The Adventure Podcast Episode 109: Climbing Everest and K2 without Oxygen with Carla Perez

This week on The Adventure Podcast we welcome mountaineer and mountain guide Carla Perez to the show. Carla is one of the top high-altitude alpinists at the moment, having summited both Everest and K2 in the same year in 2019. Additionally, she has also climbed both of those mountains without the use of supplemental oxygen, putting her in a rare group indeed. Last summer, she traveled to Pakistan to take on the second highest peak in the world, along with Alpenglow Expedition's Adrian Ballinger. Now, the team has released an amazing film about that expedition entitled Breathtaking—K2: The Worlds Most Dangerous Mountain. In our interview, Carla tells us how she got started in climbing, why she gave up a luctrative career in the petroleum industry, and what it is like to climb the two tallest mountains on the planet. It is a wide-ranging, fun, inspiring, and fascinating chat. 

Before we jump into that interview however, Dave and Kraig get things started with a bit of Adventure News. This week, we learn about successful summits on Everest, an ocean rower who is socially distancing on the Pacific, and a historic launch from SpaceX and NASA. Later, the boys share their weekly Gear Picks, with Kraig offering some thoughts on the Deuter UP Sydney, the first urban backpack from that company, while Dave reviews the Ursack Major bear bag.