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29029 Sun Valley Recap

The Dawn of a New Season

By 29029 Everesting

June 13^th, 2023

A new season has come.

Another season of epic 29029 mountains began in Sun Valley, Idaho. Remnants of snow clung stubbornly alongside the trail, a farewell from the past season.

Spring had just begun.

Sun Valley was not merely a host, but a battlefield for an extraordinary 36-hour war against self-doubts and physical limits.

A Symphony of Nerves

The Thursday before every 29029 is always filled with nerves, but at the first event of the year, they always seem even more apparent.

Nervous chatter starts Thursday at check-in and continues right up until 5:59 am on Friday morning.

Did I train enough? I didn’t realize the mountain would be THIS big. That looks steep. Do I have what it takes?

Nerves are normal. Everybody has them before embarking on a 36-hour challenge like 29029.

Having nerves is irrelevant.

What matters is what you do with them.

Do you accept them and use them to fuel you, or do you let them get the better of you?

Everybody at the start line in Sun Valley already knew the answer to that.

The Power of Firsts

The maiden ascent is always baptism by fire - a crucible where doubts began to be replaced by a burgeoning self-belief.

Each step taken - each breath drawn - was a punch thrown at the mountain of self-doubt.

It starts with a single ascent, but that momentum builds.

Storms and Setbacks

As time wore on, fatigue settled in. 10 hours of climbing a mountain tends to do that.

To add to the struggle, thunderstorms descended on the mountain - an additional challenge as climbing was forced to temporarily halt.

Sore legs, fatigued bodies, and tired minds waited anxiously for the chance to resume climbing.

Will there be enough time to finish?

Time is Undefeated

There’s no way around it: time always wins. We all get a finite time on this planet.

That doesn’t mean you should give in to the inevitability of time. Instead, make your mark, despite time.

How?

By doing something time can’t take away from you. Something big. Something hard. Something that pushes you to the limit. Something that fulfills you more than you thought possible.

Something like 29029.

Nothing can strip away the achievement you worked towards on the mountain.

With the thunderstorms gone, the assault on the summit continued.

Tunnel Vision

Sun Valley is the only 29029 mountain that starts during daylight. The long days of June provide more daylight than any other stop on the 29029 calendar.

But the sun still sets eventually.

And when the sun dipped below the horizon, you kept climbing.

You had a goal and you weren’t going to stop until you achieved it.

The Wall

One segment of the ascent at Sun Valley might just be the most infamous segment out of any 29029 mountain.

The Wall.

Every single lap, The Wall loomed ahead. Treacherously loose, rocky, and steep, it required all the focus and attention you could muster.

One slow step at a time, you conquered another segment of The Wall, confidence growing with each step.

If you could tackle the wall, you could tackle anything.

Believe in Your Story

Every ascent, whether it was the first, fourth, tenth, or fourteenth was motivated by a story.

Every single triumph on the mountain had a story behind it. Some just wanted to prove to themselves they could do something hard. Others wanted to honor lost loved ones.

No matter your story, you had to believe in it to help propel you up the mountain.

The stories from the 29029 slopes could fill hundreds of pages, but here are just a few.

67 and three-quarters

At 67 and three-quarter years old, Ho hit the slopes of Sun Valley as one of our older participants.

Ho smiled during every single interaction with another person - participant, volunteer, staff member, or otherwise. Ho lifted herself up by lifting up others.

She wasn’t quiet about her goal - she was finishing. She emphatically stated it to anyone who crossed her path!

And finally, after almost 35 hours on the mountain, Ho came into view of the summit. She made it to Everest

Never Surrender

When it became clear Joseph wasn’t going to be able to make it to Everest, he didn’t stop. As Saturday afternoon started to turn to evening, Joseph was there on the mountain, chipping away.

At 5:35 pm, Joseph crested Sun Valley once more, smiling and chatting away. He knew that it wasn’t about pulling on a Red Hat - it was about giving it your all.

Joseph knew that true victory wasn’t found simply by reaching the summit, but by refusing to surrender to the mountain.

He gave it his all, embodying the spirit of the 29029 community, finishing 9 ascents. Joseph made it to the summit of Vinson!

Ten Times

You probably already know of Joannie. She’s a 29029 legend who keeps showing up - mountain after mountain - and chipping away.

Not only that, Joannie is always ready and willing to lend a helping hand to others. If you have a question about the mountain, or how to tackle your own Everest, Joannie can help.

In Sun Valley, the legend of Joannie grew even larger.

She became the first ever 10 times 29029 finisher.

Climbing 290,290 feet - 10x 29029 mountains - deserves a reward 10 times the size.

Joannie got to pull on an extra special Red Hat to celebrate her achievement.

ROI

Whether you achieved Everest or not - whether you finished two, ten, or fifteen ascents - you achieved something remarkable. The ROI of your experience on the mountain can’t be overstated.

You conquered doubts and fears. You proved to yourself you can push harder and further than you ever thought. You came to the mountain one person and left another.