer for the city of Verdiry. That's how we know each other. Uh, but it's not why I have you on the podcast today. We could talk 10 episodes about running a$500 million city with an iron fist, but I want to talk a little bit about what you do in your personal life.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Yes. So as somebody who, and if you're hearing this for the first time, it's gonna sound very impressive. Summited Everest from both uh both peaks uh has finished the the death race. Am I getting that correct? Yep. Uh so tell me a little bit about yourself before we get to those big topics. Uh what brought you here? Because you're from Argentina.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah. So I'm originally from Argentina. Uh grew up uh near Mendoza, which we have big mountains there. Yeah. So yeah, and as you said, in parallel with my professional career, uh, I'm a civil engineer. Um, and then of course became city manager, director of infrastructure many years ago. Um, I ran this hobby in parallel, uh, which I tried to do it professionally, as professionally as I can, right, of climbing mountains. And I started back in Argentina when I was about 10 years old. Just dragging my father up the mountains, and uh he didn't like that too much, so he brought me down a few times. Yeah, but then in my teenager years, you know, becoming more independent, uh, joined like a university club and started climbing more and more, uh, initially rock climbing, and then initially and then moving to more ice climbing, high altitude, and being in Argentina, we have big mountains in the limit with uh Chile in the Andes. So we have uh one of the seven summits in Mendoza province, uh, in addition to the good good wine there in Malbec, it's called Monta Concawa at 7,000 meters of altitude. Perfect training ground for me. So I summited that peak 12 times so far.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

So one of the seven peaks you summited 12 times.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Yes, yes. Okay, uh I use Aconkawa most less my training ground in in many of my expeditions, but yes, I I summited the seven summits, uh being on the North Pole and South Pole by foot. I ran a marathon actually at the North Pole because that was very cold.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

And uh yeah, and I decided to just casually drop that you ran a marathon at the South Pole, uh at the North Pole.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

No, that was all prepared, um flying in a Russian cargo or plane and landing in a piece of ice there in the middle of nowhere from uh a small island called Svalvar in the Arctic. So quite an adventure. Uh and after completing the seven summits and the two poles uh with my Sherpa friend Ang Migma, we decided to climb the north face of uh Mount Everest together.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

Okay, so let's unpack that for a second. What goes into that decision, right? Because you're successful in your professional career, and then you decide to take on this massive challenge. What goes into that?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah. Well, it's a lot of training, it's a lot of preparation, it's a lot of planning. Right. Uh which you know that's that's the way I am in general in life. I like to long-term plan pretty much everything because to attack these big mountains, you need years of planning.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

So, how how early did you start planning? So, when did you summit? What year?

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Uh well, then the south phase of Everest was 2013 and the north phase 2019, just before the pandemic. I was able to just go there before the pandemic because then China shut down the mountain for almost three years.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

So in 2013, uh you you summit the South Side. Yes. How far back did you start uh planning and training?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Two to three years. Okay. Uh I was in my project of the seven summits. Okay. Uh so Mount Aconkawa was the first one. I summited Aconkawa when I was 19 years old.

unknown 4:39

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

And back in the day, it was no cell phones, no satellite phones, no technical year like we have today. So it was very uh different style, less support, less safety margins, I would say.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Um then I did Klimanjaro in Africa, then I did Mount Elbrus in Russia, and the limit with Georgia.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Um and then at that time it's like, well, okay, let's go to Mount McKinley in Alaska. So that's a big test. Yes. Because McKinley, there's no supports at all. Uh you land in an airplane in a glacier, about 55 kilometers from base camp, no supports, no Sherpas, no porters, no dogs to pull your nothing. You pull a sled 55 kilometers on ice, uh, completely roped with your you know, friend. I climbed with a friend of mine from Mendoza.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

So it was just two of you climbing Mount McKinley. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

And it took us a month. It was 55 below zero on the summit. There was a topographic uh benchmark on the summit, um, and we descended. Um so after that expedition, we thought, okay, you know, I think we are kind of ready to tackle Mount Everest. So we went together with my friend, and by the way, his name is Horacio. So the two Horacios take Everest. Yes, the two Horacios. Um even our Facebook page called Los Horacios al Everest. It's like the two Horacios going to Everest, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:10

It's fantastic. So yeah, so we You're either climbing a mountain or you're a wrestling tag team, one of the two.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

