ego a person’s sense of self-esteem or
self-importance or ego the main reason
that I am better than you now why am i
starting this talk tonight about this
beautiful iconic and powerful place
Mount Everest with definitions of ego
well the tie-in between Everest and ego
it’s me that’s me
pretty nice photo right so this photo is
my climbing partner slash National
Geographic photographers most liked
photo on Instagram ever thirty one
thousand two hundred and one likes last
time I checked about twenty-seven
minutes ago not bad right that’s me and
my world the world of climbing the
world’s tallest mountains and helping
others to reach those Heights as well
it’s a world it’s an easy place for your
ego to expand you stand on top of the
highest points on earth you help other
people to do the same for the last ten
years I’ve chosen my stage to be Mount
Everest the most visible of climbing
locations and in those ten years I’ve
summited seven times and helped 52
others to reach that summit as well
while around me every year 10 to 20
climbers lose their lives based on their
decision making I was married once there
was a long time ago it didn’t work out
so well maybe this slideshow will give
you just a little sense of why that
might have been but I have my wedding my
new father-in-law gave a toast and he
was a great speaker and he opened that
toast with this quote I’m not sure he
was too convinced about his daughter’s
choice in a life partner he said what’s
the difference between a mountain guide
and God God doesn’t think he’s a
mountain guide
so right there that’s why you need to
notice that one took a moment you’re
tired I got it right there that gives
you a little sense of the perspective
the mountain guides often have and I was
lucky for the past ten years as well as
guiding others to the tops of these tall
tall mountains my visibility also grew
as a professional athlete as a
professional climber and skier I chose
objectives in the Himalaya to test
myself on in 2011 I am my two Sherpa
teammates became the only people so far
to summit three 8,000 meter peaks in
less than one month I became the only
person to ski the eighth tallest
mountain in the world mana slew from his
true summit I became the only American
to have skied three 8,000 meter peaks
from their summits of course I had the
hot blonde professional famous climber
ten years younger than me as a
girlfriend no cliches for me and
big-name sponsors started doing major ad
campaigns with my expeditions first
Apple then Porsche then avid
pharmaceuticals Samsung CBS this morning
actually called my partner Cory and me
the kings of the mountain an ESPN
decided for the first time to feature
climbing on its show Sports Centre
during a one-hour special of our
expedition calling it Everest no filter
and on our chosen social media platform
snapchat yep snapchat we ended up on
expeditions having millions of daily
views hundreds of thousands of daily
comments and snaps sent back to us and
that makes sense it makes sense because
we were doing super important things on
snapchat things like this I almost
forgot the hair by Everest competition
so I took my hat off
I think I’m crushing the quarry right
now you can’t beat this hair by ever
saving ballinger
you can’t I’m gross I’m grosser than you
I’m grosser than you’ll ever be
yuck he is gross
so by 2016 I was in the lucky position
that I could I could suggest any project
I wanted in the mountains and be very
confident that I could get funding to go
and do that climb and so I decided I
wanted to return to Mount Everest but
this time I wanted to climb it without
supplemental oxygen there’s been a
little over 7,000 a sense of the
mountain with supplemental oxygen and
all of mine up to 2016 were with that
bottled oxygen there’s been less than
200 ascents without supplemental oxygen
and over 90% of people who tried failed
I chose Cory Richards as my partner he
was a strong competent capable alpinist
and importantly a National Geographic
photographer so for the next few minutes
it’s just one thing you need to remember
any incredible beautiful iconic photo
you saw Cory’s any photo a little bit
blurry maybe a finger in front of the
lens this guy here’s your first example
definitely a Corey photo and the process
of climbing Everest without supplemental
oxygen it’s a long and painful one not
only at home for the months before the
trip where your training and fundraising
but also on the mountain itself it takes
at least two and a half months to climb
Mount Everest without oxygen and that
time it’s not just going from the bottom
from base camp to the summit right that
takes about six days if I just walked
out of my tent at base camp went to the
summit six days but we’d all die if we
tried to do that we need to do what’s
called acclimatizing we need to build
