I'm Trekking to Everest Base Camp with the 2nd Most Famous Person from Nepal

When I got hired by Barstool I had a laundry list of video ideas I wanted to film abroad. Complete my Shanghai Sharks saga, Documentary about playing football in China, Cooking show solely dedicated to Rangoons etc. But having now been at the company for 6 years, most things on that list were checked off long ago and for the past year I've just been going wherever the content winds take me. Sometimes they whisk me somewhere beautiful like Iraq, 

other times they blow me someplace scary like a random guy's basement in Pittsburgh.

Well now, I've caught a gust that will be taking me higher than even PFT was at HK7s. I'm going to the top of the world folks. Mount Everest Base Camp to be exact. 

imageBROKER. Shutterstock Images.

I'll be honest, Mount Everest was never particularly high on my bucket list. Sure by all accounts the Himalayans are stunningly beautiful, I just always thought a trip to that part of the world wouldn't make sense logistically or financially. Why would Barstool write a check for me to make content at altitudes my hoon lungs can't cash? Why don't I just get drunk in another Caribbean country with White Sox Dave and leave mountaineering to the sherpas? 

Well to answer these questions we have to rewind all the way to the World Cup in November. While in Qatar I met a guy named Tyler who worked for Space X and had been personally invited out by the Emir after Starlink hooked his yacht(s) up with high speed wifi. 

imageBROKER. Shutterstock Images.

I'm not exactly sure what his job at Starlink is but from an outsiders perspective it seems a big part of it was going on trips to remote parts of the world with well known people, bringing some Starlink devices, and generating solid PR for the company in the process. His first trip after Qatar was to climbing the highest peak in Antarctica with Devon Levesque (guy who bear crawled the entire NYC marathon) and Alex Honold (Free Solo) amongst others. 

Now I'm not what you would call an endurance athlete. Despite having won a Chinese Super Bowl, I'd barely even call myself an athlete. However, knowing Elon Musk and Dave Portnoy have a long history of cooperation, 

I threw out the idea of maybe joining him on one of his trips. That's when he told me he'd be climbing Mount Everest in April and I'd most likely be welcome to come along. To which I replied "Have you actually watched any of my videos? I'm not exactly the spitting image of health and a casual stroll up Everest would most likely be a death sentence." But he then proposed just joining the expedition up to Base Camp which sounded way more my speed. That is until I did some research on the Everest Base Camp trek and realized an 8 day hike at altitudes of up to 17,598 feet was still significantly faster than "my speed". I've always been more of an escalator guy.

 It's times like these I wish I had just started a podcast instead of branding myself the company's foreign correspondent. But since I had zero trips planned for the foreseeable future and was only getting unhealthier with age, figured if I was ever going to attempt something like this, the time was now. 

My anxiety over this endeavor was quickly replaced with excitement though, when I learned the expedition would be lead by none other than Nirmal Purja AKA NIMS

I gotta be honest with ya, I didn't know who he was when his name was first mentioned, but a quick google search revealed he's the second most famous person in Nepal (behind the literal Buddha). 

Much of his fame comes from the fact he was the first person to climb the world's 14 tallest mountains in the span of just 7 months, a feat that was captured in the Netflix documentary 14 PEAKS, 

He's also the guy who took that photo of people waiting in line to summit Everest that went crazy viral 

Well after watching his documentary and doing my own research, I knew there wasn't a chance in hell I was gonna pass up an opportunity to hike the Himalayas with Nims. It’s the equivalent of deep throating a hot dog with Joey Chestnut, deep throating a phallus with Abella danger, or playing Pinehurst with Riggs. It's not every day you get to shadow a legend in the environment that made them legendary and I couldn't be more excited.

Also joining the expedition will be Jacob Weasel, a surgeon around my age who will be the first Native American to summit Everest if all goes to plan. 

To top it off, Tyler and Jacob's attempt at the summit is apparently sponsored by Akon??? Guess he was even planning on joining part of the trek and filming a music video at base camp until Ramadan threw a wrench in those plans (had no idea he was Muslim nor how he got involved in the first place but we have a FaceTime scheduled with him at Base camp so looking forward to at least virtually meeting the icon behind every one of my sloppy dance floor make outs in College. Ramadan Mubarak buddy!)

If you wanna learn more about the trip we did an episode of Extradosing where I go into greater detail about the expedition. 

Apparently tho I came off too nonchalant about the risks that come with hiking at such high altitudes which my mom WAS NOT happy about.

But Mom, and anyone else concerned, I can assure you I am taking this serious. I haven’t cranked a Hoon or bought a disposable vape in over a month and I’ve been hitting the treadmill and/or stair master on almost a daily basis. (Even walked up the Burj Khalifa NBD) 

I can’t really prepare for the altitude here in New York but I'm gonna take the trek slow and steady and have already purchased emergency insurance in case I have to get medevacked out. If White sox Dave can hook it up with some of the Viagra he copped in the DR I should be good tho.

And at the end of the day I’m gonna be with NIMS and his company Elite Exped. I couldn’t possibly be in better hands. I just need to remember that when Nims parties which he is won’t to do

(GQ) After dinner, the Sherpas cranked up a local Nepali DJ named Badal and the scene phase-changed into a full-blown dance party. A fifth of rum appeared and Nims filled everyone’s cups. Green, the architect, leaned over and assured me, “This is every night.”

I don’t have to try and keep up. Nims can drink as much as he wants at whatever altitude he wants as he is essentially superhuman. A blogger like myself accustomed to sipping suds at sea level tho is gonna have to take it easy.

I fly out Saturday and the trek begins April 15th. For those of you who think I’m fucked let me quote the great Nims himself: 

P.S. Seeing as we’ll have a Starlink device I’ll have broadband internet connection the whole time so will be posting constant updates on my IG.  And if John Rich needs me on the rundown or Jeff schedules a dozen match while I’m at Everest Basecamp, I’ll be there. 

Get ready to watch the 49th Annual Heroes Hockey Game on Barstool.TV. Join Biz, Jake Marsh, Ryan Whitney and tons of special guests as they bring you all the action, LIVE from UBS Arena in Belmont Park on Saturday, April 15. Coverage begins at 4:15pm ET.