Please describe your fitness and endurance at altitude in a way normal folks may relate to.

“For me to run 100 meters at sea level, if it takes me 11 or 12 seconds, I exactly do that at the altitude in the same speed. That’s how I am. I cannot beat anybody at sea level, but I can beat anybody up there.”

Can we talk about the history of the overlooked Nepalese climber? (In accounts of Himalayan successes, the contributions of Nepalese and other local climbers have often been minimized.)

“Sherpa were always involved with the setting of the lines, but they never got the platform to tell any story, I think. And so these people have always remained in the shadow. But now obviously with the internet, the whole platform and everything, people can hold a light these days. The truth will always come out. That’s how people are starting to see this stuff.”

Would our conversation be different if you were from Austria or California and had just climbed 11 8,000-meter peaks?

“Let’s be honest, if somebody else had done these things, they would’ve been on the front page of everywhere else. I don’t know what happened, but nothing came in.”

Considering how you spent the month of July, climbing all five 8,000-meter peaks of Pakistan on foot, I can understand the disappointment.

“I genuinely feel like, when people climb K2, it’s everywhere in the news, everybody covers it. And I think I did something bigger than that, and with four unplanned rescues and everything, and then nothing came of it. There was no justice to the story.”