What it Takes to Prepare for Everest

(haunting music)

I think when I was little, I just had this dream

that I was gonna do whatever I wanted.

And that sounds so simple and childish, like,

every kid is like, I wanna do what I want.

but it meant something to me.

Well good morning.

I grew up with a family that was really poor

and they've put a high premium on happiness.

And, sort of, finding that thing that makes

you really happy.

And then trying to immerse yourself in it

as much as you can.

(haunting music)

I'm embroiled right now in my most

challenging physical struggle.

Trying to climb Everest without using

supplemental Oxygen is enormously challenging.

I get asked all the time by people, Are you done,

when are you gonna be finished?

And it's a little complicated because I interact with

the mountain to challenge myself personally.

And now, I mean, I have now spent seven

years of my life working on this goal.

So when I'm training at home,

I will wake up in the morning and I hike.

And then I go to the gym.

And I'll eat my first meal around noon.

And I'll really put myself through that

endurance workout without adding any fuel in.

And that, really closely mimics what I might find on a very

long endurance day, climbing in the mountains.

My name's Ben Jones and I'm a mountain

guide and climbing partner with Melissa.

My role of this expedition is to tell that

she's trying to do this incredible ascent

with no Oxygen, going up to 29,000 feet.

Over half of it is mental training and

all of those times where you think,

Oh, this hurts. I should stop.

And then you find out, you know, that's just your mind.

(she laughs)

It's just your mind telling you that.

And you have to find a way to work through that.

(instrumental music)

You know, I just really revel in my

day to day life, here in Idaho and my house.

I live in Sun Valley.

It's a beautiful mountain town and it

feels much like everybody knows everybody.

My best friend Annelise, she has a daughter

who's seven now.

I see Melissa about three or four times a week.

She'll stop by, we'll have dinner.

You totally got it.

I'm proud that she can push herself and

climb to the top of Everest and do all these

good things that I don't think anybody else could do.

I just imagine me climbing to the top of Everest

with Melissa and pushing myself with her.

I know that Melissa comes and goes and I

don't have any expectations of how she should be.

I just accept when she's here we gave a great time

and when she's gone, I understand she's working

and that's just kind of it.

(instrumental music)

Oftentimes on these really long expeditions,

little, simple comforts are so important.

I would love to just bring my hot tub, from

my house, and put it at base camp.

Ah, I'd be the most popular person at base camp, for sure.

I feel like I look into my little cup of hot water

and I'm like, If there was just a way I could get

inside of this cup of hot water.

For me, like, that's just one of those comforts that's just

irreplaceable, I wish I could take it with me everywhere.

I think I started out at some point thinking

I'd be able to teach people about this joy that I get

but the more I spend my time out in the mountains,

the more I am isolated from people.

And you know I've had my personal relationships

just fall apart because of that.

Because I've been chasing my dreams and the

biggest mental challenge that I always

have to deal with is balance.

And I think, I think that's probably something

a lot of people could relate to.

I like to be able to pack up and go

wherever the wind's blowing at a moment's notice.

You don't have to hang pictures on the wall

for it to be home.

I grew up with a very atypical existence.

Me and my sister went to school on a

Southern Ute Indian reservation and we were

some of the only white kids at the school.

And so I think, right off the bat, for me, I was a minority.

Now I look at my life and I'm a minority as being the

lone female in a world of mostly males.

(instrumental music)

The trips that I go on tend to have such

high risk potential, I really have to be

centered in where my motivation's coming from.

You know, do I really want to be doing this?

This is an alter that I have set up in

my house and I built it after asking

some of the Sherpa that I work with,

what sort of things would be respectful to have.

And I have this beautiful painting,

that's a meditation painting by a monk.

And piled all on top of the Buddha here are these necklaces.

They're called soon days and they're blessings

from Lamas to keep us safe while we're climbing.

And just keep us safe, generally, in life.

I keep this picture of Chung Mema.

And he's my friend and Sherpa who was

killed while climbing with me and I

just like to keep this photo.

In 2010 when I was trekking,

in the Khumbu area around Everest,

I met up with my friend and I asked him if he wanted

to go and climb a peak called Baruntse.

And so we went on an expedition together and

on the summit push, he was on top of some

ice on the summit ridge and it collapsed.

And an ice avalanche happened and he was

swept away and killed.

(haunting music)

And that moment changed my life.

And it was just the two of us.

And when he died, I was alone.

I would have rather, have died then

had to go to his wife and his two sons,

who were, you know, 13 and 14 and tell them

that he wasn't coming back.

That was the hardest day of my life.

And, you know, that was five years ago.

(instrumental music)

I miss him, you know and that'll never change.

(instrumental music)

You think I should stay?

So who's gonna walk you?

The mountain conditions that we're gonna

experience on this trip are going to be extremely variable.

We could have very high winds, we could have,

you know, very, very cold temperatures

down to negative 40.

And it can be, you know, really, really hot

when you're trying to travel during the day.

You know, I have to pack and plan for all

of those possibilities.

(instrumental music)

When I leave my house, to start this expedition,

I'm not even gonna be climbing for three more weeks.

And so there's all this excitement, there's all

this anticipation, there's all this preparation,

but I still have to get to base camp.

This season I have this huge personal challenge,

but I can't say that if I achieve it or if

I don't I'll be ready to, sort of, package up

Everest as that part of my life and move on.

It's become such an important part of

who I am and, I don't know, I think just like I

approach almost everything else in my life,

you know, I'll know when I'm done.

I'll know when it's time to immerse

myself in something else.

I still feel I have knowledge to gain

and gratitude to give.

And I'm just not done yet.

(laughs)

Ah, that's the last time I'll see my house until June.

My house is about to become a tent.

It's a little smaller but it's comfortable.

(instrumental music)