July 1, 2025 • 57 mins
What does it take to stare death in the face and keep climbing?
In this powerful conversation, ultra-endurance athlete and adventurer Oliver Foran sits down with Lachlan Stuart to unpack the real story behind his high-altitude climbs including Ama Dablam, where a fellow climber tragically fell 1,500 meters to his death just before Oliver’s own summit attempt.
But this story starts much earlier… with the death of Oliver’s mother at age 15, a defining fork in the road that shaped who he became and the mountains he chose to climb physically and mentally.
From walking away from real estate and the army to chasing a bigger mission, this episode dives deep into:
Grief, growth, and why most people don’t live fully
Mental resilience and what it means to lead yourself
How to set goals that actually transform your life
What most people get wrong about success
If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to change your life, build belief from the ashes, or climb your own version of a mountain this episode is your sign.
Follow Lachlan:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lachlanstuart/
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@lachlanstuart91
Website: https://themanthatcanproject.com/
Newsletter: https://lachlan-stuart-tmtcp.ck.page/profile
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lachlan Stuart (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the man that
Can podcast.
This is the first one we'vedone back in Australia since
well, probably far out November24.
Oh wow, so pumped to be here.
Man, mate, I'm on it.
Welcome to be on the show.
Olive Foran (00:16):
Thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Lachlan Stuart (00:18):
So we've got Oliver Foran everyone and you've
got to check his Instagram out.
It's going to be linked in allthe places.
I don't know how we connected.
I think I was following you fora little bit.
You must have come up in my Foryou page on Instagram and you
were posting all these crazyclimbing videos in snowy
mountains and for me I was likecool shit, cool people doing
cool shit.
(00:38):
I want to get around that.
And then we connected.
We went for a 90-minute walkthe other week and I learned a
lot about you and there's somuch that I took away that I
want my audience to be able tolearn.
So, firstly, thanks for comingon.
Olive Foran (00:51):
Thanks for having me, and vice versa.
By the way, like hearing yourstory and I guess what you did,
how you did it, it inspired meand also gave me some pointers
to think about.
Lachlan Stuart (00:59):
Awesome.
Appreciate that man.
It's the importance of having agood network, finding people
who are doing things that you'reinterested in and connecting
with them.
Olive Foran (01:06):
Yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (01:07):
Because I think all the things that you've
learned, the lessons that you'reabout to share, I took away so
much from you as well.
I'm like, oh, how could Iimplement that into my life?
Or I never considered you wouldhave to go through that while
climbing mountains.
If I ever want to do it, whichprobably won't happen, if my
wife has anything to do it.
But, oliver, you've faced deathzones, avalanches, ice walls,
(01:27):
but what's been the hardestmountain that you've had to
climb mentally?
Olive Foran (01:31):
Yeah, definitely the hardest mountain that I've
had to climb mentally wasprobably my first major
roadblock and challenge in lifeand that was the death of my
mother.
So she passed away when I was15 years old and it was quite a
drawn out process as well.
So, going from having thatnormal, typical Australian
family life which was amazing weweren't the richest family but
(01:54):
we had a lot of love in ourhouse and that's the most
important thing and then havingthat kind of turn upside down at
15 years old and having tonavigate that, that was really
hard.
But saying that, that challengekind of set me up for bigger
challenges that came later inlife.
Lachlan Stuart (02:12):
Yeah, what was it?
So?
15, you said 15.
Yeah, that's extremely young.
I'm very lucky to still haveboth of my parents still here.
How was it You're obviouslygoing through puberty and
becoming, I guess, a young manat that point To lose such a big
role model and member ofsupport in your community and
your family?
How did you navigate that?
Olive Foran (02:31):
Yeah, it was hard.
It was hard.
It was fight or flight.
For a while I had great supportaround me.
Aunties and uncles, friends andfamily really stood out and
helped us.
Yeah, your mom's your mom right, and losing your mom has a big
impact on you as a kid,definitely, and my little
(02:52):
brother was nine years old, so,and my sister was, I think she
was 13, yep, so you know, I wasat least a little bit older for
them.
Lachlan Stuart (02:59):
It was even bigger than me, in my opinion
did you notice it shifted you ina way to want to look after
them more or step up, or how didhow did that influence the
family dynamic?
Olive Foran (03:10):
yeah, definitely, definitely.
Well, I just, you know, kind ofwanted the best for my brother
and sister, so would do anythingfor them from that moment, even
more so than before.
I just think you want toprotect them, right?
Yeah, and like being 15, youknow you, you're going through
puberty, you're becoming a youngman, yeah, so you've got a
(03:30):
little bit more, I guess,testosterone running through
your body.
Yeah, exactly, exactly so.
It was challenging, but I thinkyou know those challenges make
who you are and thinking aboutit now.
Lachlan Stuart (03:41):
So you're 26, right?
So, 11 years on, how do youfeel with the way that you
conduct yourself and the manthat you've become and the man
that you're striving towardsbecoming, your mum would be
thinking about you.
Olive Foran (03:54):
Yeah, I hope she'd be proud.
I'm sure she would.
She'd probably be rolling in agrave a few times with all the
stuff that I've been doing.
But I think, yeah, she'd bevery proud of the lessons I've
learned along the way and howI've kind of taken something
that could have, you know, sentme down either way and hopefully
done something positive with it.
(04:15):
And you know the end goal aswell.
As you know, you go throughthis, you learn and then you go
back and you help someone elsewho's facing that adversity.
Lachlan Stuart (04:24):
Why do you feel?
I believe everyone faces a forkin the road moment, and the
significance or severity of itvaries for each individual.
You obviously had your fork inthe road, as you just mentioned.
You could have gone one way andyou chose to go what we view as
a positive way.
Why do you feel you went thepositive way instead of, I guess
, spiraling?
Because you do hear a lot ofpeople who do spiral out of
(04:44):
control.
Olive Foran (04:45):
Yeah, well, it's not saying that I didn't.
I definitely dipped my toe inthat spiral, little dippy tip
and then I think conscious was abig thing.
And also I put it inperspective and I was like my
mom wanted to set me up with agood life.
She wanted to give me all theopportunity.
We were a single incomehousehold.
My mom looked after the family,so she was trying to give every
(05:08):
opportunity for us to.
She sent us to a private school.
I went to college, so she wastrying to give every opportunity
for us to live a good life andthen I thought why not still
honor her and live a full life?
You know, my version of fullback then is not my version of
full now.
Lachlan Stuart (05:24):
What's the difference?
What was it full back then isnot my version of full now?
Olive Foran (05:26):
What's the difference?
What was it like back then tonow?
Back then was just having agood job, working hard, and
since I dip my toe in themountains, it's all mountains.
Lachlan Stuart (05:34):
How'd you get into the, I guess dipping your
toe into the mountain?
Because me that's a big dip,right, I haven't seen any
version of my life where I dipmy toe in the mountains, even
though I love watching it.
That hasn't come up for me.
So how did you end up there?
Olive Foran (05:48):
So originally I was just traveling, wanted to
travel.
I worked in real estate forfive years prior and then, yeah,
went overseas, went to Europe,africa, I had a wedding for a
friend in Asia, in Bali, andthen I ended up in Vietnam.
Now, in Vietnam, I was rockclimbing and I met an American
guy and he was a mountaineer,and then we ended up getting
(06:12):
along.
So we ended up getting anAirbnb together, spending a bit
of time, and this guy was justlike influencing me, telling me
how crazy these stories were,and I feel like I'm an extreme
personality and I was likebiting hard.
I was like this is extremepersonality and I was like
biting hard.
I was like this is awesome.
So then, yeah, anyway, booked a,booked a ticket to Nepal, as
you do, as you do, just getbaited.
And then you're like I'm doingit.
(06:33):
Yeah.
I was like, oh, you've inspiredme, let's do it.
And then, um, I was fit becauseI was training for our army,
yep, so I was in really goodshape.
So I thought, hey, I'm in goodshape, got this opportunity, I'm
already in this, uh, on thisside of the world, let's go do
it.
Lachlan Stuart (06:49):
So so hold on.
You were in real estate, you'dbeen in real estate for a number
of years, and then you're alsotraining to get into the army
yes yeah, so obviously yourpassion wasn't real estate at
the time, would you?
Olive Foran (06:59):
I loved real estate .
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But real estate to me was Iwanted to push myself physically
right.
I wanted to see, like, how farI could go physically and I
think that you know ties into alittle bit of my past as well
just wanting to see where thatlimit is.
And real estate's such a goodcareer.
(07:20):
But I wasn't fulfilledphysically.
You know what I mean.
Lachlan Stuart (07:24):
So why not stay in real estate and then sort of
dabble in the other things?
Why go all in?
Olive Foran (07:30):
I think that's just my personality.
Yeah, I think I just decided todive headfirst and learn to
swim on the way.
