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in the video description uh it was just as hard I think as I was expecting I
might die here I was going to have to turn back I was quite certain within
about the first half hour of the hike that I was not going to make it I expected a Expedition where we
would be camping out at the top or on the middle of the mountain and that it
would be take maybe two or three days um I definitely was not disappointed when I
found out that was not the case and when I found out about this I was really
excited I thought it would be a great trip and whether it was an overnight trip or not I was pumped I love the
outdoors I love hiking um so I was just really excited overall I felt somewhat
ready uh I've been training for a backpack that I'm doing in about 3 weeks
uh so I am in somewhat better shape than I was maybe six or or nine months ago um
but still with the elevation with everything I I was a bit concerned I'm
really glad that I made it but uh it was just as hard I think as I was expecting
I didn't prepare nearly enough uh the one thing I'm really glad I did is at
the very last possible second and my doctor really gave me um a lot of heck
about this is I went in and I got a prescription for some drug whose name I
can't pronounce that is supposed to supposedly help with altitude sickness
up to an altitud of around 8,000 ft of course the town we're staying at is at
around what 11,000 ft and then the Summit is over 14,000 fet so I did not
nearly adequately prepare for the altitude change uh the one thing I was
really happy with was my hiking gear even if it had rained I think I still
would have been okay but I was I was pretty well set up for that the real
part was bringing my shoes to The Cobbler I have these really nice hiking boots and the front flap on one of them
is completely destroyed and the rest of it is kind of fine they fixed the back
which had no real issues and then left the front flapping I was like this is
not what you do at a cobbler took them back to The Cobbler to be like okay I
need you guys to actually fix this they said oh yeah we close at 9: on Saturday
you can come pick them up I Googled them too and it said they closed at 9: I show
up they closed at 600 I showed up about 610 did not get my boots back and then I
walked the whole thing in basketball shoes that I B from a friend uh the
ascent below the tree line um was where I really got worried about my team
overall um I had realized by about 30
minutes in that neither of my camera operators were going to be able to
capture the ascent with their cameras because they were at the very very back
of the pack uh also below the tree line I had begun to experience numbness up to
from about my fingertips to here in my hand and S is in the fingertips meaning
that I was succumbing to altitude sickness I gave myself 15 minutes to
have it subside um and I went pretty slow to hopefully acclimate a little bit
more before I figured I was going to have to turn back I was quite certain
within about the first half hour of the hike that I was not going to make it
having never hiked anything ever before not even like the grass grind in
Vancouver which is the easiest thing in the world because it's just stairs um I
went out and bought shoes I went out and bought like Cliff bar way too many Cliff
Bars I get to the hotel and I carry my
normal luggage like my clothing luggage and my backpack up up the stairs and I
almost blacked out up the stairs the altitude just knocked me to the floor
like I could not move without my head pounding like I I was lying in bed just
gasping for air uh so when thinking
about the next day I was like w I'm going to die I never thought I would do
anything like this I mean I do like walks and Hikes and stuff but not like
up 14,000 ft on a mountain so yeah no I
mean especially not taking like keyboards and laptops and the whole deal
no I never thought in a million years I would do it but you know what glad I did
it was awesome I've done some 13,000ft
mountains before in the past so I knew ex kind of what to expect not in
Colorado out in California um and I knew
it was going to be one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life so just
mentally I felt like I was respecting the mountain so the ascent below the
tree line was uh it was the beginning of the day uh full
of energy I only got maybe three and a half four hours of sleep so once I got
into the woods this is like my home ground I'm originally from Alaska so
going right back into this kind of space and climbing up through all these woods
and jumping through these Trails was reminding me back when I was like 10 my
Ascent um was pretty miserable I was pretty horrified the entire time up I
honestly didn't think I was going to make it within the first 15 20 minutes of the hike I was so out of breath and
I'm like I'm only like 5% up the mountain and at this rate I'm going to
die before I actually make it to the top but there came a certain point I think
it was probably after the tree line when I was you know more than halfway there
where I was like well I'm pretty much forced into making it to the top at this
point I'm not going to just come all this way and then turn around and head back down that was just be a complete
failure it was just out of the option so I just I hated the fact that I knew that