So we we after McKinley, then it's like, okay, this is serious. And just by coincidence, you know, we built a website and um looking for some sponsorships and because the high cost of the expedition, although we did it super minimalistic.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Um, a bank contacted us, the Standard Charter Bank from uh uh London, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Yeah, and they floated the idea of they were testing an app called Breeze. Okay, and in 2012, 2013, mobile banking was you know kind of starting to take shape. Now you have apps for everything, but uh you know, 12-13 years ago, mobile banking was you know in its origins. In its empty. So we said, okay, what's what's the deal with this app? So well, the deal here is for you guys to do the highest banking transaction on earth from the summit of Everest. So we moved like$20 from one account to the other, connecting our cell phones with the app, with the Breeze app, um via satellite. Okay, so we generated Wi-Fi with our satellite phones, pair our iPhones, um, open the app, type username, passwords with bare hands on the summit of Everest. Yeah, it's gonna be sale by P. Um and we completed the transaction, and that was the highest transaction on Earth. Uh, it's all over the internet. The bank launched a marketing campaign around the world, and uh yeah, it was a success. So that was good because we got good sponsorship from uh for that expedition, and we gained a lot of experience, you know, on Everest. Everest, I always say, is a mountain of work. Uh we did three rotations to acclimatize, yeah, avoid um high altitude, you know, pulmonary edema, brain edema. Uh so you take it slowly, you know, you climb high, you sleep low. We crossed the Kumbu ice falls six times, all those ladders, you know, very dangerous. Yeah. Um and yeah, it took about two to three years of specific training uh and preparation just for the south the south face. With that experience, and I met a Sherpa at that time and Mi'kma, and we became good friends. And my friend Horacio climbed with another Mi'kmaq, another um uh Sherpa. Yeah, and then we stayed in contact, and he started asking me, he said, Hey, what if we climb together to the north face? Which initially I said, No, it's too dangerous, it's too exposed, it's cold, it's windy, it's north north exposure.

SPEAKER_04 8:55

Yes, of course.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Um, but anyway, somehow we organized this in 2017. Seriously started planning, and in 2019 I went to China uh to Tibet, which is a very unique um you know part of the world. And we tackled the North Phase summit in there at the end of May after two months of climbing.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

Now, what's the difference? Like, I I know one's more exposed, one's more dangerous, but what what's the the difference in training? What are you doing differently to prepare?

SPEAKER_00 9:29

The the South Phase. Um, the objective hazards are on the lower part of the mountain. So from base camp to camp one, you cross the icefall. It takes about seven, eight hours to cross it. So we enter into the night, uh, midnight to seven, eight a.m. Because it's it's colder, it's more stable. Yeah, the ice fall moves about one meter per day, and those ladders are being shifted pretty much every day, is the most dangerous part of the mountain. And the summit day is relatively safe because it's mostly ice climbing on compact snow and ice. The exposure is less than the north face. The north face, on the other hand, and it's more sheltered. I would say it's warmer for in relative terms. Yeah, it's gonna say the north face, the lower part of the mountain is safer, less uh objective hazards, but then the summit day is extremely exposed. So you are always in uh in a rock wall. The rocks were covered with two inches of crystal ice.

SPEAKER_04 10:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

And as soon as you touch the ice with your crampons, with the front point of the crampons, the ice just shatters, and you are left with every step scrambling on rock, which you know gives you uh a lot of adrenaline when you put it that way. Um and it's very exposed, you have 3,000 meter drop on each side pretty much constantly. You're in a very sharp ridge. Uh, when you exit the wall, the north face, yeah, via a series of cracks, it's called the exit cracks, and then you go into the ridge. You have three steps, they're called step one, two, and three. Second step has a ladder installed by the Chinese back in 1975. Um, not so difficult to climb up, very difficult to descend. Wow. So you have to mount a rappel and try to touch with your feet the top of that little ladder and somehow continue rappelling. So it's a lot of safety uh precautions you need to take. And at 8,600 meters with an oxygen mask and full suit, all these decisions are you know complicated. You need to be mentally there, present.

