The 29029 Podcast 29029 Everesting

If you ever have the chance to come to 29029, I hope that you take a moment to just observe. 

Watch, listen and just feel…..You'll recognize something profound……29029 has little to do with climbing a mountain.

Of course, on Friday morning at 6am we blow an airhorn and send a 250 people climbing….So yes.  There’s definitely a mountain involved. 

But what you see, hear and feel at 29029 has everything to do with the people who are there, not the mountain they are climbing. 

It’s this special community of mostly strangers embarking on a chance of a lifetime together.  

Grace Henrikson found herself signed up for 29029 right before the world would lock down due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.  What’s so cool about Grace’s story is that since her first 29029 event (allbeit a virtual one) she has been a part of creating the community we all all benefit from today.

Today Grace owns 3 red hats and has volunteered on the mountain just as many times as she has climbed.  Grace’s story is 29029’s story.  A story of resilience, strength, commitment and a whole lot of fun! 

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Part of my job as the host and emcee at 29029 events is getting to know the participants who take on the challenge to find their Everest.  Over the 4 days that I get to spend with them, I typically get a good read on who they are and some of the roads and backroads they have traveled before climbing our mountains.  Each one of them has a story and I see it as my job to unlock a bit of that narrative to help create powerful moments on the mountain.  

But sometimes I don’t see the whole story.  This was one of those times. 

I first met Chris Bystriansky in 2021 at Snowbasin.  He was a guy with a great smile and fun personality climbing with his buddies.  He struggled and eventually called it a day 3 ascents short of his Everest.  \

In 2022, he was back on the mountain in Snowbasin.  I knew he had recently moved his family to Orlando with his wife and two young daughters.  He and Alison split up their 29029 events between the two Snowbasin weekends that year so one of them would be home with the kids.  Alison earned her red hat at Snowbasin #1 and Chris was back for redemption at Snowbasin #2.  Again, he was charming and happy.  He dug deep and this time conquered his Everest on that mountain.  

It wasn’t until months later that Chris sent me a book he had written.  When I opened the package and looked at the front cover I saw that familiar grin from the mountain……but then I saw something I didn’t expect.  Something I hadn’t realized even after watching Chris climb a total of 23 ascents up Snowbasin in the past two years.  On the front cover Chris was holding two artificial hip joints…..Just like his artificial hip joints.  Chris not one but two artificial hips!  

How does a 39 year old man handle 2 hip replacement surgeries in 18 months with a wife and a small child?  How does someone come back from a major surgery and rehabilitation like that to complete multiple Ironman triathlons and climb two 29029 events….when before that being athletic but not an endurance athlete!   

It’s a mindset and one that we would all benefit from.  

We all create stories in our minds.  Some of those stories take the form of wishes and dreams.....maybe hopes and visions for the future. 

But let’s be honest, some of those stories aren’t fairytales. 

Some of our stories that we create are rooted in fear, shame, vulnerability and served up with a healthy helping of doubt. 

Some of the stories you have told yourself about yourself are so unkind you would never speak something like that to someone else. 

But yet……those are the stories that seem to play the loudest on a loop in your head.....especially when you attempt something outside of your comfort zone.  

Julie Traxler wanted to climb the mountain at 29029.  She wanted to wear the red hat.  She wanted to watch the brands on the ascent board add up until on Saturday, she would stand atop her Everest at Stratton Mountain Vermont.  

Julie hadn’t even started to climb on Friday when the stories she was telling herself…..not the fairytale and rainbow stories…..but the shameful, hateful poisonous stories......started to play over and over in her mind.  

Julie’s experience at 29029 is raw and blissfully unfiltered.  It is a story of a woman who saw the parts of herself that she hated the most reflected right back to her in the mirror that was her mountain.  

The work that it takes to climb the mountains in our lives is hard.  Sure, we love to share the beautiful pictures with breathtaking landscapes and exhausted happy people wearing red hats. We all love a good ending.

But to only share those images and those stories does not do justice to the journey that takes place inside the messy middle when we choose climb. 