I think, as well, if you don'tdo something to the fullest, as
well, if you don't do somethingto the fullest, you're not going
to have the success in it thatyou want, in my opinion.
(07:51):
And I saw myself kind offocusing away from real estate
while I was still in it and Ithought, obviously this is not
what my heart is.
It's time to readjust and lookat something else.
And then that was actually themilitary.
Lachlan Stuart (08:04):
So that way you could sort of have career
progress but then the physicalchallenges as well Correct.
Yes, that's cool.
I love that you, even thoughyou didn't dislike it, because
quite often the narrative isfind your purpose or build a
career in something that youlove, meaning you hate where you
currently are.
But the fact that you reallyenjoyed real estate and still
(08:25):
were looking to pursue somethinggreater is very interesting to
me, because a lot of peoplewouldn't do that yeah, yeah,
yeah, it was um.
Olive Foran (08:34):
It was a tough decision.
Nonetheless, like financially,it was probably the worst
decision I could have made, butum, but yeah, I feel like in the
long term, your passions rundeeper right definitely, and the
stories that you have to tellpeople in your life.
Lachlan Stuart (08:48):
So your dad's still around yeah, so your dad
and your brother and sister andI guess, even colleagues.
What were they like when yousaid, hey, this is this is what
I'm gonna do?
Olive Foran (08:56):
yeah, well, my business partner, um Chantelle
Joyce, she's a very good friend.
She's like are you sure?
And I'm like no, but, but Iwill give it my best crack
anyway.
And like dad, my whole family'slike are you sure?
Lachlan Stuart (09:14):
and I'm like no, but let's do it anyway where
did that belief come from foryou to set out and go into this
unpredictable situation whereyou don't even know how you're
going to get paid or whether youcan even do the hikes, but you
did it and obviously you'rewalking away from a career?
Where did that come from?
Olive Foran (09:34):
Well, I guess you have to look at what you've got
and what we've got here,especially in like our country
and most of the Western parts ofthe world.
World is what's the worst thingthat can happen.
You know what I mean, and thisis what I kind of leveled with
myself with.
I was like what is the worstthing that can happen from me
just taking this leap into theunknown?
(09:55):
The worst thing is is itdoesn't work out and then I go
get a job again in real estateand I just start again from the
bottom and work my way back up,but with the knowledge that I
learned over the last five years.
It's a beautiful place.
I love Brisbane.
How like there's no better placeto start from the ground yeah,
you know you know what I meanand I thought what's the best
(10:15):
thing that can happen?
I get to create this amazinglife where I'm going on
adventures.
I've always been an adventurousperson, seeing things that not
many humans will see.
Lachlan Stuart (10:24):
That's to me like worth the risk, you know
for sure, and what was so youwent to Nepal then.
So talk us through that firsthike and getting ready for it.
So you had old bud, just, Iguess, baiting you to go do it.
And then obviously theadventurous personality within
was like I'm doing it and herewe are, what take us through the
next steps there yeah, mate.
Olive Foran (10:43):
So basically I got to flew into katmandu and I was
uh talking to this guy uh that Isaw on instagram and he had
like a small trekking companythere and he's basically meets
me at the airport, takes me toum katmandu guest house, which
is like a traditional but reallycool hotel full of like
mountaineers.
(11:03):
And I just got there, I waslooking at these guys.
I was like this is cool, andeverywhere around the kathmandu
guest house it's in a partcalled the mel.
Okay, it's just like theseknockoff trekking north face
last sportiva, just like allthis apparel, and I was like all
right, I'm gonna buy all thisstuff.
So I bought all the gear.
(11:24):
It was all like, um, definitelynot official, but I bought it
all.
And then a few days later weset out to the Himalayas for the
first time, which was awesome.
Lachlan Stuart (11:33):
And, at this point, what was your level of
experience and what was goingthrough your mind?
Olive Foran (11:38):
Yeah, so I've done like a lot of trekking and a lot
of hiking prior to this inAustralia and traveling around
different parts of the world aswell, but never and like
climbing as well.
I've had like a bit of a rockclimbing background, but never
mountaineering.
So I told him I wanted to climba 6,000 meter peak and I wanted
(11:59):
to trek to Everest base camp.
Um, yes, I was very nervous,but excited for me.
Lachlan Stuart (12:04):
I'm freaking out just thinking about it because
I've got visuals of on yourinstagram of you hanging off
like the side of mountains andstuff, yeah, but so when you're
getting prepared for that, likewhat are some of the stuff that
you need to have that I guess isimportant or crucial to your
survival on the mountain?
Because and is it just you orare you going with a team of
people you mentioned there was aheap of other mountaineers and
yeah, so it was just me with aguide yep, uh, and then a porter
(12:29):
, so we called them captains.
Olive Foran (12:31):
So the captains carried our duffel bag yeah,
right, and then we'd carryprobably like a 10 kilo pack,
and then my guide as well waswith us as well.
So it was three of us, whichwas really cool because got a
really authentic experience ofwhat it's like up there and we
like the big, the big ticketitems for then was like a proper
(12:52):
down jacket.
I think that's something thataustralians don't, we don't
really need.
So trying to figure out whatwas the right one and everything
was interesting experience.
Just Temperatures you in Like,are you moving in?
Well, that expedition?
We got down like negative 30degrees on our summit push
because it was like the end ofNovember as well, so it was
(13:13):
coming into winter there and itwas cold, but like average
temperatures would probably belike in the negative five to 10
range Wow, so it was cold.
Lachlan Stuart (13:22):
And so what mountain were you summiting here
?
It was called Island.
Olive Foran (13:25):
Peak Island Peak 6,189 meters.
Lachlan Stuart (13:29):
Bloody hell, and how long does that take?
Olive Foran (13:33):
Yeah, so this one took so from base camp to the
summit and back.
We were about 16 hours all up.
Lachlan Stuart (13:41):
Yeah, right, so did you have to do an
overnighter, or you just hitthat in one, just one push?
Yeah, yeah, right.
So did you have to do anovernighter, or you just hit
that in one, just one push?
Olive Foran (13:45):
yeah, yeah right, I was legless by the end of it.
Lachlan Stuart (13:48):
I can imagine.
So the altitude and stuff, likewhat's that?
Like had you done any altitudetraining or anything before?
Or you just sort of rocked upfresh face with a big grin on
your face.
Olive Foran (13:57):
Yeah, definitely, altitude training is so
important, as I found out.
I rocked out with a fresh face,ready to rumble, and we flew
into look love, which is, um,that sketchy airport that you
see on all those videos.
Yeah, and that's like 2700 andI just remember being like whoa,
I've got a headache alreadydude, how do you, how do you
(14:18):
push the body through that likeyou?
Lachlan Stuart (14:21):
you're at altitude, you know you're going
higher, your oxygen's thinner,your head's probably pounding,
and then you're also exertingyourself physically, like were
there moments there where youwanted to quit that yeah, yeah,
uh, definitely more so the firsttime I went up than this recent
expedition.
Olive Foran (14:37):
But it's just, you know, you just take it slow,
right, like we're moving so slowwe're moving very far and for
long periods, but your heartrate's not.
You're trying to not keep itabove like 140.
Yeah, right, so you're movingslow.
Uh, drinking lots of water?
Yeah, water's, water's key upthere.
It's so important to stayhydrated and we didn't take any
(15:01):
altitude and medicine oranything.
Then there were definitelytimes, like there was a time so
when we got to everest base camp, we were like just down like
the path from that rock thateveryone gets a photo on, and I
actually like ended up blackingout a little bit from the
altitude and came back andeverything.
Lachlan Stuart (15:18):
But it was just like whoa do you remember,
remember that experience, likewhen you're in the lead up to it
, like I don't know whetheryou're starting to see dots or
anything like that yeah, yeah,yeah.
Olive Foran (15:28):
So I remember like my vision started blurring and
then I was like I'm probablyjust like tired, probably just
tired, and then I just rememberlike kind of collapsing and just
going black and numb and thencoming back and I was like, oh,
I need to get down.
How?
Lachlan Stuart (15:41):
dangerous is that on the mountain.
Olive Foran (15:42):
Yeah, very dangerous, very dangerous yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (15:45):
Very dangerous, yeah, so you obviously even in
that period, had people with youwho can, I guess, rescue you
should you need it.
But when you're pushing to thatlevel, that's base camp.
How many other camps are theregoing up Everest?
Like three or four, four others?
Yeah, and why are you climbingthat?
Because I know we'll talk aboutthis shortly, what's up next
next for you?
But if you were to then hit thenext couple of camps, do you
(16:06):
have to stay there and climatizeor do you just yeah, yeah, yeah
.
Olive Foran (16:10):
So this is the cool thing about mountaineering is
like, once you learn, you learnright.
