The Mountain Never Told Me I Was Too Old
The biggest lie you'll ever believe is the story you tell yourself about what you're no longer capable of doing. Maybe you've heard it.
“You're too old.” “It's too late.” “You missed your chance.”
“You missed your chance.”
On an expedition in Argentina, I found myself listening to that voice.
In my 50s, I was preparing for an expedition to climb the highest volcanoes in the world in world-record time, repeatedly pushing above 22,000 feet into an environment where oxygen is scarce, and mistakes are amplified. I’ve spent decades climbing mountains, setting world records, and operating in extreme environments. On paper, I had every reason to feel confident.
Yet doubt showed up anyway. I had experience, but I was no longer 35.
As I studied weather patterns and planned routes, new questions crept in that would have seemed foreign years earlier. Would my body still adapt? Would I recover fast enough? Was I trying to hold on to a younger version of myself?
What struck me was how easily I was accepting the doubt as truth. This........