SPEAKER_04 11:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

And I think one of the key of my success in the big mountains is I spent a lot of time at high altitude when I was quasi a teenager, yeah, and in my early 20s in Aconkawa in Argentina. Um, many months, I would say, when you put together all the expeditions, living about 6,000 meters. Yeah. So there is long-term memory in the cells in the body, and now when I touch again 5,000 meters or so, I acclimatize very, very well. So it gives me more uh energy and speed, and speed means safety in the big mountains. The less time you're exposed on the death zone, um, or rockfall or avalanche release, better.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

Sorry, did you just say death zone? Let's talk about that for a second. What's it like to be doing something by choice that takes you into a death zone?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah, well, that's that's part of the adventure. And uh, when you approach the 8,000 meter mark, yeah, um the human body is not able to sustain life there uh just for a short period of time. So uh our last camp on the south face is at 8,000 meters on average, on the north side is 8,200 meters, it's very high. Yeah, so uh you climb to that point, you rest for a few hours, and just to have a like a little bit of a breather there, a nap, hydrate, um rest for a few hours, it's very important to be able to recover fast. Yeah, and I will link that with my ultra-marathon running. Yeah, okay, because I use that as a base training. So you are exhausted, but you need to keep going, and maybe you take a half an hour nap, and your body is able to recover quickly in a very short period of time. And at that altitude, for example, in the north north phase, um, I started at 10 p.m. the summit push from 8,200 meters in the high camp. Summit at about 7 a.m. So we climbed during the night. And at 7 p.m., I was down at 7,000 meters at camp 1.

SPEAKER_04 13:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

So it was like uh you know, at an 18, 19, 20 hour uh marathon if you will non-stop in a low oxygen environment, eating. I remember I ate three gels, three little gels.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

So you need to train your body to be able to function in high output efforts in low oxygen environments under a lot of pressure and stress, so the mental coolness, okay, you need to stay calm all the time because it's very easy to panic.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Um exposure, some rock falls flying over your head, some avalanches around, and keep focused, keep calm, and just keep moving. Watch your hydration. Hydration is more important than food.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

And yeah, so how do you how do you go about drinking at that point? Because you're so wound up.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Do you have yeah, inside my downsuit, there are two pockets, and I have two like platypus, uh, little flasks with with hot water. I start with hot water, and because it's very close to the body, um, half liter, half liter. Yeah, and I always carry a thermos with a little tea in my backpack. So when you are in a you're climbing and you're in a difficult sometimes position, you cannot take your backpack to have some tea, then you just open the zipper and just press the flasks, yeah, and you you keep the hydration wide.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

Quick sip.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Yes, it has to be all a well-oiled machine to be able to keep your hydration and the gels very easy to eat as well.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

So everything up at that height is a conscious decision with consequences.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yes. Yes, and I typically put some compartments in my mind, right? I think all climbers would need to do that because even in the uh I would say above 7,500 meters, you see many bodies.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Yeah, we were talking about that at dinner the other day, and and uh I found that f fascinating. Talk to me about uh some of the things you've seen up there.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Yeah, so in the north face of Everest, I counted nine. Nine people unfortunately lost their lives and during the uh summit attack. Um they are, you know, when you when you go through them, of course there's a moment of uh respect and and peace and a little pressure there, but you need to keep going. For me, it's it's like seeing another rock um on the topography. Otherwise, if you go into too many emotions there, then you turn turn back in your home. Yeah, so it's a little bit, yes, you know that you may see this, um, but I don't know the reasons why they passed away. Um sometimes they they fell from the mountain, sometimes it's just exhaustion. You know, they see to sleep and you know they never wake up. Uh different reasons, right? But um it's uh it's a fact on the big mountains, and I think we need to just take that. I I know it's an inherent risk when I go to those places. I don't focus too much on that, I focus on just the things I can control. Yeah, um can I control my hydration? Yes, my food, my training, my gear. I'm properly prepared. Do I have a reliable weather forecast? You know, those factors I can control. What happened to these folks? So I try, I make a conscious effort not to think about it. Yeah, but you need to be prepared to see some images there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

Did you ever at any point in your two summits of Everest feel like you're you might not make it back?