Lachlan Stuart (16:14):
Um, because you don't want to do it again
hopefully that happens in otherareas of life for people right,
once you learn, you learn likegood, yeah, you take that lesson
.
Olive Foran (16:22):
But yeah, at climatizing, like we call them
rotations, and it's when you sayyou're at base camp and then
we'll climb to camp one, youspend a few nights there and
then it'll be tough, you know,you'll feel it, you'll
definitely feel it.
Lachlan Stuart (16:35):
But then you come back down but that time,
while you're climatizing, you'resort of just hanging out, are
you?
Or you're doing much physicalstuff or just get there.
Olive Foran (16:43):
A lot of the time you're just hanging out.
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah, because you just want togive your body time to, I guess,
adjust to its environmentbecause it is struggling with
the amount of oxygen that's upthere.
It's very thin, so your body ishaving to produce more red
blood cells.
How incredible is the bodyRight, it's wild To push that
and adapt.
Oh, it's crazy.
(17:03):
It's.
It's wild to push that andadapt.
Oh, it's crazy, it's crazy.
And then, like, as we'll talkabout a bit later, but what I
noticed in this recentexpedition to amadablam because
that was a lot of intenseclimbing is how the body even
adjusts to that with low oxygen.
Like it's incredible what yourbody can do talk to us about
amadablam.
Lachlan Stuart (17:18):
I know the amount itself from what we've
spoken is extremely technical.
Yeah, guys, check out his.
There's some wild footage onthere.
What was that like?
So you did base camp, you didthe Northern Peaks Sorry.
What was the first one?
The Island Peaks, sorry, yeah.
And then obviously Amidablam.
What was it that drew you tothat, knowing that it was so
technical, as well.
Olive Foran (17:39):
Well, so, as you'll see, when you get into the
Khumbu region, the SagamathaNational Park, which is the trek
to Everest base camp from aboutday three onwards, as soon as
you pass the last, you know,decently populated city called
Namche Bazaar, you just see thismountain and it's just in the
(17:59):
middle of everything.
It's just like this toweringpeak and you just can't take
your eye off it because it's sobeautiful.
And I was like I remember Iasked my god, I was like what's
that?
And he's like I'm a dublin andI was like I'm gonna climb that
next year.
And he's like okay, and then,yeah, so that first um trek to
everest base camp and climbclimbing of island peak, it's
just like we saw it all day,every day.
(18:20):
It's like what we're looking at.
And then it kind kind of grewon me and then, as soon as I got
back to Australia, I was likeall right, if I'm going to climb
this, I need to kick into gear.
So I dropped drinking, I kindof just started working towards
that single-minded goal ofclimbing that mountain.
And, yeah, I prepped for likethree months, flew in and it was
(18:41):
the wildest expedition I couldhave ever asked.
Lachlan Stuart (18:43):
Before we dive into that.
What's the um?
We dive into that while you'recoming back like you're starting
to goal set.
How important is goal settingto you?
Olive Foran (18:55):
A massive, massive man.
Lachlan Stuart (18:57):
Talk us through what your process is around goal
setting.
Yeah, a lot of people, eventhat I experienced with.
I speak to people all the timewho don't have goals or set them
but never achieve them.
You've set something that isoutrageous and if it goes wrong,
you probably lose your life.
Yeah, I guess you decidedyou're going to do it.
You worked back.
(19:17):
You said you were quittingdrinking.
What other things did you doand how did you, I guess, break
it down to the point whereyou're like I'm confident that
I'm going to be able to do this.
Olive Foran (19:29):
Yeah, well, there's always like that, I guess,
unknown about mountaineering,but I wanted to give myself the
best opportunity to get it donewith my goal setting.
So it was the same in my realestate career.
I write something down A lot ofthe time.
I set it as my screensaver aswell and I just want to always
be looking at that goal.
I just want to always belooking consistently at that
(19:50):
goal, because I believe if youwrite something down, it will
come true.
But you have to read it, youhave to keep checking in on it,
right?
So I write down I'm going tosummit Amidabam in 2025.
And then I set it as myscreensaver while I was training
and I just remember checking itover and over and over again.
And the thing about goalsetting is you have to give
yourself like structure aroundit.
(20:11):
You can't just be like I'mgonna do this but then there's
no pathway to it.
For me, it was finding I needto go find three corporate sorry
, two corporate partners.
I needed to train four times aweek, I needed to run this many
kilometers per week and I justkind of like stepped that out
and now you might not stayexactly to that and you might
(20:35):
not do exactly what you've, Iguess, set out in the structure,
but by having something to workyou worked with and towards
keeps you accountable right,something to work you worked
with and towards keeps youaccountable right.
Lachlan Stuart (20:48):
So that was my process is I'll write a goal
down and then I'll put you knowaction, action that I can nail
every week, and then I'll lookback on it such an important and
powerful point is the settingthe goal, regardless of how big
it may seem, but breaking itdown, because that's where you
realize it's manageable, or youcan have the time, or maybe you
need to sacrifice certain thingsto do that, and even to the
point where you said it didchange a little bit and it
(21:10):
didn't need to be locked instone, that plan.
But as soon as you giveyourself, I guess, that first
small step, that's where themomentum starts.
A lot of people spend so muchtime getting ready, to get ready
.
They want this perfect planbefore they do anything.
And I don't know about you, butevery time I've set any goal
that I've worked towards inbusiness and with travel, with
(21:32):
adventures, the plan alwayschanges so many times.
And you got to allow thatflexibility because I think if
you're too rigid in yourapproach, I love having the
boundaries, like is this movingme towards where I'm going to go
?
But if I find a more efficientway or if I find things that are
taking too much energy and toomuch time and don't have a good
ROI, I'm going to get rid ofthat because the goal is what's
(21:52):
most important how I get there.
It's, you know, allowed tochange how do you set goals?
pretty much the exact same wayas you do.
I Well, I always look a littlebit bigger, like I have an idea
of what I want my life to looklike down the track.
And for anyone who's listening,who is under 25, I would say,
maybe don't think as big picture, but I think as you get more
life experience it's easy to say, okay, what's five years down
(22:15):
the track look like?
Or 10 years down the track,because five years all of a
sudden isn't a big deal.
But when I was 18, five yearsis a long time, right it, five
years is a long time, right,it's a third of your life.
So I'm looking at seasons oflife.
Eventually I'll have a family,we've got mortgages, we've got
responsibilities.
So what needs to happen?
How do I need to front load mylife to have the experiences
(22:37):
that I want to have?
Hence doing things while Idon't have children or
dependents.
At the moment I'm trying to jamas much in and I know that'll
change.
It doesn't trying to jam asmuch in and I know that'll
change Doesn't mean that I cannever do those things again when
that happens.
But there may be differentexperiences that I want to have.
So I've got a bucket list ofstuff and a vision for how I
want to be as a man and how Iwould love people to remember me
and all of that.
And then every decision I makeand every goal that I set that's
(22:59):
significant.
There's insignificant ones, Iasked myself is this moving
towards that or is it pulling meaway?
Because you mentioned anotherthing writing the goal down.
For me, the reason why I dothat is it keeps it in line of
sight, because every single daythere's new opportunities coming
in and the more successful youbecome, you know, as you
continue to do more of what youdo, there's going to be people
(23:21):
wanting your time more andcoffees and other expeditions,
and it's nice, like it's cool,to feel wanted and it's cool to
have opportunity.
But every time you look left orlook right at that, you're not
focusing on what's important100%.
So for me, when I've got itwritten down in front of me, I'm
like okay, these are theimportant things.
I will occasionally look leftand look right if they're from
(23:44):
people that I respect or trustor admire, but majority of the
time it's like put the blinderson and do what's required to
achieve that.
Olive Foran (23:51):
Yeah, and it's not being rude either, but you have
a look at the most successfulpeople in any field and they
have the blinders up big time,you know.
But at saying that it isimportant to reach back and help
someone else If you believethat they can get there, you
know what I mean.
Lachlan Stuart (24:08):
Definitely that's also for me.
Five years ago, I probablywasn't as focused on that.
I would definitely go for a lotof coffees and catch ups with
people, but I was still tryingto get myself to a point where I
could breathe and I built thelife that I am living and the
life that I'm enjoying livingcoming out of a place of
(24:30):
scarcity and pain.
I hated my life and I hatedmyself so much that I just knew
I didn't want that.
Therefore, I would do whateverthe opposite was of that, and I
didn't really know what that wasat the time.
I was just like if I don't wantto be broke, I need to earn
money.
If I don't want to be lonely, Ineed to find love.
You know, if I don't want to bementally unwell, I need to get
(24:52):
mentally happy and healthy.
And so I was figuring out whatworked for me in that process,
which meant a lot of trial anderror, as I figured out and
found out things that work forme and I've media, especially
younger people.
And this was me when I wasyounger.
I thought I had it all figuredout, but I didn't.