more red blood cells to make our
cardiovascular system more efficient and
the only way to build those red blood
cells is to climb up as high as our
bodies can survive spend as much time
there just suffering through it as we
can that cause our body to release
hormones to build more red blood cells
but then we need to descend back down
the mountain to an altitude where a body
can actually make
Changez and then we do it over and over
and over again and during those six
weeks in 2016 acclimatizing I felt
incredible I was strong I was a fastest
climber on the mountain I was out with
the Sherpa fixing ropes carrying loads
always in front leading and really
that’s been my career on the mountain
and in the big mountains always in front
always the fastest looking down on my
teammates below men until I reached
27,000 feet camp for just 2,000 feet
from the summit of Mount Everest from
this dream I had had since I was 14
years old with millions of eyes watching
us through social media and our other
media partners I reached 27,000 feet and
I couldn’t get my body warm we spent
about four hours in a tent there not
sleeping just resting and hydrating and
even inside a sleeping bag and my down
jacket I just couldn’t stop shivering I
still left camp with chlorine at 10:00
p.m. as we had planned in our only
possible summit window and started
climbing but immediately Korey started
pulling away from me I saw I was like
disappearing in the distance as I got
slower and slower
shivering by 5:00 a.m. I’ve been
shivering uncontrollably for hours and I
couldn’t feel my hands to behind my
wrists that meant a couple of things
number one it meant I couldn’t work my
radio and anymore number two and then I
could no longer clip a device into the
fixed line the Rope that’s meant to keep
us connected to the mountain as we’re
nauseous and dizzy and exhausted from
the altitude with 9,000 feet dropping
down on this side on this knife-edged
Ridge down to Tibet and 4,000 feet
dropping down this side to Nepal at 5:00
a.m. I made the decision to turn around
Cory continued his quest and is 6:34
a.m. on May 24 2016 he stood on top of
Mount Everest for his first time without
supplemental oxygen meanwhile I returned
to camp four and put on our rescue
oxygen hoping to save my fingers and
not lose them to frostbite and I’d love
to tell you that once I descended to
base camp I immediately began analyzing
my failure what went wrong but it didn’t
work out that way
I had sponsors I didn’t want to lose I
had fans I didn’t want to disappoint I
had professional climbers to compare
myself to including Cory’s standing
right next to me who had summited on the
exact same day that I had turned around
so as we left the mountain and headed
straight to New York City for three days
of media and interviews the story I
created was one to protect my ego by the
time I hit New York an interview after
interview I actually became the hero of
this story
I turned my failure into success I was
shivering my hands were numb I was above
28,000 feet soloing I turned around so I
didn’t become a statistic on the
mountain I didn’t die up there
and not only that my turning around is
what enabled Cory to go to the summit
because he didn’t have to turn around
and rescue me on the Charlie Rose show
we got we got to share the stage with
General David Patraeus and he loved the
story he actually told me Cory’s job was
the easy one yours was the hard one you
showed discipline and I liked that my
ego like that it felt good but here’s
the thing the story I just told you it
wasn’t true here’s what really happened
between 25,000 feet and 27,000 feet on
the mountain between camp 3 and camp 4
getting to that last camp before we’d
make our summit push my speed
exponentially flows at those altitudes
as the pain becomes so much greater and
I’m trying to manage it meanwhile Cory
it’s hard to describe it’s like claw
read into a phone booth rips off his
Clark Kent glasses throws on his cape
and steps back out a superhero
he just doesn’t slow down like I do and
like the rest of us do and it doesn’t
really matter whether the weather
that’s because of genetics or because of
his incredible ability to suffer it’s
true
it’s incredible what matters is I
couldn’t handle it
my ego couldn’t handle watching this
story that I’ve always told myself flip
all of a sudden I wasn’t the strongest
climber on the mountain Cory was
stronger glory was faster and so on that
day what I did I decided I had to keep
up I poured everything into staying up
with Cory getting to 27,000 feet all of
my energy all of my willpower and you
know what I arrived at 27,000 feet camp
for fried on Cory’s heels I had done it
I had made it to 27,000 feet but Mount
Everest is 29,000 feet tall and I had
nothing left that’s why I couldn’t
rewarm that’s why I couldn’t stop