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Uh well, when I was climbing the south face on the third pass on the ice fall, it was our summit rotation. So we were in mountain yeah, for for you know, almost two months. It was later in the season, so summit is approaching. It was the end of May, and the crevasses on the icefall were huge. The bridges were really long, multiple ladders connected, sometimes four or five ladders, very flexible. You go with some ropes there, but it's you you look down and you don't see the bottom because it's white, light blue, dark blue, black. Oh, and you know, again, step by step, sometimes in four four legs trying to cross there. Yeah, and the last pass, yes, I was thinking what I'm I'm doing here. Uh I should go home, probably. It's you know, again, it's a it's um try to manage the objective risk assessment versus the subjective. And the subjective try to keep it out of your mind and really is it is objectively still safe for every standard, yeah, right? Um, and decision go no go. And well, I decided to continue, but I I had some second second thoughts there in the last pass, yes. But not for long, not for long because you need to refocus quickly, yes, of course. Right? Constant focus, constant, constant concentration, uh in in then just the next step. And the overall assessment comes in the big mountains from weather forecast and avalanche risk and rock fall. Those are the three key, you know. If the weather looks good, uh the jet stream is higher than the summit, which the monsoon pushes the jet stream higher. So there are a few days per year in the summit of Everest where the jet stream uh blows higher. Yeah, otherwise, the majority of the days of the years you have 320 kilometers per hour wind on the summit of Everest.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

Wow, okay. Yeah, so that's those are no-go days then.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Those are no-go days, and at the end of May, the monsoon approaches India and and Nepal pushes the jet stream up, and you have relatively calm. I'm talking 40-50 kilometers an hour wind and 40-45 below thermometers, so you're in the 50s below zero. And you can enjoy those few days. I'm talking few like five, six days per year.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Right. Yes. Wow. That is uh just such a such a monumentous accomplishment, and uh so much discipline it takes to get there. I uh now you take that same discipline to running and and racing. So talk to me about the death race.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah, so the the the ultra training has been part of my again core preparation for many years. Um and I try to run in the mountains because my philosophy is that if your legs your legs keep moving, you come home.

SPEAKER_04 20:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Okay. Many climbers at high altitude they die just just pure exhaustion. They are just exhausted, they just cannot move anymore. Yeah, it doesn't matter if you give them glucose or fluids, electrolytes, they're just too exhausted. And calibrating that point where you're too exhausted that you cannot go anymore, or you can still go for another five hours or so, is very tricky and it takes years to know your own body.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

So, a good way to test that is ultra-mountain running. When you when you run like the Canadian death race, you know, it's 125 kilometers in the Rockies. I finished that race five times. Um you go for 24 hours for 30 hours. You know, I ran a hundred miler in Mexico uh last year, again 34 hours running. I'm running UTMB this year, it's 46 hours running around Mont Blanc in from France, Italy, and Switzerland.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

Is there any sleeping in that?

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Like do you you can sleep if you if you want, but the clock keeps ticking. Of course. So many many runners do a 2, 15, 20 minute nap on 46 hours.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Yes. So pretty much it's a it's a constant running or jogging or hiking. Wow. So again, you you test your exhaustion point. Um, of course, in in in in different environments because there's more oxygen.

SPEAKER_04 21:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Yeah. So then on top of that, you need to add the low oxygen environment and the cold. It's different running in shorts and runners compared with being in a down. Suit and trip books and crampons. But at least it's the best approximation to test how far your body can go and to test that can I go for 20 hours non-stop? Can I go with you know 24 hours, just some gels, maybe a little pretzels and sandwiches, and some fluids, and not more. And then if you're yeah, okay, I can do this, and at the end I can still cross the finish line and smile, then that's a good sign for the big mountains. So I use this ultraranism as a base, uh, base training, aerobic training for for high altitude environments.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Wow. So five Canadian death races.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Yes. And uh is there gonna be a sixth or uh well I'm focused now in finishing the ultra trail du Mont Blanc, yeah, UTMB. That's that's the Mount Everest of ultra running. Ultra running, yeah. In in Chamonix, France. So I'm going there in uh August this year. Um I ran a reduced version two years ago, it's called CCC from uh uh Cormayor Italy, Champeg Slag Switzerland to Chamonix. That's a CCC 105k, 6,100 meters elevation gain and loss in about 24 hours.

SPEAKER_03 23:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

And this race, the full UTMB, is a circumnavigation around Mont Blanc. So you start in Chamboni, France, you cross to Italy, then you cross to Switzerland, and then you go back to France, all in the mountains. The total elevation accumulative is 10,000 meters up and down.