I just didn't have enough lifeexperience.
So me I was trying to givepeople advice and give myself
(25:14):
advice that I didn't yetunderstand.
So that's where I think theexperience came in.
But I needed to get myself to apoint where, financially, I was
sweet, I'd done the things thatI was essentially trying to
tell people to do, and that took, you know, for me it took 11
years.
I wish I was one of thosepeople on social media who
knocked it out of the park inthe first 12, 24 months, but
that just wasn't my journey.
Olive Foran (25:34):
But the good thing is through.
I guess more time you learn,more lessons and also you know
what goes into building.
Yeah, so you don't want to letit go, you don't want to let it
slip.
You're even more committed thansomeone who probably did it in
a year or two, exactly, yeah youunderstand what you've got to
lose.
Lachlan Stuart (25:52):
And I went to the bull riding on Saturday
night.
I caught up with some mates Ihadn't seen for 15 years, which
was cool.
They're great lads andeveryone's sort of going through
this phase of life wherethey're cutting back on drinking
and other things are becoming apriority, and we all stopped
hanging out 15 years ago becausewe were all together, were
menaces, yeah.
And now you're sort of watchingthem come into different phases
(26:15):
of their life and you're seeingthem want to change their
habits to be better for theirfamilies and for themselves.
And I think, yeah, to yourpoint.
It's just you don't get to givethe opportunity.
Like I was having a beer andhaving a chat with them and they
were asking me questions likehow did you cut out alcohol?
As I have a beer, no, but likehow did you change your
(26:35):
relationship with alcohol?
How have you done this?
And I got to ask them questionsabout things, because everyone
is an expert in something thatyou're not.
And yeah, you do get to havethe opportunity as a young
person, and definitely as youget older, to give back, because
I think if I can help peoplehave the quality of life that I
have.
Just like I'm sure you'reexcited to help people have the
(26:57):
experiences and adventures andquality of life that you have.
It's a very cool feeling.
Olive Foran (27:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Which is that thing aboutreaching back right?
Yeah, yeah, letting someoneelse have the experience, yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (27:07):
I think you can't always be the person who's
leading.
You've got to know when tosupport as well, and I got to do
that.
The Tumor Grammar 150 year,what was it?
I keep forgetting the event,but it was a cool event the
school put on.
This young fellow was running100k so I got to help him and
that was awesome, like I wasn'treally running or doing anything
(27:28):
, but I was like he's helpinghim with food and cramping and
all kinds of stuff, but watchinghim get to go through that, I'm
like he started the day.
A very different person to howhe finished it yeah much as I'm
sure you have with everyadventure.
What it probably leads into agood question from obviously 15,
when your mom passed away, tonow, 26 or 11 years later,
(27:48):
you've done what?
Olive Foran (27:49):
three or four wild high three, three high high
altitude mountains.
Lachlan Stuart (27:55):
How has that shaped you and how would you say
you've?
You're different to thatyounger version of yourself.
Olive Foran (28:02):
I would say probably the biggest difference
is now I have the belief that Ican really just do whatever.
I can do anything, and it's notcoming from a point of
overconfidence or anything likethat, it's just coming from a
point of just if you commit tosomething fully, you can make it
(28:22):
happen.
It's crazy, when you set yourmind to, can you shut out all
the noises we were talking aboutputting the blinders up what
you can achieve.
It's fantastic.
And I would probably say theyoung, 15 year old, oliver Foran
, didn't really believe that.
You know, and I think, throughchallenge, seeking out challenge
, I kind of learned more aboutmyself.
(28:44):
When I'm under pressure, Idon't freak out and you start
building yourself as a humanbeing.
And yeah, I'd probably just saythat's the biggest difference
from young me to me now, and themountains and the experiences
had on those expeditions andjourneys had a lot to do with it
.
But also just growing up, yeah,was the probably the bigger
(29:06):
player in it.
Lachlan Stuart (29:07):
How was it, though?
So your first step, the blokewho baited you and got you to do
that first hike, then obviously, that was probably a pivotal
conversation in your life thathas shaped you into the man that
you are today, because a lot ofyour growth from what you just
shared then came through doingthe hard things and putting
yourself in situations where youcould either back down or you
(29:27):
could step up and step into whoyou wanted to become.
How important do you feel it isfor people listening to do hard
things?
Olive Foran (29:34):
I think it's the most important thing.
Lachlan Stuart (29:36):
Yeah.
Olive Foran (29:37):
I think we live in a world now where everything's
so accessible and easy and thenyou take yourself out of it and,
like a good experience is go toa third world country and see
how they live daily.
There's more entrepreneurs inthird world countries than there
are in any Western country.
Because you have to think likethat there, I think the most
important thing is to go seekchallenge, or challenge is going
(29:58):
to seek you at the end of theday, a way to look.
Yeah, and actually what I justsaid then was something it's
just a mantra that popped intomy mind when things got hard
climbing amadablam and it justkind of stuck around and it kind
of has so much meaning to whatI believe a human needs to do to
live a life that's fulfilling.
(30:19):
It's so good, yeah what's it,amadablam?
Lachlan Stuart (30:22):
I know there was some wild things that happened
on there.
What was a moment on that trekthat had a significant impact on
you?
Olive Foran (30:30):
yeah, um, there was one standout moment and that
was, uh, we just climbedlobashay east peak, which is
another 619 meter, I believe, umpeak, near everest, and then we
trekked the next day back to,also that same day, um, back to
I think it was farish.
And then we went to amadablamand when we got there we met
(30:53):
this amazing group of people andbecame like friends, base camp
family straight away.
And there was a lovely austrianfather, daughter and son-in-law
.
They were by far the mostcomplete and, in my opinion,
best climbers at base camp, sowe were kind of all leaning on
them because there were someproblems with ice covering some
(31:16):
of the ropes, so we needed to gofix a new route, which the AK
Sherpas ended up doing, but theywere the ones that were going
to go open it up by climbing itright.
So they went.
We were meant to go the dayafter and, yeah, unfortunately,
like they did it in an amazingtime, but unfortunately, um, the
papa fell from the top 1500meters and unfortunately passed
(31:38):
away, and that it was just ourteam left in base camp.
Everyone else was on themountain.
That put everything inperspective for us, that base
camp.
Everyone else was on themountain that put everything in
perspective.
For us, that was so hard?
Lachlan Stuart (31:48):
what was going through your mind when you got
the call and found out that that?
Olive Foran (31:52):
had happened.
Well, first it was we need toget the daughter and the
son-in-law off the mountain asap, which we, thanks to our lead
team leader, gesmar, ended uporganizing very quickly, and
then it was just like they werethe best.
I'm not even like an eighth ofa climber that he is, you know,
and I'm going to go and do thissoon.
So I would lie if I said therewasn't like a little bit of like
(32:15):
shock and self-doubt creepingin, but it got stamped out very
quickly as well.
Lachlan Stuart (32:21):
How did you stamp it out?
Because even when we were onthe run and you were telling me
that story in my mind, I havenever been in a situation like
that, like I've pushed myself inso many different instances,
but I don't think there haveever been life or death, and so
what you do is quite often a lotof life or death situations,
(32:43):
and then you see it happen withsomeone who is a more
experienced climber.
How do you overcome that?
Olive Foran (32:51):
yeah, yeah, we'll overcome it.
I basically decided to flip mymind and just start thinking
positively about the mountainagain.
That was a big thing becausethat one event sent pretty much
75% of the climbers home.
Also, the weather turned didn'tmake things easier, that just
happened, and there was probablya two-week waiting period
(33:13):
before the next opportunity togo and climb.
So most climbers said, no,that's not going to happen,
we'll come back next year, we'llcome back later this year.
I just went.
I feel like there is anopportunity here and we kind of
spoke about it as a team.
We spoke about what happened, wespoke about things that we
could work on, and safety was abig thing.
(33:35):
So we made a new plan whichinvolved more of a staged
approach to climbing themountain, not just pushing from
camp two and one push to get upand down, which takes like 28
hours.
With those conditions we'relike all right, well, let's
bring a tent up, let's pitch atent at camp three, which is
very sketchy, but if we can geta few hours of rest there, get
(33:55):
some food in, get some caloriesin, then we will have a good
chance of pushing and, at theend of the day, stepping back
and not being emotional about itand being like how can we build
on this, how can we learn fromthis and move forwards which was
tough, you know what I mean,because it's such a sad thing.
And just to have to take theemotion away only a few days
(34:16):
later and make a plan on how toactually make it happen was
different to anything I've hadto do before.
But we built the plan.
We ended up doing the climb andsummiting and, yeah, it took
everything I had as a human.
Lachlan Stuart (34:33):
Why didn't you quit?
75% of people are walking away.
You're probably seeing themleave in droves.
Yeah, what was it within youthat decided you didn't want to
quit?