shivering I basically had this massive
bonk just like you might in a race or a
run at home except I had done it at
27,000 feet and Mount Everest doesn’t
give you second chances you can’t
recover from that I had nothing left to
give I’m standing here tonight in the
red circle I’d love to tell you that I
came up with that self-analysis myself
I’m that self-aware that I figured out
this issue but that too would be a story
the truth is the credit goes to Emily
Harrington my girlfriend who’s here
tonight somewhere Emily is also a
professional climber but she’s never
done the whole storytelling for ego
thing a social media in person in
slideshows she’s incredibly honest and
open and vulnerable she’s also got a
pretty interesting relationship with
Everest which she’s also climbed we
actually met on Everest in 2012 she
calls Everest Steve because she tries to
help she really has a clear sense of
perspective of what the mountain is and
isn’t and it is taken so much of my time
and of my relation
ship with everything else in my life to
pour into Steve so for the next few
minutes we’re gonna call Mount Everest
II I think it’ll help Emily helped me
work through that I needed to figure out
what my weaknesses were why I hadn’t
stood on the summit why I had turned
around and I went to a sports
performance lab to start in the middle
of the summer of 2016 to try to figure
out my weaknesses it took them all of
about three hours of testing to show me
exactly how weak I was as an endurance
athlete and very specific areas that I
could work on to improve if I hired your
coach if I hired a nutritionist if I
sucked it up and was willing to be weak
to get stronger that process of training
combined with me really trying to get a
hold of this perspective to keep my ego
in check and my father really helps with
this as well he reminds me on a
semi-regular basis and my sister who
teaches special needs students in some
of the hardest school districts in the
country can barely pay her bills and
gets near no recognition meanwhile I
walk up hills for a living and get to be
on national TV and he’s right
I get paid to walk uphill I get paid to
walk uphill really slowly really really
slowly that clip this clip this was
taken as I was moving in 2017 when I
returned to the mountain with cord this
was taken getting to 27,000 feet and
this day for me moving to this camp it
was as hard as any day on the mountain
once again chlorine turned into a
superhero and took off once again all I
wanted to do was follow him and keep up
but I didn’t I held back I remembered
what Emily’s told me well my dad’s told
me keep it in perspective I slowed down
I made it to camp four and I wasn’t
wasted
it’s 10:30 p.m. like I get to sleep a
little bit more cuz he’s faster than me
having a coffee wait for you guys I’m
about to take a step here gotta happen
there it is
it’s riveting TV right I have 43 hours
of this footage so if anyone wants to
check it out later let me know the wild
thing about this final push the last
three hours to the summit I remember
almost none of it that’s one of the
things about climbing this high without
oxygen I can tell you this last section
three hours of climbing I probably went
for about this red circle right here to
the doors at the front of the auditorium
that we walked in and the one thing I do
remember is Cory Richards he actually
put oxygen on so he could slow down stay
warm enough and go at my pace and he
just kept encouraging me on and on and
on until finally May 27th 1053 a.m. 2017
I stood on the summit of Steve without
supplemental oxygen thank and and this
is where I want to end my show right you
guys just applauded that was awesome I’m
the hero it feels good but you deserve
one more slide one more picture after
the summit and it’s this one
Oh summit day ended up being 43 hours
long to get up and back down and this
photo was taken about 28,000 700 feet
that’s me on a ladder massive exposure
behind me sound asleep yep asleep and
this is the truth of my expedition I
made the summit it took every bit of
energy I had every bit of will I had but
that wasn’t enough it took more it took
my teammates I don’t know if I would
have gotten down back off the mountain
without them they kept waking me up kept
pushing me kept encouraging me to
continue down and down and down and
that’s the truth honesty it’s something
I find so hard it’s hard on social media
it’s hard when people are watching it’s
hardest for me to myself but I truly
believe the reason I stood on top of
Steve without supplemental oxygen it’s
because of my honesty it’s this simple
simple concept we learn as kid
just tell the truth I believe that
concept will help each of us to achieve
some of our greatest dreams and my ego
it’s just gonna have to deal with it
thank you
