On March 14, 2018, Scott Doolan became the first paraplegic to reach the foot of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest. He set out to climb/roll 18,192 feet to the Mount Everest base camp with little assistance. Scott and his team reach their final destination within ten days. However, their journey proved to be rather grueling.
“We could have called it quits or found a way.”
Scott completed most of the journey by walking on his hands, using his wheelchair when possible and occasionally being carried. He wore through five pairs of gloves throughout the trek and suffered a stress fracture while navigating the rocky terrain and extreme altitude. “I didn’t expect the terrain to be so brutal. I’ve never seen anything like that before and I’ve never trained on anything like that,” says Scott.
One of the front wheels of Scott’s wheelchair (put on specifically for the trip) came off on day seven. A rope had to be tied to one side of his wheelchair to keep it from tipping.
But, Scott and his team completed their journey making it to the base camp of Mount Everest. Scott recalls the feeling of humbleness as he made it to the top. “I was struggling to breathe at that time because I was walking on my hands but I just remember looking up and seeing a crowd of about 20 people. Once I actually got there they all start cheering and that was pretty damn humbling,” he says.
The trek came about after Scott accepted a clothing company’s challenge to complete the journey, and raise money along the way. The company pledged the first $70,000 from clothing sales to fund the trip and make a documentary.
Scott says, “Hopefully I can motivate and inspire as many people as possible. And truly show no matter how hard something may seem, if you put your mind to it and work your absolute ass off to achieve it, you will come out on top.”