Olive Foran (34:42):
I'd probably like I'm a bit of an extreme person I
would say that had a lot to dowith it, but also just I just
had belief that it was possible.
You know what I mean?
I was like other people havesummit of this mountain this
season.
Lachlan Stuart (34:55):
I'm going to be one of them Even when the bad
weather came in.
Was that just another hurdlefor you to overcome?
Olive Foran (35:00):
Yeah, that was the most tedious two weeks.
It was crazy because themountains are alive, there is
absolutely no doubt about it.
Like the tragedy happened andthen the mountain just snow,
wind, snow wind.
Like we were getting 20centimeters of snow for like the
following week and then alittle bit into that second week
(35:20):
as well, and it's just like itwanted no one up there and then
we were just patient like wewould.
Just there was a lodge that wasprobably 10 minute walk from
base camp so we'd go stay therefor a few nights to get a shower
in and like a proper shower andall of that.
Then come back to base camp andplay cards, hang out and like
we checked our gear 48 times andit was just a huge test on
(35:45):
resilience and patience.
Lachlan Stuart (35:47):
at the end of the day, do you feel there was
any pressure to prove yourselfas well at this point while
you're going up the mountain?
Obviously when you you didn'treally have from what you shared
, have too many people, asyou're leaving real estate,
doubt you or tell you you're anidiot, but they're just like are
you sure?
And you're like no, but we'llfigure it out.
Was there any, I guess,pressure of people or
(36:09):
expectation or perception backhome that drove you up the
mountain as well?
Olive Foran (36:14):
not really.
To be honest, I feel like I'vegot some amazing people in my
corner and they like, when Imake a decision, I think through
their experience, it's likehe's gonna do it, doesn't really
matter what we say.
They supported me and they'relike if you think this is the
right decision, I can guarantee.
Like behind closed doorsthey're like get back, get off
(36:36):
this mountain right now.
But I kind of made the decisionthat this is what I wanted to
do and this was going to be mytesting ground to prove that I
can do it.
Because, yeah, like all thestuff that happens huge tragedy.
But it was one of those momentswhere we're like, if you're
going to do it, you're going toneed to give everything you got
and more, and then you might getit.
(36:58):
You know what I mean.
There were no guarantees, butthe stage was set and I just
wanted to take that step.
Lachlan Stuart (37:04):
So awesome.
I get so inspired because whenthere's, especially when there's
opportunity to quit and I don'tthink people would bat an
eyelid if there was a death oreven the change in weather it's
very easy to people just go ohman, there were so many things
out of your control and youallowed them to determine your
outcome.
That's how a lot of people livelife.
They live life, I guess,reacting to things out of their
(37:25):
control and they get pissed offby them or they allow them to
determine their results, where,in this situation, which was
literally life or death, youstill chose to be in control.
As challenging as it was, yousaid, you started shifting your
approach to viewing the mountainas still a fun experience and
something that you were capableof, and I'm also sure the
evidence of hiking the twopreviously had taught you some
(37:47):
skills and got you comfortable.
In that moment you didn't justgo to the crazy one.
Olive Foran (37:52):
No, no, no, no.
I learned a lot those twoprevious climbs and I was very
lucky to have, almost like, amentor who was our team leader
is gesman um he, his skill andmountain is like second skill
and strength, second to none, soit was good for me to know that
we had him in our corner aswell.
(38:12):
And then my climbing partner, alithuanian guy, andy, also very
strong, and gian, who I endedup it was just gian and I who
ended up summiting yep one oflike the most humble but
powerful human beings I've evermet.
So I was like there's a team offour here, we're taking on the
(38:34):
risk management.
Quite well, we're building anew plan.
We're all strong in our ownways, a lot of them physical,
I'd say.
My biggest attribute was mymental strength and I was like
let's do it.
You know what I mean.
Like it's still here, we'restill in the season, like I
believe we can, and that's notto say that like if the mountain
(38:55):
said no up there, we would haveturned around.
But I think, because we waitedit out, it threw us a bone, yep,
and then we just made best withit, just chewed on it.
Yeah, that's it.
Yeah, but they like it all camedown to the team how important
is team like?
Lachlan Stuart (39:10):
talk us through what you're looking for when
you're putting a team togetherto do what you do like.
What attributes you're talkingabout?
You mentioned strength.
You mentioned your best abilitywas your mental like.
What else you're looking forwhen you're assembling?
Olive Foran (39:22):
team, yeah, yeah.
Well, people that aren't justgoing to give up when things get
hard, because there is oneguarantee in the mountaineering
and it will get hard at somepoint.
You will have a massive headache, you could be a little injured,
it could be like negative 20 30degrees.
You'd be in a blizzard like itis gonna suck at some point.
But you want to.
(39:42):
You want to surround yourselfwith people that aren't just
going to throw the towel inright and not saying that
throwing the towel is a badthing because it's very smart in
the mountains if it does get abit too wild, but also like you
don't want someone at the firstsign of danger.
That's just like no, yeah, I'mdone.
So that that's probably themost important thing when
building a team is just findingpeople that have that resilience
(40:03):
and also people that you cantrust.
You know what I mean because,like when we, so gun and I, went
to push for the summit, it tookus nine hours from we left at
12 30 and we got up there like 955, so just over nine hours to
climb to the summit how longyou're living at 12, 30 in the
morning or midday, midnight farout, yeah, and like so, the.
(40:25):
So it's funny, you climb on blueice and it's like this right,
so what's?
Blue ice is slippery as shit,isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, that's the crampons.
So you're just front crampons?
Yeah, right, using the frontcrampons for hours and hours and
hours.
Lachlan Stuart (40:38):
And when you were using those.
Are you into it or yeah?
Olive Foran (40:41):
yeah, so you're like chipping away and just
trying to get it in there.
I was lucky, like mine werequite new, so that was still
very sharp, so it kind of tookme one or two kicks to get in
there.
But yeah, you're just kind oflike chipping away at it hours
and hours and hours of justclimbing uphill how the quads
feeling booting into a bit ofice non-stop.
Lachlan Stuart (41:01):
Oh it was more the shins.
Olive Foran (41:02):
My shins were like black when I came down.
That's nuts, yeah.
But yeah, and Garn and I likethis, is you know that trust
thing again, right?
So the last 200 meters beforethe summit, like we'd just been
going up and down over thesehills that we thought were the
summit for hours, and then wefinally like see it there and
the ice is buried Sorry, therope is buried in ice and we're
(41:24):
like, oh no.
So we looked at each other andit wasn't as steep as the rest
of it, like we were kind ofalmost there.
So we tied into each other andwe just walked it, which is a
bit red hot because we weren'ton any fixed ropes or anything
towards the end there, but wewanted to get to the summit.
I trusted him, he trusted meand we did to get to the summit.
(41:45):
I trusted him, he trusted meand we did it, which was awesome
.
Lachlan Stuart (41:48):
What was it like when you summited?
So you said what?
6,000, how many?
812, yeah, so just shy of 7,000.
Yeah, Far out.
What was it like when yousummited?
Talk us through that.
Olive Foran (42:00):
Probably the most beautiful moment of my life,
ruined by me falling asleep assoon as I got there, as you do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I um, I gotto the top and I was like whoa,
I sat down and just like went tosleep, for I think it was
probably like five, ten minutes,and then Garnt's like hey, take
(42:22):
it in, take it in, we're notgonna get back up here for a
while.
Lachlan Stuart (42:27):
Fucking hell and then.
So when you woke up and likewe're just looking around what
was going through your mind?
Olive Foran (42:35):
I was just like I can't believe that we just did
this, like we overcame so muchadversity to get to this moment
right now, like this is justwild, and like we had this clear
view of the peak of MountEverest and it felt like there
was nothing else up there exceptus, the mountain that we were
(42:57):
on and Mount Everest.
That's just what it felt like.
It was just this wild feelingof energy and connection and,
yeah, man, I was just taken back, like so, so much respect for
that area and just that part ofthe world.
I just think it's somethingthat, if you can get a chance to
go and have a look at, becausethere's some big things in this
(43:19):
world, these mountains are someof them.
Lachlan Stuart (43:21):
Yeah, I have no intent on climbing them, but I'm
keen to see them.
Yeah, yeah, you've mentioned insocial posts and stuff,
climbing for your mum.
Would you be open to sharing, Iguess, what that really means
to you, because you haveobviously touched on who you
want to become for her, but whenyou're obviously doing the
things that you're doing with, Iguess, your mum in the back of
your mind what into you, yeah,yeah.
Olive Foran (43:47):
Well, it means a lot, man, being able to do these
tough things, and I do them.
I do them for myself, but I dothem for my mom as well, which
leads on to what I'm wanting todo turn this into uh, which
we'll mention, talk about soon.
But being able to do this forsomeone, I think, makes it even
more powerful, right?