self-importance or ego the main reason
that I am better than you now why am i
starting this talk tonight about this
beautiful iconic and powerful place
Mount Everest with definitions of ego
well the tie-in between Everest and ego
it’s me that’s me
pretty nice photo right so this photo is
my climbing partner slash National
Geographic photographers most liked
photo on Instagram ever thirty one
thousand two hundred and one likes last
time I checked about twenty-seven
minutes ago not bad right that’s me and
my world the world of climbing the
world’s tallest mountains and helping
others to reach those Heights as well
it’s a world it’s an easy place for your
ego to expand you stand on top of the
highest points on earth you help other
people to do the same for the last ten
years I’ve chosen my stage to be Mount
Everest the most visible of climbing
locations and in those ten years I’ve
summited seven times and helped 52
others to reach that summit as well
while around me every year 10 to 20
climbers lose their lives based on their
decision making I was married once there
was a long time ago it didn’t work out
so well maybe this slideshow will give
you just a little sense of why that
might have been but I have my wedding my
new father-in-law gave a toast and he
was a great speaker and he opened that
toast with this quote I’m not sure he
was too convinced about his daughter’s
choice in a life partner he said what’s
the difference between a mountain guide
and God God doesn’t think he’s a
mountain guide
so right there that’s why you need to
notice that one took a moment you’re
tired I got it right there that gives
you a little sense of the perspective
the mountain guides often have and I was
lucky for the past ten years as well as
guiding others to the tops of these tall
tall mountains my visibility also grew
as a professional athlete as a
professional climber and skier I chose
objectives in the Himalaya to test
myself on in 2011 I am my two Sherpa
teammates became the only people so far
to summit three 8,000 meter peaks in
less than one month I became the only
person to ski the eighth tallest
mountain in the world mana slew from his
true summit I became the only American
to have skied three 8,000 meter peaks
from their summits of course I had the
hot blonde professional famous climber
ten years younger than me as a
girlfriend no cliches for me and
big-name sponsors started doing major ad
campaigns with my expeditions first
Apple then Porsche then avid
pharmaceuticals Samsung CBS this morning
actually called my partner Cory and me
the kings of the mountain an ESPN
decided for the first time to feature
climbing on its show Sports Centre
during a one-hour special of our
expedition calling it Everest no filter
and on our chosen social media platform
snapchat yep snapchat we ended up on
expeditions having millions of daily
views hundreds of thousands of daily
comments and snaps sent back to us and
that makes sense it makes sense because
we were doing super important things on
snapchat things like this I almost
forgot the hair by Everest competition
so I took my hat off
I think I’m crushing the quarry right
now you can’t beat this hair by ever
saving ballinger
you can’t I’m gross I’m grosser than you
I’m grosser than you’ll ever be
yuck he is gross
so by 2016 I was in the lucky position
that I could I could suggest any project
I wanted in the mountains and be very
confident that I could get funding to go
and do that climb and so I decided I
wanted to return to Mount Everest but
this time I wanted to climb it without
supplemental oxygen there’s been a
little over 7,000 a sense of the
mountain with supplemental oxygen and
all of mine up to 2016 were with that
bottled oxygen there’s been less than
200 ascents without supplemental oxygen
and over 90% of people who tried failed
I chose Cory Richards as my partner he
was a strong competent capable alpinist
and importantly a National Geographic
photographer so for the next few minutes
it’s just one thing you need to remember
any incredible beautiful iconic photo
you saw Cory’s any photo a little bit
blurry maybe a finger in front of the
lens this guy here’s your first example
definitely a Corey photo and the process
of climbing Everest without supplemental
oxygen it’s a long and painful one not
only at home for the months before the
trip where your training and fundraising
but also on the mountain itself it takes
at least two and a half months to climb
Mount Everest without oxygen and that
time it’s not just going from the bottom
from base camp to the summit right that
takes about six days if I just walked
out of my tent at base camp went to the
summit six days but we’d all die if we
tried to do that we need to do what’s
called acclimatizing we need to build
more red blood cells to make our
