How a lot does it price to climb Mount Everest and the Seven Summits

Vivian James Rigney is not any informal traveler.

The manager coach and speaker has visited greater than 80 nations and lived on three continents.

He is additionally climbed the very best mountains on all seven continents, the so-called Seven Summits.

It is a feat that took him 14 years — one, he estimates, that fewer than 1,000 individuals have accomplished.

And he did it regardless of being “afraid of heights,” he stated.

In an interview with CNBC Journey, Rigney talked about what he discovered — and the way a lot it price him — to achieve a few of the highest factors on earth.  

Rigney estimates he is paid between $170,000 and $180,000 to climb the Seven Summits, he stated.

“Everest is, by far, the most costly,” he stated, including that he paid about $80,000 when he climbed it in 2010.

“You must save and construct a plan,” he stated. “That is why it took me years. I began, then I went to enterprise college, all my cash was gone into that, then I began once more, acquired a brand new job … Piece by piece, I regularly acquired by means of it.”

However there’s one other price — the time away from work, stated Rigney. Fortunately, he stated his employers supported his objectives.

“When you have employer … they will see [personal goals] as one thing which may also help carry the spirits of the corporate,” he stated.

Along with prices, the Seven Summits fluctuate significantly when it comes to climbing issue, stated Rigney.  

He stated Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro is “straightforward,” calling it “technically not difficult in any respect.”

However it’s excessive sufficient to really feel altitude illness, he stated, which stops some climbers from reaching the highest.

Kilimanjaro might be climbed in every week, he stated. Antarctica’s Vinson Massif can take two weeks — “when you’re fortunate” — and North America’s Denali three to 4 weeks.

However Mount Everest is a “large logistical operation” that takes about two months, he stated. It is by far essentially the most tough and harmful climb, he stated, calling the expertise “excruciatingly painful.”  

“Each cell in your physique is saying you should not be right here,” he stated. “Your instinct goes nuts.”

He stated he arrived “bulked up and tremendous match.” Regardless of consuming 7,000 to eight,000 energy a day — primarily potatoes, pasta and dry meals — he stated he misplaced 20 kilos through the Everest climb.

Staying heat takes an amazing quantity of vitality, he stated. Every thing freezes, he stated, together with LCD digital camera screens.

“We’ve what we name a pee bag. You pee on this bag, and also you seal it and you set that into the sleeper bag with you as a result of it is heat.”

There are solely about three to 5 days within the climbing season that climbers can attain Everest’s summit. In the event that they do, it is a fast victory, stated Rigney.

“Folks do not cling across the summit for hours,” he stated. “You get the heck off the mountain as fast as you’ll be able to.”

Rigney is now an government coach and speaker, instructing company executives classes he discovered from pushing himself, mentally and bodily, to the restrict.

He is additionally the writer of “Bare on the Knife’s Edge,” a ebook about how he is used a few of the most harrowing moments from his Everest climb for skilled success.

He stated he helps “overachievers… [with] tons on their thoughts” obtain stability and break habits “which pull us alongside … as if we’re on a conveyor belt.”

For instance, concern — whether or not it is of public talking or his personal concern of heights — might be overcome utilizing tips of the thoughts, he stated.

And leaders should study to just accept issues which are out of their management, be it an harm or a pandemic, he stated.  

He stated he nonetheless laughs when he thinks about arriving at a small airplane hangar in Kathmandu one hour earlier than he was scheduled to fly to the foothills of the Himalayas.

“I keep in mind going as much as this gentleman … and I stated ‘Hey… what time do you suppose we’ll be leaving?'” stated Rigney. “He stated: ‘Possibly right this moment, hopefully by tomorrow, possible by the top of the week.'”

Ten minutes later, one other climber, who acquired the identical reply, exploded with anger, he stated.  

“Ultimately this man seems to be over, crimson with steam popping out his ears, and we’re simply howling. I feel it lastly clicked — like that is the place you might be. That is about climate within the Himalayas!”

It is simply one in every of a protracted listing of “issues we are able to management and issues we can not,” stated Rigney.