I was thirty-five years old at the time and knew that by resigning from my military commitments, I’d give myself the opportunity to think bigger and more boldly in a challenge of my own making. So rather than climbing the five tallest mountains in eighty days, what was stopping me from topping all fourteen Death Zone mountains in the quickest time imaginable? I struggled to think of too many pitfalls. Only politics or money. Or maybe an avalanche, or a crevasse, if I’m really unlucky.