I had to finish the hike but it was cool uh I think they had a little bit more
Brawn than brain and they just decided to like we're going to do this and they
did it um multiple people made like kind
of like wrong decisions like I think Luke probably should have turned around
earlier but he was like a monster he's like I don't give a I'm going to
make it to the top Nothing is Stopping me and you would ask me are you okay
he's like nope I'm still going above the tree line the ascent got much easier for
me I actually didn't experience any altitude sickness related symptoms once
I got past the trees and aside from I'd
say the really the really tough part was the extremely vertical Rocky and not
very grippy slope where your feet could slip out from under you that was about
halfway between the tree line and the actual Summit that was the most
difficult part for me where we were basically taking 20 maybe 30 40 steps
and then we were sitting down and uh
taking like a bite of Cliff bar and then a drink from the camel back before we
could keep going being on the summit and actually achieving this I mean we
thought about this over a year and a half ago and I always say this is an
excuse to work while having fun at the same time cuz I love doing this kind of
stuff actually being up there and doing it it was was I don't know kind of a
weird feeling it was had this weird I didn't I almost felt nothing and
everything at the same time you look around and it's like this amazing view
and then you're like playing Doom which is the game that got me started on land
gaming and the game that got just about everyone else started on land gaming and the game that got land gaming started
pretty much in the first place standing at the top of a
14,400 ft mountain is one thing standing
at the top of a 14,400 foot mountain
with a bunch of guys with laptops and keyboards playing doom on a landan with
the batteries that we hauled up and the router that we hauled up and we got like
notebooks strewn across rocks and we got keyboards in our laps and we're all
yelling because Kane is killing everyone and so there's Victory Cries From like
that one spot and then moaning from pretty much everywhere else it was
unlike anything that I've ever ever experienced before in my life it was
absolutely stunning and beautiful um and yet I was looking at it screen but not
the whole time so I got to have both of those outstanding experiences at the
same time you know it's funny that you ask that because the most memorable
thing for me was actually not necessarily the summit itself or the
view from the summit it was when I began to realize how high up we were when I
was looking down on lakes and they were getting smaller and smaller so it maybe
wasn't one image but it was hiking for 10 or 15 minutes and realizing how much
higher I was than I was even even 10 minutes ago and just marveling at what
we were achieving and the people around me that were doing it too cuz I had
people in front of me that I was watching make the climb and I had people
behind me that I was looking back at watching them come over the same terrain that I was and having that experience of
progress was uh probably the most memorable thing about the trip for me oh
hoisting the Highlander flag was uh was Unreal I mean what we went through to
get that flag made at the last minute and then standing there having had so
much of our team actually make it to the top I mean I straight up didn't think I
was going to make it I was sure Brandon wasn't going to make it and uh just
being able to all be there holding the flag having it waving flapping in the
wind was uh a truly once in a-lifetime
experience I'm so proud of Brandon when he came over the top of the hill I was
floored because we crossed a small Creek at the very bottom and his foot fell in
and he barely made it across the logs and I was like dude we're like 15
minutes into this you're not going to make it man and uh as we were had all
finished packing up and we were at the end of the journey and we were going
home he comes up over the edge and I'm like dude come here there's no time for
you to sign the book the snow's coming down but I got the camera you got to
touch the flag that's at the top I'm going to video it it happened so I was I
was so proud of him it I was just exhausted I was out of breath I I kept
looking up at everyone else that was in front of me and I wasn't I was like I'm
not going to be able to keep up with him how am I going to how am I going to do my job cuz like as a camera operator I I
have to capture what's going on and I just I was working really hard and I
really really did not have any confidence that I was going to make it
you just have to keep believing and making sure that you find a rhythm and
everything that don't don't get in the zone where everything that you think is
pulling you down just make it leave your head and and just keep on
pushing knowing I was so close to making it and then just making the decision to
turn back I I don't think I regret it
couldn't catch my breath like even just sitting there I was gasping
freezing I just had to turn back
and I think that was the right choice so cair gives us like you know k95 and k70
RGB keyboards and I thought we were going to get a mouse so I know the guys
at course here were like they're going to carry this to the top I knew they were laughing at us I just knew that
