Laura Gassner Otting

All In

By 29029 Everesting

February 21^st, 2020

All In

I made the drive from Boston to Vermont alone. The whole way, I was thinking to myself, "It's freezing. It's raining. No one knows I signed up for this. Why am I doing it?" My friend, Amanda, had convinced me that doing 29029 -- hiking a mountain over and over, sleeping in tents, enduring an endurance race -- was something I absolutely had to do. And then she got injured, and I was on my own.

"Should I turn around and go home, nobody would even know." I thought. With every swoosh of the wiper blade, with every roll of fog, with every digit that dropped on the thermometer, I was more and more tempted. Yet, for some reason, I kept driving. I got to Stratton mountain, sat in my car, and decided I was going to stay. Still, I thought, "No one knows me here, and if I don't like it, I can just quit and leave." Indecision is not my personality at all. I'm an all-in kind of person. I went from never running a mile to completing three marathons in two years. When I'm in, I'm in. Or, I'm out. And as I sat and listened to the guest speakers, I was neither in nor out.

At that moment, Jesse got on stage and instructed us to, "Take the thinking out of the weekend, don't think about how busy you are, or your kids, or your job, get off the gondola and turn right." It felt like he was talking to me directly. Then Chadd Wright got on stage and deadpanned, "All right, here's what's going to happen. You're going to get to the end, or you're going to break your body doing it."

I remember thinking, "I could get behind that."

All in, right?

I'm a very competitive person, but not with other people. I am only competitive with myself. So I decided that I was going to stay, and 29029 was for me. And I was competing against myself. A challenge to deal with the voices in my head telling me to stop, tempting me with the recovery tent, shouting at me to turn left and take a break. A challenge of me versus me.

"Sure, little lady"

On reflection, some of my apprehension may have come from my lack of preparation. I had been so busy traveling and launching my book, Limitless, that I hadn't given the weekend much thought. I was underprepared. I packed one pair of boots, and I had two pairs of socks. I didn't think about the conditions and what that meant for clothing choices.

As I ventured up the first climb, about two-thirds of the way up, my pole telescoped back into itself. It was so cold that everything was frozen and stuck. I struggled for a few minutes until a group came by, and I asked for help. I was greeted with, "Sure, little lady." And moments later, a gentleman from Texas had opened my pole back up, and we started walking together. And that's how I met Monty. Right behind him was Matt, followed by Shawn. Monty was there in a group of eight to honor their friend Chris, who'd passed away the year prior. Matt was there raising money for a child who's passed from cancer. Shawn was hiking to raise funds for veterans through the Gary Sinise Foundation. So as we started hiking together, we shared stories and connected and talked about why we were there. Four strangers from the four corners of the country that happened to meet on the side of a mountain in Vermont.

#teampocketwaffles

We got to the top of our first hike, and we discovered the incredible snack options at the aid-station. I mean, there's an option for everybody. If you're keto, there's a snack. If you're vegan, there's a snack. That's one of the joys of 29029, you can come so ill-prepared, like me and you'll be fine! They think of everything.

We grabbed a bunch of stuff and headed back down on the gondola. One of the popular items we all picked up were the stroopwafels. Because it was so cold, they were frozen solid. I tried to take a bite, but it was useless. I decided to put it in my pocket and save it for later. The guys thought that was a good idea, so we all stuffed our pockets with waffles.

After the next hike, we got in the gondola together, pulled out our toasty warm stroopwafels, and they were perfect. At that moment, we become #teampocketwaffles. Apart from forming an alliance based on delicious snacks, we also bonded together over our shared experience. We ended up hiking all 17 ascents together. We did 11 during the first day and then donned headlamps for two more as the sun set. We took a quick dinner break and then did another two more. We met back up the next morning to finish the final few ascents together. Four strangers, now connected for life.

I made amazing friends on the mountain because of the community that exists at 29029. You're not racing against each other, and that helps create a supportive environment. Because of that, and my team, I was able to reach 29029 feet, faster and more comfortably than would have been possible had I done it alone.

Better Together

Shawn, an Army veteran, was all about the night hikes. He became a whole different person at nightfall. He strapped on his headlamp and got going. I looked at the ground and put my foot directly behind his every time. On the gondola ride down, I looked over and said, "I don't know that I would have been able to do this on my own, and I certainly wouldn't have done four night hikes on my own."

"You guys have made me better. You've made me stronger."

Could I have finished 29029 alone? Absolutely. Would I have enjoyed it as much? Probably not. Would I have done it as fast? Definitely not! I doubt I would have been able to dig as deep and push through the pain. I would have taken more breaks and, who knows, maybe I would have run out of time?

Everyone was so supportive of each other. I'll never forget Adam, a man thrice my size, who tackled one ascent over several hours. I am confident he'll be back to get his Red Bib and finish next year. And, when you do see the Red Bibs start to appear, the cheers and support intensify, and then you get your own Red Bib, and everyone is cheering for you. I'll never forget Cecilia rushing to finish at the very last minute. We watched her come down after her sixteenth ascent, grab her Red Bib, and she starts running up the mountain. It was so incredible. And then we saw her coming down with her Red Hat on and we were cheering and screaming for her. It might as well have been me finishing again. That was the level of joy I felt for her at that moment.

Limitless Potential

I believe that as we stand at the bottom of any mountain, we look up at the top and say, "I want to get to the top of that mountain." Then we get to the top, and we see the other higher mountains just beyond the horizon. If we set our goals at only what we can see right now, we undershoot our limitless potential. And 29029 is the perfect metaphor for that: you climb to the top and learn what you can do, and with each summit, you learn that it's more than you ever thought possible. Each summit at 29029 demonstrates to you your competence, one foot in front of the other, summit after summit. And, with each step, you grow confidence, allowing you to set bigger goals than you would have set in the first place, way back when the only goal visible was just that first mountain.

It excites me to see people find their limitless potential. One of my secret superpowers is that I'm able to look at someone and, in rather short order, see their greatness… and reflect it back on them in ways that they can finally see it and actually act upon it. Everything about 29029 is built to be a giant mirror to reflect our best self back on all of us.

I'm grateful to have built a career around this, showing other people that they genuinely are limitless. Got a crazy adventure? Need someone in your sidecar to navigate, push, cajole, inspire, cheer, instigate? Want to climb a mountain, 17 times in a row, in the rain? Give me a call, friend.