Lachlan Stuart (44:05):
yeah, I always just wanted to make my mom proud
as a kid and I was like well, Ithink this is a pretty cool way
to do it and I enjoy it good onyou, man like see people who
are executing these things isinspiring, knowing a small
fraction of what you've had togo through to do it and it's not
(44:25):
always just the physical thingsthat you have to endure the
biggest challenges.
I think are the mental, becausethe mind controls what happens
next.
You know, obviously dealingwith the loss of your mom, then
being on a trek where someoneactually passed away, the things
that I feel would go through mymind would probably stop me.
So the fact that you were ableto tame the mind and get those
(44:47):
physical challenges overcome aswell, like it, is so impressive.
Olive Foran (44:51):
Yeah, I thought about this and, like at base
camp, I was definitely, I reckon, in my opinion, the most
inexperienced climber there.
One of them and definitely wasnot one of the strongest, you
know what I mean Not even close.
There were some amazing humanbeings at base camp, but I just
think my mentality got me overthe line at the end of the day
(45:12):
and just being able to put upwith a bit of suck or a lot of
suck, plenty of it yeah, it'sinteresting and it's kind of a
cool leveler as well, like ifyou have the right mentality
about things, you can do someamazing feats as a human being.
Lachlan Stuart (45:28):
How do you train your mind?
Is there anything that you do?
Olive Foran (45:32):
now.
Yeah, I guess, when I was likebuilding it up, not really, I
think it just kind of came fromhaving these massive traumas in
my life and just trying tonavigate them.
And, yeah, like losing peoplethat are close to you is
probably one of the hardestthings in your life, but it's
one of the best things forbuilding mental resilience and
(45:54):
everything like that.
And I've had a few terrible,terrible cases over the years.
So I think it's just,unfortunately, some of it's
attributed to that.
But more recently, like I gaveup drinking, which was a mental
challenge as well, because, likebeing an Aussie and I've got an
(46:17):
amazing bunch of mates and it'shard to not just go have a beer
all the time with them.
You know what I mean Exactly.
Yeah, so I think just anythingmate, mate, like in the biggest
thing is like if you want to dosomething but you know it's
going to be bad for you,training your mind is not doing
that simple.
Lachlan Stuart (46:35):
Yeah, it's that simple.
But then that's where thechallenge right.
It tests them mental, not somuch the physical action that
you're taking.
Yeah, yeah, 100.
What was it like coming downthe mountain so you fell asleep
on top?
Then you get to take it in.
It's this euphoric feeling.
Is it easy to get down?
Olive Foran (46:51):
or what's it like going down the mountain, no, no,
so coming down is very, veryhard.
So we came down to camp threeand at camp three I was
absolutely ruined, so we decidedto spend a night there and then
, when we spent the night there,we had a massive snowstorm come
(47:13):
through and it was one of theworst experiences of my life.
Yeah, so we just had likemassive winds I'm not 100% sure
what the kilometer per hour was,but it was wild and like my
zipper, like I don't know if itripped open or froze or
something, but it was just openall night and I couldn't shut it
and we were just gettingpounded by just like ice and
(47:34):
snow and everything was frozenand I still have nightmares
about that.
I recorded a message of beinglike this could be it.
I love you all.
Lachlan Stuart (47:44):
And that was so.
There was probably a pointwhere you're like I could die
here 100.
Yeah, it was the scariestmoment of my life what's it like
being that close to death whereyou actually record a message?
Olive Foran (47:53):
well, the next day I deleted it so stupid?
yeah, that would have beenpowerful um, I think it might be
in my uh history, yeah, yeah,I'll have a look later, but yeah
, it was a lot I wasn't reallythinking of like, well, I'm
doing this right now.
I did more like I had not,because the Sherpas that I was
with were in the tent next to meand it was just my tent that
(48:15):
was getting pumped.
But I was too exhausted Ididn't think to just move tents
as well.
Simple solution, yeah.
So I'm just going through thisand I'm like this is the worst.
This is it.
This is it which, to be fair,definitely could have been so.
Camp 3, right, is on this ridge.
That's maybe like two and ahalf meters, three meters wide,
(48:36):
and it's just 1,500 meter dropseither side.
And the thing about up there aswell is you can't like we
didn't have any like proper wayto tie the tent down, like these
tents were not tied down, so itwas just us and our body weight
that was keeping them kind ofsweet there and like you dig,
you dig out of like a platformin the snow and everything like
(48:58):
that.
But man, the wind was wildcoming through so it was so
scary and you just felt like atany point if it just got
underneath you just on it.
Lachlan Stuart (49:08):
Was your team calm in that moment, or how were
they sort of well?
Olive Foran (49:12):
everything froze in their tent as well so like,
like I had my boots off and Iwas in my summer suit, I had
like all my summer socks on andeverything inside of a negative
30 degree sleeping bag.
So my body was fine, buteverything else in the tent was
just, and including my face, wasjust either frozen or like my
face was windburned, like mylips were just like big gashes
(49:32):
at this point.
Um, it was not comfortable.
Lachlan Stuart (49:36):
Not at all that is crazy, man, like people
obviously get to see photos ofyou summiting these things, but
very rarely do they get to seeor experience the whole stuff.
You know all the adversity andthe moments where you're like
I'm screwed here that you gothrough, and so it does.
I guess that's the beauty ofsocial media now is with stories
and stuff, you can startdocumenting more of that,
(49:57):
because I even think about itwith the 58 marathons there's no
people can see I was injuredand they can go out and run 5K
and go, wow, how'd you back upand do marathons day in, day out
, but they'll never understandhow freaking cold it was for the
first 32 days and what it'slike being out there for hours
at a time with wind and snow.
You just can't replicate thatunless you actually go out and
(50:19):
do it.
Yeah, yeah.
I wish there was a snow filteron instagram that you could just
like freeze it for a little bit, just get off a negative five
degree blow that.
Olive Foran (50:31):
Yeah, jesus man, that's really cold.
But he did 100, yeah, but, um,so that next morning, like we
were, we just I just kept saying, like the sun will come up, the
sun will come up, the sun willcome up.
Eventually the same sun came up.
We were in such a bad way likeI'll show you a photo after this
, but it was just like not allright how we were.
We hadn't really drunk water.
I accidentally left my wateroutside of my sleeping bag, an
(50:52):
ice block.
So I had an ice block.
Yeah, like the boots were frozenso you had to like thaw the
boots out to get them back on,and they've got boa twisters or
connectors or something, so Icouldn't turn the boa because it
was frozen.
So, yeah, we were in a bad wayand then we called the base camp
to basically say, hey, we needto get airlifted off this
(51:13):
mountain asap.
Like we are beat up here, and,um, the heroes that drive those
helicopters ended up getting usoff, which is cool.
So you got rescued.
Yeah, we got rescued on the wayback down after what was that
like for you?
Lachlan Stuart (51:27):
like mentally, did you feel like you'd failed
in a way, or how?
What was going through yourmind?
Olive Foran (51:34):
no, I didn't think I failed.
I think, then and there, thatwas the right decision.
I think I think I would havepaid the ultimate price maybe on
the way back down, because itwas the conditions just got so
bad.
So, yeah, it was a toughdecision to make, definitely,
but I think it's, you know, onethat I'm happy I made at the end
of the day, and it gives me theopportunity to now go and climb
(51:55):
again.
Lachlan Stuart (51:56):
So what is next?
You always working on something.
Olive Foran (52:00):
Yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (52:00):
What's in the goal book?
Olive Foran (52:02):
Yeah, definitely always working on something.
Yeah, what's in the goal bookgoal?
Yeah, definitely.
Well, all the lessons that Ilearned from amadablam, I'm
going to go and well, basicallywhat happened was I want to
climb everest right, but I wantto do it in a way that's going
to raise a lot of money forbrain cancer.
And I got an email from mypartners over in nepal the other
day basically saying thatunfortunately, amadablam doesn't
count as like a prerequisitenow to climb Mount Everest.
(52:26):
It's got to be 7,000 meters orabove, which I haven't done yet.
So in the next few months I'mgoing to go to Kyrgyzstan and
climb Lenin Peak, so I can pickthat.
Lachlan Stuart (52:37):
And so what's the difficulty of that climb
compared to Amidablan?
Olive Foran (52:42):
It's high.
It's high, so altitude would betough, but from everyone I know
that's climbed it.
There's a few people that I'vespoken to about it already.
They say it's not astechnically challenging, so I'm
really excited to just go there.
Also, I want to do it in a bitof a different style this time.
What do you mean by that?
I want to carry my own gear allthe way to the top, so it'll be
(53:04):
with a bigger pack what do you?
Lachlan Stuart (53:06):
how much weight are you looking at there?
Olive Foran (53:08):
like 18 kilos, yeah , yeah, when you go.
So we'll obviously set up acamp three and then push.