cardiovascular system more efficient and
the only way to build those red blood
cells is to climb up as high as our
bodies can survive spend as much time
there just suffering through it as we
can that cause our body to release
hormones to build more red blood cells
but then we need to descend back down
the mountain to an altitude where a body
can actually make
Changez and then we do it over and over
and over again and during those six
weeks in 2016 acclimatizing I felt
incredible I was strong I was a fastest
climber on the mountain I was out with
the Sherpa fixing ropes carrying loads
always in front leading and really
that’s been my career on the mountain
and in the big mountains always in front
always the fastest looking down on my
teammates below men until I reached
27,000 feet camp for just 2,000 feet
from the summit of Mount Everest from
this dream I had had since I was 14
years old with millions of eyes watching
us through social media and our other
media partners I reached 27,000 feet and
I couldn’t get my body warm we spent
about four hours in a tent there not
sleeping just resting and hydrating and
even inside a sleeping bag and my down
jacket I just couldn’t stop shivering I
still left camp with chlorine at 10:00
p.m. as we had planned in our only
possible summit window and started
climbing but immediately Korey started
pulling away from me I saw I was like
disappearing in the distance as I got
slower and slower
shivering by 5:00 a.m. I’ve been
shivering uncontrollably for hours and I
couldn’t feel my hands to behind my
wrists that meant a couple of things
number one it meant I couldn’t work my
radio and anymore number two and then I
could no longer clip a device into the
fixed line the Rope that’s meant to keep
us connected to the mountain as we’re
nauseous and dizzy and exhausted from
the altitude with 9,000 feet dropping
down on this side on this knife-edged
Ridge down to Tibet and 4,000 feet
dropping down this side to Nepal at 5:00
a.m. I made the decision to turn around
Cory continued his quest and is 6:34
a.m. on May 24 2016 he stood on top of
Mount Everest for his first time without
supplemental oxygen meanwhile I returned
to camp four and put on our rescue
oxygen hoping to save my fingers and
not lose them to frostbite and I’d love
to tell you that once I descended to
base camp I immediately began analyzing
my failure what went wrong but it didn’t
work out that way
I had sponsors I didn’t want to lose I
had fans I didn’t want to disappoint I
had professional climbers to compare
myself to including Cory’s standing
right next to me who had summited on the
exact same day that I had turned around
so as we left the mountain and headed
straight to New York City for three days
of media and interviews the story I
created was one to protect my ego by the
time I hit New York an interview after
interview I actually became the hero of
this story
I turned my failure into success I was
shivering my hands were numb I was above
28,000 feet soloing I turned around so I
didn’t become a statistic on the
mountain I didn’t die up there
and not only that my turning around is
what enabled Cory to go to the summit
because he didn’t have to turn around
and rescue me on the Charlie Rose show
we got we got to share the stage with
General David Patraeus and he loved the
story he actually told me Cory’s job was
the easy one yours was the hard one you
showed discipline and I liked that my
ego like that it felt good but here’s
the thing the story I just told you it
wasn’t true here’s what really happened
between 25,000 feet and 27,000 feet on
the mountain between camp 3 and camp 4
getting to that last camp before we’d
make our summit push my speed
exponentially flows at those altitudes
as the pain becomes so much greater and
I’m trying to manage it meanwhile Cory
it’s hard to describe it’s like claw
read into a phone booth rips off his
Clark Kent glasses throws on his cape
and steps back out a superhero
he just doesn’t slow down like I do and
like the rest of us do and it doesn’t
really matter whether the weather
that’s because of genetics or because of
his incredible ability to suffer it’s
true
it’s incredible what matters is I
couldn’t handle it
my ego couldn’t handle watching this
story that I’ve always told myself flip
all of a sudden I wasn’t the strongest
climber on the mountain Cory was
stronger glory was faster and so on that
day what I did I decided I had to keep
up I poured everything into staying up
with Cory getting to 27,000 feet all of
my energy all of my willpower and you
know what I arrived at 27,000 feet camp
for fried on Cory’s heels I had done it
I had made it to 27,000 feet but Mount
Everest is 29,000 feet tall and I had
nothing left that’s why I couldn’t
rewarm that’s why I couldn’t stop
shivering I basically had this massive
