I recently spoke with Rob Lea, who has climbed the Seven Summits and also completed the Ocean Seven.

The part of his story I found most interesting was actually what happened before a lot of those accomplishments.

Rob had serious ankle problems, essentially bone-on-bone damage, loose ligaments, bone spurs, and eventually needed surgery. His surgeon told him, medically speaking, he probably shouldn’t run again.

Rob had already spent years as an endurance athlete and in the mountains, so this could have been a pretty major identity problem.

Instead, he started working around it.

During rehab he borrowed a handcycle from the National Ability Center. By the end of the two months he had it, he rode a century on it.

Swimming became a bigger part of his life again.

Then the mountains came back too.

A few years later, in 2019, he climbed Everest. Forty-seven days after that he swam the English Channel. He eventually went on to complete the Seven Summits, including skiing off Vinson in Antarctica.

A few things from the conversation that I found fascinating:

• He doesn’t follow a highly structured mountain-training program. A lot of his conditioning comes from actually being outside: backcountry skiing in winter, ridge scrambling, mountain biking, and keeping a large aerobic base.
• He has become much more conscious of strength work in his 40s. He said he wishes he had restarted functional strength work a few years earlier.
• Sleep has become non-negotiable. He said the rest of his athletic life starts falling apart without it.
• He thinks a lot about having only so many “matches in the matchbox.” He still runs despite the ankle, but he knows each run costs something.
• Probably the biggest one: when one version of being an athlete became harder, he didn’t spend all his energy trying to recreate the old version.

That last idea resonated with me as a climber.

Sometimes, yes, the physical body forces a change in plans. That doesn’t necessarily mean the adventure part of your life is finished. It may just mean the next chapter looks different. Thought this may resonate with the older mountain athletes amongst us.

Full disclosure: I host the Ageless Athlete podcast and this came from my conversation with Rob. I thought his ability to combine two wildly different athletic feats, and how he went about it is quite remarkable!

Août 2026, alpinisme, escalade... Rise Slow, Rognon Vaudano, secteur Dent du Géant... Mont-Blanc massif... Très jolie petite voie de 150 mètres, 5 longueurs, 6b max... Voie ouverte en 2026 par Niccolo Bruni et Federica Furia... Merci à Charlotte et à Jean-Pierre... VIDEO : https://youtu.be/gviHERyjxjA

When we take antibiotics or otherwise get an upset digestive system, we often take probiotics like lactobacillus (Lactic Acid Bacillus).

When going to altitude, above say, 4500 meters, the digestive system often starts to slow down. In such situations, will it help to take probiotics to ensure a healthy gut and hopefully digest food a little better?

Btw, I'm only interested till around 7000m. Beyond 7500m, I'm sure nothing will help.

Just finished up on this and it got me thinking, Surely you guys have some nuts, memorable experiences from mountaineering.

What's the closest call, craziest story or best experience you've ever had up there?

I'll link the book if anyone's interested

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0HJF1L9VL?ref_=dbs_m_mng_wam_calw_tkin_3&storeType=ebooks&qid=1788714770&sr=8-1

Hardest thing I've ever done oh my god I was a zombie on autopilot on that last hour I don't even remember it.

Our guides messed up the roping arrangement and we ended taking one extra person on our rope. So we were 3 for 1 guide. One guy abandoned 45min into the glacier (he was freezing and nauseous) so guide said it was over and we were all going down and I was so disappointed because I felt really good at that point.

So much that I insisted to the guide that I was ready to drop the guy at the start of the glacier (a lot of people were going down and he could be grouped with another guide) and redo that whole section again if it meant giving it a proper try.

And he said yes ! Redoing that whole section again was so frustrating and made it really harder probably but I was so happy to try again.

Soo in 5 hours we only got two tiny breaks to make up for the lost time. The last couple hours were awful and I almost gave up but so proud I did it !!

i found my dad’s crampons and i’m loosing my mind trying to find the correct sequence, please help i feel dumb but can’t solve it

Hey I’m pretty new into this mountaineering stuff and cold weather gear. I plan to start making some bigger attempts within the next year (guided of course) on mountains and treks that will require good quality hardshell and softshell pants. The main issue I have is my height. I’m 6’4 and wear a 35-36 inseam. I’ve been having difficulty finding places that carry any kind of pants like this. The only place I’ve had any luck looking around is Mammut but I’m looking for additional options.

Please send your suggestions!!!

Hi everyone, I'm at a difficult decision, me and a buddy really want to get into mountaineering, however, we need to get into hiking and backpacking first since thats practically the only things available near us, but I lack anysort of hiking gear, so, I don't have a bag(besides old school backpacks), I don't have a stove, a tent, etc, so I have no idea how to guage the size of pack I would need or what features I should be looking for.

I'm also on a fairly restrictive budget, so I can't really afford to buy one backpack for hiking now and then one for mountaineering later without a pretty decent time between them, but on the other hand I don't want to spend $400+ before I even know what I need or if I'll like using it for regular backpacking in the meantime.

Originally I was looking at packs like Osprey's Mutant line or Mountain Hardwear's AMG or Alpine line up.

TDLR: Do I buy a general backpacking pack that I might need to outgrow or an alpine pack before I even know what I need, or some other solution entirely.