So I won't be carrying 18 kilosto the summit.
I'll leave it stashed at campthree.
But for the rest of the climb,um, it'll be, yeah, the 18 kilos
on the back and so when haveyou set a date for that, or?
Talking to some local companiesover there.
Lachlan Stuart (53:29):
It's looking like it's going to be early
august and that's going to behere in no time, and how soon
after that, so that'll allow youto qualify for everest?
And then, how soon after thatdo you plan on doing everest?
Olive Foran (53:40):
ideally next, next year, beginning of next year.
And what's the height ofEverest?
8848.86, yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (53:46):
He knows it too.
And how will you like, in thelead up for this next one,
what's your training look like?
Olive Foran (53:53):
Yeah, definitely.
So some lessons I learned upthere is we don't like if we're
getting up to like 170, 180 BPM,we're doing the wrong thing.
You know what I mean?
Or something's gone terriblywrong.
So I'm going to really focus onmore of that zone two, space
and cycling as well, becausethere's only so much running
(54:14):
that you can do.
Yeah sure.
Unless you're a lucky student,just keep going.
Yeah, exactly, biking is goingto be probably a big part of it,
and just climbing outdoors yeah, just way more time at the
crags on the ropes.
And, yeah, just learning allabout that.
Lachlan Stuart (54:32):
And you're looking for more brand partners
at the moment as well.
Like to, when I say brandpartners, people to you know be
part of this with you that cancontribute, whether it's through
finances or connections, insome way as well.
Right, 100, it's an importantpart and I don't think I've
spoken enough about it, but Icouldn't have done what I did
without our sponsors and thesupport.
(54:53):
So even when you have big ideas, it's like you've obviously
executed on a couple and I havedone I mean a year, nearly seven
years, worth of challengesbefore I got my first sponsor,
because people not always, butthere's a number of people who
ask me how do you get sponsors?
And I think one you got to havethe runs on the board to show
(55:13):
that you can back through,because they want to know what
invest in you, because generallythere's not going to be a huge
ROI.
Their brand's going to beeverywhere while you're doing
cool stuff.
But most of the brands thatinvested in me just wanted to
see some cool things happeningand obviously got behind the
mental health cause, which was abig part of it.
And while we're raising funds,you're raising funds for brain
cancer.
So if there's any businesses orpeople out there, get in
(55:36):
contact with Oliver as well.
One last question.
Please One last question.
What would you say to someonewho's stuck chasing success?
Olive Foran (55:44):
they don't even want.
Stop, simple, yeah, if youdon't want it like, there's no
point chasing it.
I think I heard a podcast theother day, right and Will Ahmed
he founded Woop and he said I'ma finance like, I've got a
finance background.
That's what I was focusing on.
I had nothing, I had no ideaabout the health, the technical
(56:04):
side of things, the technology,but he's like.
I listened to that voice in theshower or in the back of the cab
after, you know, a dinner out,just that quiet moment.
I listened to what spoke to meand this is what I built and I
just thought like that's soincredible and I want to emulate
that.
You is what I built and I justthought like that's so
incredible and I want to emulatethat.
(56:25):
You know what I mean and Ithink more people should.
You know what I mean.
Like a world filled with peoplechasing their passions and
following their dreams is goingto be a happier place than one.
People just doing what they'retold when they're told and not
saying that that's a bad thingat all.
But just find what you want todo and if you want to be an
(56:47):
accountant, be an accountant.
You know what I mean.
Be the best fucking accountantyou can be, exactly, and when
you're in alignment and you'redoing something because you're
passionate about it, everythingelse doesn't really matter.
You know, what I mean.
It'll work itself out.
You know what.
Welcome back to another episode of the man that
Can podcast.
This is the first one we'vedone back in Australia since
well, probably far out November24.
Oh wow, so pumped to be here.
Man, mate, I'm on it.
Welcome to be on the show.
Olive Foran (00:16):
Thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Lachlan Stuart (00:18):
So we've got Oliver Foran everyone and you've
got to check his Instagram out.
It's going to be linked in allthe places.
I don't know how we connected.
I think I was following you fora little bit.
You must have come up in my Foryou page on Instagram and you
were posting all these crazyclimbing videos in snowy
mountains and for me I was likecool shit, cool people doing
cool shit.
(00:38):
I want to get around that.
And then we connected.
We went for a 90-minute walkthe other week and I learned a
lot about you and there's somuch that I took away that I
want my audience to be able tolearn.
So, firstly, thanks for comingon.
Olive Foran (00:51):
Thanks for having me, and vice versa.
By the way, like hearing yourstory and I guess what you did,
how you did it, it inspired meand also gave me some pointers
to think about.
Lachlan Stuart (00:59):
Awesome.
Appreciate that man.
It's the importance of having agood network, finding people
who are doing things that you'reinterested in and connecting
with them.
Olive Foran (01:06):
Yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (01:07):
Because I think all the things that you've
learned, the lessons that you'reabout to share, I took away so
much from you as well.
I'm like, oh, how could Iimplement that into my life?
Or I never considered you wouldhave to go through that while
climbing mountains.
If I ever want to do it, whichprobably won't happen, if my
wife has anything to do it.
But, oliver, you've faced deathzones, avalanches, ice walls,
(01:27):
but what's been the hardestmountain that you've had to
climb mentally?
Olive Foran (01:31):
Yeah, definitely the hardest mountain that I've
had to climb mentally wasprobably my first major
roadblock and challenge in lifeand that was the death of my
mother.
So she passed away when I was15 years old and it was quite a
drawn out process as well.
So, going from having thatnormal, typical Australian
family life which was amazing weweren't the richest family but
(01:54):
we had a lot of love in ourhouse and that's the most
important thing and then havingthat kind of turn upside down at
15 years old and having tonavigate that, that was really
hard.
But saying that, that challengekind of set me up for bigger
challenges that came later inlife.
Lachlan Stuart (02:12):
Yeah, what was it?
So?
15, you said 15.
Yeah, that's extremely young.
I'm very lucky to still haveboth of my parents still here.
How was it You're obviouslygoing through puberty and
becoming, I guess, a young manat that point To lose such a big
role model and member ofsupport in your community and
your family?
How did you navigate that?
Olive Foran (02:31):
Yeah, it was hard.
It was hard.
It was fight or flight.
For a while I had great supportaround me.
Aunties and uncles, friends andfamily really stood out and
helped us.
Yeah, your mom's your mom right, and losing your mom has a big
impact on you as a kid,definitely, and my little
(02:52):
brother was nine years old, so,and my sister was, I think she
was 13, yep, so you know, I wasat least a little bit older for
them.
Lachlan Stuart (02:59):
It was even bigger than me, in my opinion
did you notice it shifted you ina way to want to look after
them more or step up, or how didhow did that influence the
family dynamic?
Olive Foran (03:10):
yeah, definitely, definitely.
Well, I just, you know, kind ofwanted the best for my brother
and sister, so would do anythingfor them from that moment, even
more so than before.
I just think you want toprotect them, right?
Yeah, and like being 15, youknow you, you're going through
puberty, you're becoming a youngman, yeah, so you've got a
(03:30):
little bit more, I guess,testosterone running through
your body.
Yeah, exactly, exactly so.
It was challenging, but I thinkyou know those challenges make
who you are and thinking aboutit now.
Lachlan Stuart (03:41):
So you're 26, right?
So, 11 years on, how do youfeel with the way that you
conduct yourself and the manthat you've become and the man
that you're striving towardsbecoming, your mum would be
thinking about you.
Olive Foran (03:54):
Yeah, I hope she'd be proud.
I'm sure she would.
She'd probably be rolling in agrave a few times with all the
stuff that I've been doing.
But I think, yeah, she'd bevery proud of the lessons I've
learned along the way and howI've kind of taken something
that could have, you know, sentme down either way and hopefully
done something positive with it.
(04:15):
And you know the end goal aswell.
As you know, you go throughthis, you learn and then you go
back and you help someone elsewho's facing that adversity.
Lachlan Stuart (04:24):
Why do you feel?
I believe everyone faces a forkin the road moment, and the
significance or severity of itvaries for each individual.
You obviously had your fork inthe road, as you just mentioned.
You could have gone one way andyou chose to go what we view as
a positive way.
Why do you feel you went thepositive way instead of, I guess
, spiraling?
Because you do hear a lot ofpeople who do spiral out of
(04:44):
control.
Olive Foran (04:45):
Yeah, well, it's not saying that I didn't.
I definitely dipped my toe inthat spiral, little dippy tip
and then I think conscious was abig thing.
And also I put it inperspective and I was like my
mom wanted to set me up with agood life.
She wanted to give me all theopportunity.
We were a single incomehousehold.
My mom looked after the family,so she was trying to give every
(05:08):
opportunity for us to.
She sent us to a private school.