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Ready to find your Everest? Learn more about 29029 HERE

If you’ve listened or followed this podcast before you know we talk a lot about “the why”.  Why do we climb?  Why do we choose to voluntarily put ourselves in a position to struggle in order to climb the vertical feet of mountain Everest.  

Every single participant who presses that red registration button on the 29029 website is there  for a different reason.   We have participants show up with perfect clarity as to what they are seeking to find and accomplish through their 29029 experience.  Others seem to find their why as they train over 20 weeks.  Sometimes the realization of “why” develops as the 36 hour clock begins to count down on that Friday morning.  

We see these “whys” all over the mountain.  They are written on the back of t-shirts and pinned to hydration packs.  They are carried in pockets or opened from envelopes.  We’ve seen them written on arms and tucked tightly into hearts.  

29029 isn’t about climbing a mountain over and over again, it’s all about why you are choosing to be there.  

Mike Parnell had a why!  He was going to climb 29029 vertical feet at Stratton Mountain in Vermont October 2021 and he was going to do it in the name of his young daughter Ryan who suffers from a rare autoimmune disease.  

Though he raised over 100,000 dollars in Ryan’s honor, Mike didn’t really find out why he was on the mountain until after he left.  

A chance meeting and an off-handed comment at the awards dinner would propel Mike through a door he never knew existed.....nor did he realize that 29029 was the key.

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When you create something new like 29029 you never know what will happen.  It’s hard to tell if people are going to buy into the idea that climbing up a mountain for 36 hours over a weekend to try to reach the vertical gain of Mt. Everest is a good idea or not.  

In 2017 when 29029 was launched, it was a small group of people who were known for enjoying crazy experiences.  They loved it!  Of course they did.  In 2018 as the brand expanded to include an additional location in Snowbasin Utah a larger community had the opportunity to experience this new everesting concept.  By 2019 and the pandemic year of 2020, 29029 Everesting had a full-blown community.  There were alumni returning to the mountain each season.  Those alumni were wearing their red hats and 7 summit triangle shirts.  29029 was growing. 

Sitting here years later, it’s impossible to imagine our summers without the mountain.  What started as a crazy idea that may or may not have work has become our passion.  

Jenny Levison (or Souper Jenny as many of her Restaurant customers in Atlanta know) is one of those individuals who has been there since almost the very beginning.  She too didn’t know quite what this 29029 experiment was……

But in the years between Jenny’s first climb in 2018 to today, as she is preparing to take on the mountain for her 4th time, she’s found something she can’t quite let go of…..

Jenny is going to take us back to the early days of 29029 and recount the moments and lessons the mountain has provided in her life.  Though Jenny has never had the opportunity to place a red hat on her head……yet……..she comes back for more than that token of completion.  She climbs for herself and for the people who tirelessly show up ascent after ascent and year after year as she’s chosen to just keep climbing.  

Learn more about 29029 HERE

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Beginning in 2017, we have had a front-row seat to 1000s of individuals who have found their way to their own personal Everests while climbing 29029.  We can share story after story of participants who found a bigger and better version of themselves in 20 weeks of training and over those 36 hours struggling up the slopes of a mountain.  It’s inspiring to see people literally transform before your eyes into more than they ever thought they could be.  



Over the past few seasons we’ve seen the reasons why people choose to climb, broaden and expand.  While self-mastery is still a big motivator to take on the challenge of climbing 29,029ft, participants are showing up for far greater reasons than just themselves. We’ve seen people raise 100s of thousands of dollars for charitable foundations and personal causes.  The impact of their 29029 experience rippling throughout their communities and the world.  



Participants are using their own physical and mental strength not just to change themselves but to motivate all of us to step up to the challenge of creating a better world.  



Dayna Boshard came to the mountain from a small town in Southern Utah with a big purpose.  Her goal was to help children and families who lived, literally, in the shadow of Mt. Everest. Her climb would benefit their daily climb…. She had seen the faces of the Nepalese children struggling for basic skills and opportunity.  They hadn’t signed up for the mountain they were asked to climb every day of their lives.  But Dayna did and she was able to use 29029 to build something life-changing in a country she’s never stopped foot in.   

Eternal Hope International