I climbed the vertical height of Mount Everest in 36 hours—it turned me into 'a new version of myself'

What's your hobby? An innocent question, but one that has plagued me. I've always been a curious person who was interested in learning new things and struggled to pick one or two areas to focus on. After years of frustration, I finally decided that my hobby would be "collecting new experiences" and devised a plan: Every year I would commit myself to a few new experiences that would challenge and change me. In 2025, I decided to climb Mount Everest. Well, almost. I signed up for an endurance event called the 29029 challenge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The idea was to scale a smaller mountain 19 times within 36 hours, climbing a total of 29,029 feet: the vertical equivalent of Everest. Imagine a line of 300 people hiking up a sheer slope, taking a chairlift back down from the top, and then repeating the loop continuously for a day and a half. As I registered, I felt both excited and nauseous. I had never attempted anything close. What would it take? Could I dig deep enough when the inevitable pain and doubt came? How would I find time to do the training with a consultant's travel schedule? I'm proud to say I earned the coveted Red Hat, awarded to participants who finish the event. But that was never the real prize. The real win was learning how to be a different version of myself — one who could commit fully and keep going even when my body (and mind) begged me to stop. That new version of me now shows up better at work and at home. …