SPEAKER_04 23:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

And 177 kilometers in distance in 46 hours. So I'm really focusing my training now. Um I've headed to Utah on Saturday to run an 85k in the desert in deep sand in preparation for my August, uh, my August race.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

So, what does your day-to-day training look like? Like how how much do you run in between everything that you're doing?

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Yes. Well, again, I have a plan, which is about a year ahead for these big races. My typical week, then you know, typically I'm home around five or so, so I have a coffee and some croissants, some something light to eat. I cannot have supper early.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

Yeah, we've talked about your nine o'clock dinners.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Yeah, so I pushed that a little later. Uh, and then I do my training in the winter, it's mostly at home in treadmill. I have an incliner. It goes to 40%, it's a northern track incliner. Uh, so I can really put uh mountain training in a slope from minus six to plus forty percent. I train with the backpack sometimes, and I go to 40% when I train for mountaineering.

SPEAKER_03 24:43

And how long do you normally go on the training? Two hours, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Two hours is my typical training block, maybe from six to eight p.m. And then on the week, that's during the week. Um I try to do four days a week. Yeah, and then on the weekends is my mountain, real mountain training. So my weekends are typically spent in in the Black Creek, Canmore, um, Banff, Lake Louis area. I have different circuits there, different mountains, and I do repeats uh to train more in vertical elevation and and real mountain, real terrain.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

Yeah. Do you have a favorite mountain in the Rockies that you like?

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Well, I I do a lot of uh Halling peaks and a lot of uh prairie uh or powder face. The powder face of uh Brad Creek is my my my go-to. It's safe, there's a lot of people there for you know bears and things like that.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

And uh decent elevation, about 800 meters every every lap, and sometimes I do three, four, five laps on the weekends.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

We were uh at an event this uh past week, and you had taken some of my colleagues uh up the up Halloween peak, and uh it was noted that one time you did that in five times, five times or six times a day? Yeah, five times five times. So you went up Halloween Peak five times in one day.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Yes. Right in about eight hours.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

Uh you and I are not the same, my friend. Uh we have some overlaps, but not uh not in mountain climbing. So I a question for you is uh how does this world in your personal life uh prepare you for your professional life? Because uh the pressures of trying to climb Mount Everest and the planning that it takes, there are some parallels to your role. So let's talk about those.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yes, for sure. And I I use those analogies a lot. I think it helps me plan my day-to-day, you know, the professional life. Um I started more as a technical civil engineer and then I evolved more into managerial roles, yeah. Uh overseeing teams or so, and uh being director of infrastructure and city manager, but you have large organizations with multiple business units, and at the end of the day, it's trying to simplify.

SPEAKER_04 26:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Um the organization like City of Airdrie or Climbing Everest is a complex matter to manage. And if you visit my office, the city, there is a little LED sign that says keep it simple.

SPEAKER_04 27:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Okay. And I'm a fan of that. Simplifying, streamlining. I'm a fan of lean uh protocols.

SPEAKER_03 27:15

We've talked about it on the podcast a lot. I'm a big fan of Lean as well.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Yes, Toyota Total Quality Control and the Management System. So try to really streamline everything you do from personal life to professional life, um, trying to really squeeze the juice of every minute and say, okay, what is the goal? How we plan for this, what resources do I need, and what training I need, and then the day has 24 hours, so you need to sleep for about eight, and then you need to work for about eight, and then how you use this block, what I call me time, yeah, from 5 to 9. Because really that is what is left in the day. 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. So in four hours, I need to squeeze everything I do in life, and then you have the weekends, which I try to protect. Um but what I can do this because it's somehow I've been doing this for so many years, right? Remember, my first summit at Falcon Kao was at 19. So I think physically the the at the mitochondria level, okay, at the cellular level, is there is adaptation there. So the VO2 max, the the metabolism, how the body uses energy, when you are a person or an athlete adapted after doing some sport for many years, it's easier.

SPEAKER_04 28:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Even when I if I have an injury or so, I rebound very quickly.