they were laughing knowing that we're were going to carry these things to the top now I cannot stand gaming on a
laptop because I just don't deal with the keys so I was I put it right on top
of the keyboard and I was really really happy and I I made sure that I grabbed
the brown switches CU I like the brown switches a lot so I like dug through the pile and I made sure I got that one
there was only like one or two of them and I grabbed it so I was really happy about that and then the gaming laptop
was completely Overkill because we're playing Doom right so we've got you know
the ASUS laptop it's got the the brand new 4710 in it so we're we're just
taxing the hell out of that 4710 with doom but it was a really Sleek laptop I
I I do like the aesthetic of it The Descent was terrible uh I was fine all
the way up and then we started coming down and I couldn't really breathe properly I started getting seriously
dizzy I had a migraine and I think due to the migraine I couldn't really see
very well it got to a point at actually at one point where I couldn't see pretty much at all uh I threw up about six
times which is a big problem du dehydration and stuff like that and it
was it was bad once I got to the tree line though I laid down for about 5
minutes I'm in the trees the air is a lot better there's a lot better in the trees than it is even in town and sprang
back up and I was completely okay everything was gone no vision problems no more vomiting everything's fine we
start going down and then we realize Jimmy's not really Keeping Up With The
Pack and he's got a whole bunch of problems with his knees and he's feeling
sick and all that kind of stuff so so on the way down I got past the steepest
part and right after the steepest part I literally felt like I had no energy in
my body whatsoever and my knees were starting to like hurt really bad because
I just had no energy Austin and I run back and shoulder carry him we start
rotating bags around I'm carrying Jimmy Logan's helping and we eventually kind
of make it down we're at the point where we're rationing water because we have basically none left we're eating tons of
different food we have no communication with the base camp at this point in time
when I was coming down at one point lonus was anchoring me and then because
I couldn't see then he takes off he's like I'm going to go get some footage up ahead I'm like okay and I kind of stay
there and then I see him sprinting down the hill and and I'm like oh so guess
he's not coming back thanks bro and then we're trying to get down the last part
through the trees we're messaging Kane and we're me trying to message people
and we get a message back that's like some quote from some freaking movie that
I don't even remember I'm like thanks bro so we're trying to get down this
mountain we have no water left people are seriously dehydrated like having
actual issues we're carrying people like
ridiculous I get down to the bottom like we all get down to the bottom there's a
lightning storm partway through we all get down to the bottom I'm ready to
murder lonus I'm ready to murder Kane I'm ready to murder multiple people but
I'm just like I'm just going to shut up and wait and see what the stories are
everyone had good stories so it was okay I didn't have to kill anyone and then
yeah that was that was The Descent all by myself in the snowstorm wearing a
shirt and windbreaker I had like this
much of Gatorade left this much of a cliff bar left and I was thinking I
could actually die up here I had bumped into a couple who are who were making
their way down they're like hey do you need some water or food I'm like yes
please okay so we kind of came around this Bend and you come around this Bend
and then there's these last set of switchbacks and you can see the the uh
parking lot down below but there's still like another good quarter half mile to
get down these switchbacks right as we come around there some rain starts
falling and we start to hear a couple lightning a couple Thunderbolts uh I
started Counting as soon as I would see a flash the first one was only maybe
five or 6 seconds still too close to comfort but we just as soon as we
started hearing the first one or two we started moving much much faster coming
around this one Switchback is the most Vivid experience that I had I was
looking straight down I could see uh Brandon and um who who was still in
front of me at that point uh Brandon and Luke were in front of me and at the end
of the Switchback where it turns back just beyond lightning bolt just straight
down and no no delay at all between when the lightning bolt went and the thunder
so it's just like it's on top of you at any moment you're thinking if if
lightning hits a tree next to me it could Arc over to me and you could just
die or or maybe just get really badly
injured I guess but uh so at that point we were fearing for our lives and the adrenaline took us the rest of the way
down the mountain it was a harrowing frightening uh kind of terrible
experience but uh honestly very memorable and in retrospect since nobody
died I guess good to some to some degree
back
back let it be known to the world that lonus is a litterbug you should be
ashamed of yourself we in a beautiful place there's food in here shame and you
threw it on the ground threw it on the ground I the rest of the
cake too