EAGLE, Idaho — Eva Steinwald recently conquered Mount Everest's 29,000-foot summit, becoming one of the oldest Americans to stand atop the world's highest peak.
"As I stood on the summit, it was unreal, it was so hard to even comprehend," said Steinwald. "Am I really here or is this a dream? It was almost too much to take in and it was very surreal."
Watch Steinwald's incredible story below:
The journey just to get to Everest took years and so much preparation. Once Steinwald got to Nepal, the process took more than six weeks to give her body time to adjust to the altitude.
"From Lukla, where you land, to base camp is 35 miles, which you go by foot and that is the time to slowly acclimate," said Steinwald. "You go from 9,000 feet to just under 18,000 feet, and once you get to base camp, you do rotations."
Steinwald ran into challenges during the rotation; she got sick from food poisoning and had to take a helicopter down to lower elevations to heal. She told me the mental strain of this was probably worse than the physical pain.
Once she did heal, her crew had to deal with the Khumbu Ice Fall, a series of boulders and a crevasse that required ladders to cross. The day they were set to go for their first rotation, avalanches roared through the Khumbu Ice Fall and even sent one of the ladders down into the crevasse.
"It’s kind of like an obstacle course in an ice world, that’s the way I kind of look at it," said Steinwald. "But, once you get through it, you are so relieved."
After Steinwald made it to camp four and entered the death zone, she and her team from Seven Summits made a push for the summit. The weather held, and her final obstacle was the Hilary Step.
"It was very exposed, and it took like 45 minutes to an hour," said Steinwald. "As you finish the Hilary Step, you can't see the summit, but you know the summit is somewhere around the corner. Then you see all this color, and it is the prayer flags on the summit."
Steinwald broke a record from 2008 as the oldest American female to summit Everest at 63 years old. However, her record only stood for five days, but that wasn't the reason Steinwald wanted to climb Mount Everest.
"It changes your life and by changing your life you are inspiring, but you are also giving back, and when you give back it comes back to you," said Steinwald.
Steinwald has a goal of climbing the seven summits, the highest peaks on every continent. Successfully summiting Everest means she has finished three of those climbs.
Steinwald does it to raise awareness for global warming, she does it for the challenge, and she does it to honor her late husband, who was a Vietnam veteran. She wears his dog tags on every climb and even found them twice on Everest after losing them.
It's a story that hopefully inspires you that anything is possible. I know it inspires me.
"We all have an Everest," said Steinwald. "We all have goals, dreams, challenges, and Everest for me was almost unattainable; it was like a different planet. Whatever that Everest is for you, believe in yourself and don’t listen to naysayers."
Steinwald will take a much-deserved break before continuing her Seven Summits mission next year. She's also looking for a nonprofit to partner with on her quest to raise awareness for global warming.