SPEAKER_04 28:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

And the base level uh is higher than you know, uh regular some person that is not you know training like that. So I try to keep a base level, even in winter time, which is hard to go outside and train. And then in the summer months, let's say from May to uh October, I really try to pick that and and and prepare. And and my plan, of course, I have seen many uh many folks that are in their late 70s. Yeah, and it's amazing, they're still like going strong, running, and they're not breaking any records. But on the endurance side, yeah, they're slower, but and I think in our generation now, we will see a lot of folks of our age crossing, no problem, the 80-year-old age.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Um, in very good shape.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

Yeah, I I I have no doubt I'm gonna see you running 100 kilometers when you're 80. Hopefully. So uh we're almost out of time, but I wanted to touch on what could be next for you because you mentioned there's another mountain that might be in your uh crosshairs here.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Yeah, so I'm I'm analyzing a couple of things. So I'm very focused on UTMB uh until August. Hopefully, I can I can complete that. That will that will with a little research. I think there are two folks around the world that have climbed uh Mount Everest on both sides and finished the UTMB, which is kind of the Mount Everest of ultra running running. Yeah, so that will be cool to to just kind of a fun fact. Yeah, and uh and then I would like to tone it down a little bit on the ultra running and go back to the mountains. So I have two in my mind in sequence. Uh Amadob in Nepal, close to Mount Everest. It's a very technical peak, 7,000 meters, but very technical. It's a mix of rock and ice climbing in uh in Nepal. Um that could be a good target, good target, intermediate target, and potentially in two years, uh K2. Wow. I'm I'm looking at that, I'm studying the mountain a lot, I'm following the meteorology, the weather reports, the snowpack in Pakistan, what's going on because the mountain is getting warmer.

SPEAKER_04 30:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

And there's more rockfall. So K2 is tricky for if it's too dry, there's too much rockfall. And if you get too much snow, the avalanche risk is tremendous. So it has to be the right, the mountain has to be plastered with the right amount of snow to keep rocks in place, but not too much to trigger avalanches. So it's a very tricky mountain. Many climbers go there and you need to really see the conditions.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

But yeah, that's kind of my horizon for now.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

Now, I forgot to ask you this back uh earlier on, but I wanted to we'll leave it off with this. Uh the relationship with your sherpas.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

Uh, you were telling me how much trust that takes. Yes. Uh can you talk to me about that relationship?

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Yeah, absolutely. And and it's it's such a um lifelong friendship you build, right? Because your life depends on the sherpas and vice versa. You're roped together in very uh sometimes dicey situations there, climbing on the icefall or so, and and you do provide safety on the ropes. Um, one person advances and anchors, and then you know the other person provides safety. And then you spend a lot of months. Okay, so I spent like four or five months in in total in the mountain in both sides, and you really talk about everything.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

Everything, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

In those long nights and dates and the snowing the bad weather, and so you really build that that relationship, and and then when you click, right? When you click with the Sherpa, that's amazing because they know the mountain very well, they are super strong. And I felt at least okay, I'm I'm safe climbing with this person. Yeah, and and you build that relationship, and I think it's for life because we communicate almost, I would say, every couple of weeks via WhatsApp with Ang Mingman. He lives in a small village near Evers Base Camp. He was born at 4,000 meters.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

And he has a family there, and we're in touch.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

How many times has he been up the mountain?

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Oh, I think he climbed the south face three times and the north face two.

SPEAKER_03 33:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

That's that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

Well, where can we go to follow your journeys? Uh, do you have any uh social media that people can look at?

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Yes, I have my um there is a Facebook page um that is called Everest Tibet. Okay, Everest Tibet, but there is Everest stuff there and ultra running. And then um my website is called sevensummits to polls.com.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

Seven summits to polls? Yes. Okay, we'll we'll link it in the show notes if you can follow it.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Sevensummits to polls.com. There are some photos and things for different expeditions. So if I go to Amadovlam or LPX, I'm updating the website. So yes, and then I use Facebook and other channels as well to just launch some um yeah, you know, updates uh when I'm in the mountains. I'm very careful sometimes with the updates because um I prefer to uh uh go there and see the situation before you know putting too much information. You don't want to get ahead of it. Correct, yes. And then if everything goes well, then you you do more like a recap, photos and videos and things like that. But sometimes you go to the mountains, the conditions are not not right, so not to create too much expectation, even for myself.

SPEAKER_03 34:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

Excellent. Well, thank you so much for spending some time with us. This has been fascinating. Uh I've never had somebody on the show that's uh climbed Everest once, let alone twice. Uh and uh I look forward to uh working with you for the next four years, uh getting to know each other. It's awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much so much. Okay, and thank you for joining us on Airdrian's side. We're gonna be back with more great episodes coming up shortly.