Adventure 2 Advance

On May 19^th, in one of the deadliest years on record, Steve Curtis and Sam Wyatt successfully summited the tallest mountain in the world and made it back alive.  Now for the first time in public, they will share the details of their harrowing Journey with friends, family, and the public.

On July 8^th, come celebrate and welcome them home! This will be a night to remember – with great food, drinks and sharing at Canvas Lounge in Gastown Vancouver. This event is to raise financial support for at risk youth and to inspire ALL ages, so bring the family! Sam and Steve will share the details of their amazing experience with photos, videos, and on the edge of your seat stories.  They will trace their steps from the original dream, through planning and training, to the actual climb and the journey through the death zone and back.

Sam and Steve will share the lessons they learned and the importance of dreams, discipline, planning, and living life in service to others. They will also include excerpts from their video diaries expressing their emotions in real time, including experiencing the death of a fellow climber, walking through bodies to the summit, and what it feels like to be on the top of the world.

Whether you’re a hardcore climber or have never hiked a day in your life, this will be a night not to miss.  In their real life ‘Into Thin Air’ story, Steve and Sam will share gripping details of their personal experiences climbing Lobuche and Everest not yet shared in the more than 25 press articles they have been in since their return.

Continuing their mission for this climb of raising $150,000 for the expansion of Take A Hike (a local charity in which Steve is highly involved) tickets will be $50, or $100 per family with $25 dollars and $50 per ticket respectively going directly to Take A Hike. There will also be door prizes, a live DJ, gifts, an auction and autographs for the kids. Steve and Sam will also be flying in one of the real heroes, Dawa, one of Sam and Steve’s heroic summit Sherpa’s.

Mark the date down now and buy your ticket early before they sell out. It is expected that this event will reach capacity quickly.

Event Details

Date: July 8^th

Time: 6pm. With presentation starting at 7PM sharp.

Location: Canvas Lounge, 99 Powell St, Gastown, Vancouver, BC

Tickets: Tickets will be $50, or $100 per family Google link. For address book and calendar.

All ages welcome!

See you there!!

**If you cant make the party but would still like to donate, please click here.

**If you would like to donate something to the live auction, please contact us ASAP to be included!

**If you cannot afford the ticket price, please email give@adventure2advance.org to discuss alternate arrangements. We would still love to have you there.

So this is it. Back at base camp North. Finishing up 4 days of rest and relaxation in what seems like paradise compared to where we came from.

The past few weeks have taken us to up and down and up and down and as high as almost 24,000 feet, taller than any mountain outside of the Himalayas.  Life at base camp is so much nicer than higher on the mountain; this is in fact why we hike the 20k down the valley to rest up before the final push.

Its not that it’s any warmer (maybe a little) or that the accommodations are any nicer (my same trusty steed – the north face tent!) but it’s that we feel more human. Humans are not meant to go where we have been and more so where we are going.

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I am writing this from base camp North – at the threshold of second phase of our journey. This is the phase where we go up, then down, then up, then down and so on and so on until our bodies finally relinquish their grasp on sanity and submit to the highest altitude in the world!

We have traveled 13,504 km by air – Vancouver > Hong Kong> Bangladesh> Nepal and hundreds more kilometers by truck and on foot. We have already climbed 2 mountains and trekked for 14 days since arriving here in preparation for what is to come.

We have traveled through some of the poorest and dirtiest places in the world and have met some of the most amazing people (some of whom are the brave and powerful Sherpa’s that are supporting us on this adventure).

We have strengthened our bodies and developed our vital camaraderie that will allow us to work together to survive as a team. We have also developed a small part of the acclimatization we will need to make it to the top and back alive.

What lies ahead will be the some of the hardest days of our lives. Described by Sam as a bad hangover that lasts 3 to 6 weeks. We will have poor sleep, constant headaches, foggy thinking, swelling, nausea, constant coughing, and not much appetite. We will likely have lots of stomach problems and will freeze our butts off (literally) with frequent bathroom breaks. We may get food poisoning again.

Most painful of all, at least for me, will be the waiting. Waiting for our bodies to adjust one step at a time to the mind and spirit – telling my body that I am going, and you body, are coming with me. For every day we push our physical bodies to the max, we will have a day of absolute nothing sitting in cold tent.

All I can say is thank god for Audible.com and the myriad of enlightening titles that accompany me. I know it’s a little over kill, but I am already 7 books in and Sam is 2 in.

Thank you also for Sam and his mediation practice, which brings me along, and his vast spiritual depth. After the books, meditation, late night talks, and pushing existence to the edge, I fear that I will not return the same person I left.

Why am I here is a question that comes up a lot. I have different answers depending on when and where I am.

As I write this, Sam and I await perhaps the last Skype video chat from basecamp before our final summit push in three or so weeks. He is staying up late to see his wife and daughter and I am staying up to see the tears that roll down and are quickly wiped from his cheeks when he asks the same questions as I, looking at the two people he love and misses so much. I can’t help join him, as my tears flow, flow as I think about the many amazing people I love at home that I am away from for so long. People that are making so many sacrifices for me, so that I may live a dream and adventure in this dark, foggy and cold unknown.

It will be another cold night on the Tibetan plateau. But dreams, service to others, the chance to really find out what we are made of, and most powerful, coming home to those we love; these are the things that will keep our steps sound, one after another, after another. Only a million or so more steps to go.

Steve Curtis

The team changed the first part of the trek from Island Peak to Lobuche. Lobuche (also spelt Lobuje) is a Nepalese mountain which lies close to the Khumbu Glacier. Lobuche is 6,145 metres (20,161 ft).

The team arrived safe and sound in Kathmandu Nepal and have now setoff on the first part of their adventure – the Island Peak trek.

Here are some of the pics of them getting ready to setoff!

Five years ago I was told I had 24 months to live. Thanks to a number of people who wanted to help me, five years later I am still alive and doing very well. What I was required to do in order to turn my life around was nothing short of a miracle. It was a complete reinvention of me and who I wanted to become.

I was given the ultimate choice: to dramatically change everything about how I showed up in this world and maybe have another chance at life, or to submit to circumstances and die.

With the help, support and guidance of many of you – my friends, colleagues and teachers, I found a way to beat the odds. Miraculously, despite no available treatment, today I’m living y different life- one of more prosperity, passion, love and absolute joy than ever before.

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Send us your personal affirmation for our ascent of Everest.  It’s a lot of small steps and we’ll have a lot of time to think about why we are on the mountain.  It can a personal goal, a wish for a friend or a blessing for anyone, or everyone.  Just put your words into the comment section of this blog and they will be with us to propel us to the summit.

In gratitude,

Sam and Steve