Vivian James Rigney isn’t an occasional traveler.
The manager coach and speaker has visited over 80 international locations and lived on three continents.
He additionally climbed the best mountains of the seven continents, the so-called Seven Peaks.
It is a feat that took him 14 years to finish – one, he estimates, that lower than 1,000 individuals have achieved.
And he did it regardless of being “scared of heights”, he stated.
In an interview with CNBC Journey, Rigney opened up about what he realized — and the way a lot it price him — to achieve a number of the highest factors on the planet.
The fee to climb
Rigney estimates he paid between $170,000 and $180,000 to climb the Seven Summits, he stated.
“Everest is, by far, the costliest,” he stated, including that he paid round $80,000 when he climbed it in 2010.
“You need to save and construct a plan,” he stated. “That is why it took me years. I began, then I went to enterprise faculty, all my cash went there, then I began once more, I discovered a brand new job … Little by little, I acquired out of it little by little.”
However there’s one other price — time away from work, Rigney stated. Luckily, he stated his employers have been supportive of his targets.
“If in case you have a very good employer…he can see [personal goals] as one thing that may assist enhance firm morale,” he stated.
From “straightforward” to “excruciatingly painful”
Along with price, the Seven Summits differ extensively in climbing issue, Rigney stated.
He stated Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa is “straightforward”, calling it “technically not tough in any respect”.
But it surely’s excessive sufficient to expertise altitude illness, he stated, which prevents some climbers from reaching the summit.
Kilimanjaro might be climbed in per week, he stated. The Vinson Massif in Antarctica can take two weeks – “for those who’re fortunate” – and the Denali in North America three to 4 weeks.
However Mount Everest is a “huge logistical operation” that takes about two months, he stated. It is by far the hardest and most 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 loopy.”
Rigney climbed Mount Everest for about 4 to 5 hours a day. The remainder of the time, “you get better alone in your tent…no gadgets, no web…nothing.”
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He stated he arrived “overrated and in nice form”. Regardless of consuming 7,000 to eight,000 energy a day – principally potatoes, pasta and dry meals – he stated he misplaced 20 kilos whereas climbing Everest.
Staying heat takes an enormous quantity of power, he stated. The whole lot freezes, he says, together with the LCD screens of the cameras.
“We have now what we name a pee bag. You pee in that bag, seal it, and put it within the sleeping bag with you as a result of it is scorching.”
There are solely three to 5 days within the climbing season to achieve the summit of Everest. In the event that they do, it is a fast win, Rigney stated.
“Folks do not grasp across the high for hours,” he stated. “You come down the mountain as quick as you possibly can.”
From climbing to teaching
Rigney is now an govt coach and speaker, instructing enterprise leaders the teachings he realized from pushing himself, mentally and bodily, to the restrict.
He’s additionally the writer of “Bare on the Knife’s Edge”, a e book about how he used a number of the most heartbreaking moments of his Everest climb to succeed professionally.
Climbers don’t remain lengthy as soon as they’ve summited Mount Everest, Rigney stated. “You come down the mountain as quick as you possibly can.”
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He stated he helps “overachievers… [with] tons on their thoughts “obtain stability and break habits” that drag us alongside…like we’re on a treadmill.
For instance, worry – whether or not it is public talking or one’s personal worry of heights – might be overcome utilizing thoughts methods, he stated.
And leaders should study to just accept issues past their management, whether or not it is an damage or a pandemic, he stated.
He stated he was nonetheless laughing when he thought he would arrive at a small plane hangar in Kathmandu an hour earlier than his scheduled flight to the foothills of the Himalayas.
After climbing the “Seven Summits”, Rigney stated he intentionally chooses much less dangerous journey experiences. He stated that a number of years in the past he discovered a passion that was each difficult and enjoyable: scuba diving.
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“I bear in mind going as much as this gentleman…and I stated, ‘Hey…what time do you suppose we’re leaving? ‘” Rigney stated. “He stated, ‘Perhaps right now, hopefully by tomorrow, most likely by the top of the week.’”
Ten minutes later, one other climber, who acquired the identical reply, exploded in anger, he stated.
“Lastly this man seems to be up, pink with steam popping out of his ears, and we’re screaming. I feel it lastly clicked – like that is the place you have been. It is concerning the climate within the Himalayas!”
It is simply a part of a protracted listing of “issues we will management and issues we will not,” Rigney stated.