bonk just like you might in a race or a
run at home except I had done it at
27,000 feet and Mount Everest doesn’t
give you second chances you can’t
recover from that I had nothing left to
give I’m standing here tonight in the
red circle I’d love to tell you that I
came up with that self-analysis myself
I’m that self-aware that I figured out
this issue but that too would be a story
the truth is the credit goes to Emily
Harrington my girlfriend who’s here
tonight somewhere Emily is also a
professional climber but she’s never
done the whole storytelling for ego
thing a social media in person in
slideshows she’s incredibly honest and
open and vulnerable she’s also got a
pretty interesting relationship with
Everest which she’s also climbed we
actually met on Everest in 2012 she
calls Everest Steve because she tries to
help she really has a clear sense of
perspective of what the mountain is and
isn’t and it is taken so much of my time
and of my relation
ship with everything else in my life to
pour into Steve so for the next few
minutes we’re gonna call Mount Everest
II I think it’ll help Emily helped me
work through that I needed to figure out
what my weaknesses were why I hadn’t
stood on the summit why I had turned
around and I went to a sports
performance lab to start in the middle
of the summer of 2016 to try to figure
out my weaknesses it took them all of
about three hours of testing to show me
exactly how weak I was as an endurance
athlete and very specific areas that I
could work on to improve if I hired your
coach if I hired a nutritionist if I
sucked it up and was willing to be weak
to get stronger that process of training
combined with me really trying to get a
hold of this perspective to keep my ego
in check and my father really helps with
this as well he reminds me on a
semi-regular basis and my sister who
teaches special needs students in some
of the hardest school districts in the
country can barely pay her bills and
gets near no recognition meanwhile I
walk up hills for a living and get to be
on national TV and he’s right
I get paid to walk uphill I get paid to
walk uphill really slowly really really
slowly that clip this clip this was
taken as I was moving in 2017 when I
returned to the mountain with cord this
was taken getting to 27,000 feet and
this day for me moving to this camp it
was as hard as any day on the mountain
once again chlorine turned into a
superhero and took off once again all I
wanted to do was follow him and keep up
but I didn’t I held back I remembered
what Emily’s told me well my dad’s told
me keep it in perspective I slowed down
I made it to camp four and I wasn’t
wasted
it’s 10:30 p.m. like I get to sleep a
little bit more cuz he’s faster than me
having a coffee wait for you guys I’m
about to take a step here gotta happen
there it is
it’s riveting TV right I have 43 hours
of this footage so if anyone wants to
check it out later let me know the wild
thing about this final push the last
three hours to the summit I remember
almost none of it that’s one of the
things about climbing this high without
oxygen I can tell you this last section
three hours of climbing I probably went
for about this red circle right here to
the doors at the front of the auditorium
that we walked in and the one thing I do
remember is Cory Richards he actually
put oxygen on so he could slow down stay
warm enough and go at my pace and he
just kept encouraging me on and on and
on until finally May 27th 1053 a.m. 2017
I stood on the summit of Steve without
supplemental oxygen thank and and this
is where I want to end my show right you
guys just applauded that was awesome I’m
the hero it feels good but you deserve
one more slide one more picture after
the summit and it’s this one
Oh summit day ended up being 43 hours
long to get up and back down and this
photo was taken about 28,000 700 feet
that’s me on a ladder massive exposure
behind me sound asleep yep asleep and
this is the truth of my expedition I
made the summit it took every bit of
energy I had every bit of will I had but
that wasn’t enough it took more it took
my teammates I don’t know if I would
have gotten down back off the mountain
without them they kept waking me up kept
pushing me kept encouraging me to
continue down and down and down and
that’s the truth honesty it’s something
I find so hard it’s hard on social media
it’s hard when people are watching it’s
hardest for me to myself but I truly
believe the reason I stood on top of
Steve without supplemental oxygen it’s
because of my honesty it’s this simple
simple concept we learn as kid
just tell the truth I believe that
concept will help each of us to achieve
some of our greatest dreams and my ego
it’s just gonna have to deal with it
thank you
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