I went to college, so she wastrying to give every opportunity
for us to live a good life andthen I thought why not still
honor her and live a full life?
You know, my version of fullback then is not my version of
full now.
Lachlan Stuart (05:24):
What's the difference?
What was it full back then isnot my version of full now?
Olive Foran (05:26):
What's the difference?
What was it like back then tonow?
Back then was just having agood job, working hard, and
since I dip my toe in themountains, it's all mountains.
Lachlan Stuart (05:34):
How'd you get into the, I guess dipping your
toe into the mountain?
Because me that's a big dip,right, I haven't seen any
version of my life where I dipmy toe in the mountains, even
though I love watching it.
That hasn't come up for me.
So how did you end up there?
Olive Foran (05:48):
So originally I was just traveling, wanted to
travel.
I worked in real estate forfive years prior and then, yeah,
went overseas, went to Europe,africa, I had a wedding for a
friend in Asia, in Bali, andthen I ended up in Vietnam.
Now, in Vietnam, I was rockclimbing and I met an American
guy and he was a mountaineer,and then we ended up getting
(06:12):
along.
So we ended up getting anAirbnb together, spending a bit
of time, and this guy was justlike influencing me, telling me
how crazy these stories were,and I feel like I'm an extreme
personality and I was likebiting hard.
I was like this is extremepersonality and I was like
biting hard.
I was like this is awesome.
So then, yeah, anyway, booked a,booked a ticket to Nepal, as
you do, as you do, just getbaited.
And then you're like I'm doingit.
(06:33):
Yeah.
I was like, oh, you've inspiredme, let's do it.
And then, um, I was fit becauseI was training for our army,
yep, so I was in really goodshape.
So I thought, hey, I'm in goodshape, got this opportunity, I'm
already in this, uh, on thisside of the world, let's go do
it.
Lachlan Stuart (06:49):
So so hold on.
You were in real estate, you'dbeen in real estate for a number
of years, and then you're alsotraining to get into the army
yes yeah, so obviously yourpassion wasn't real estate at
the time, would you?
Olive Foran (06:59):
I loved real estate .
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But real estate to me was Iwanted to push myself physically
right.
I wanted to see, like, how farI could go physically and I
think that you know ties into alittle bit of my past as well
just wanting to see where thatlimit is.
And real estate's such a goodcareer.
(07:20):
But I wasn't fulfilledphysically.
You know what I mean.
Lachlan Stuart (07:24):
So why not stay in real estate and then sort of
dabble in the other things?
Why go all in?
Olive Foran (07:30):
I think that's just my personality.
Yeah, I think I just decided todive headfirst and learn to
swim on the way.
I think, as well, if you don'tdo something to the fullest, as
well, if you don't do somethingto the fullest, you're not going
to have the success in it thatyou want, in my opinion.
(07:51):
And I saw myself kind offocusing away from real estate
while I was still in it and Ithought, obviously this is not
what my heart is.
It's time to readjust and lookat something else.
And then that was actually themilitary.
Lachlan Stuart (08:04):
So that way you could sort of have career
progress but then the physicalchallenges as well Correct.
Yes, that's cool.
I love that you, even thoughyou didn't dislike it, because
quite often the narrative isfind your purpose or build a
career in something that youlove, meaning you hate where you
currently are.
But the fact that you reallyenjoyed real estate and still
(08:25):
were looking to pursue somethinggreater is very interesting to
me, because a lot of peoplewouldn't do that yeah, yeah,
yeah, it was um.
Olive Foran (08:34):
It was a tough decision.
Nonetheless, like financially,it was probably the worst
decision I could have made, butum, but yeah, I feel like in the
long term, your passions rundeeper right definitely, and the
stories that you have to tellpeople in your life.
Lachlan Stuart (08:48):
So your dad's still around yeah, so your dad
and your brother and sister andI guess, even colleagues.
What were they like when yousaid, hey, this is this is what
I'm gonna do?
Olive Foran (08:56):
yeah, well, my business partner, um Chantelle
Joyce, she's a very good friend.
She's like are you sure?
And I'm like no, but, but Iwill give it my best crack
anyway.
And like dad, my whole family'slike are you sure?
Lachlan Stuart (09:14):
and I'm like no, but let's do it anyway where
did that belief come from foryou to set out and go into this
unpredictable situation whereyou don't even know how you're
going to get paid or whether youcan even do the hikes, but you
did it and obviously you'rewalking away from a career?
Where did that come from?
Olive Foran (09:34):
Well, I guess you have to look at what you've got
and what we've got here,especially in like our country
and most of the Western parts ofthe world.
World is what's the worst thingthat can happen.
You know what I mean, and thisis what I kind of leveled with
myself with.
I was like what is the worstthing that can happen from me
just taking this leap into theunknown?
(09:55):
The worst thing is is itdoesn't work out and then I go
get a job again in real estateand I just start again from the
bottom and work my way back up,but with the knowledge that I
learned over the last five years.
It's a beautiful place.
I love Brisbane.
How like there's no better placeto start from the ground yeah,
you know you know what I meanand I thought what's the best
(10:15):
thing that can happen?
I get to create this amazinglife where I'm going on
adventures.
I've always been an adventurousperson, seeing things that not
many humans will see.
Lachlan Stuart (10:24):
That's to me like worth the risk, you know
for sure, and what was so youwent to Nepal then.
So talk us through that firsthike and getting ready for it.
So you had old bud, just, Iguess, baiting you to go do it.
And then obviously theadventurous personality within
was like I'm doing it and herewe are, what take us through the
next steps there yeah, mate.
Olive Foran (10:43):
So basically I got to flew into katmandu and I was
uh talking to this guy uh that Isaw on instagram and he had
like a small trekking companythere and he's basically meets
me at the airport, takes me toum katmandu guest house, which
is like a traditional but reallycool hotel full of like
mountaineers.
(11:03):
And I just got there, I waslooking at these guys.
I was like this is cool, andeverywhere around the kathmandu
guest house it's in a partcalled the mel.
Okay, it's just like theseknockoff trekking north face
last sportiva, just like allthis apparel, and I was like all
right, I'm gonna buy all thisstuff.
So I bought all the gear.
(11:24):
It was all like, um, definitelynot official, but I bought it
all.
And then a few days later weset out to the Himalayas for the
first time, which was awesome.
Lachlan Stuart (11:33):
And, at this point, what was your level of
experience and what was goingthrough your mind?
Olive Foran (11:38):
Yeah, so I've done like a lot of trekking and a lot
of hiking prior to this inAustralia and traveling around
different parts of the world aswell, but never and like
climbing as well.
I've had like a bit of a rockclimbing background, but never
mountaineering.
So I told him I wanted to climba 6,000 meter peak and I wanted
(11:59):
to trek to Everest base camp.
Um, yes, I was very nervous,but excited for me.
Lachlan Stuart (12:04):
I'm freaking out just thinking about it because
I've got visuals of on yourinstagram of you hanging off
like the side of mountains andstuff, yeah, but so when you're
getting prepared for that, likewhat are some of the stuff that
you need to have that I guess isimportant or crucial to your
survival on the mountain?
Because and is it just you orare you going with a team of
people you mentioned there was aheap of other mountaineers and
yeah, so it was just me with aguide yep, uh, and then a porter
(12:29):
, so we called them captains.
Olive Foran (12:31):
So the captains carried our duffel bag yeah,
right, and then we'd carryprobably like a 10 kilo pack,
and then my guide as well waswith us as well.
So it was three of us, whichwas really cool because got a
really authentic experience ofwhat it's like up there and we
like the big, the big ticketitems for then was like a proper
(12:52):
down jacket.
I think that's something thataustralians don't, we don't
really need.
So trying to figure out whatwas the right one and everything
was interesting experience.
Just Temperatures you in Like,are you moving in?
Well, that expedition?
We got down like negative 30degrees on our summit push
because it was like the end ofNovember as well, so it was
(13:13):
coming into winter there and itwas cold, but like average
temperatures would probably belike in the negative five to 10
range Wow, so it was cold.
Lachlan Stuart (13:22):
And so what mountain were you summiting here
?
It was called Island.
Olive Foran (13:25):
Peak Island Peak 6,189 meters.
Lachlan Stuart (13:29):
Bloody hell, and how long does that take?
Olive Foran (13:33):
Yeah, so this one took so from base camp to the
summit and back.
We were about 16 hours all up.
Lachlan Stuart (13:41):
Yeah, right, so did you have to do an
overnighter, or you just hitthat in one, just one push?
Yeah, yeah, right.
So did you have to do anovernighter, or you just hit
that in one, just one push?
Olive Foran (13:45):
yeah, yeah right, I was legless by the end of it.
Lachlan Stuart (13:48):
I can imagine.
So the altitude and stuff, likewhat's that?
Like had you done any altitudetraining or anything before?
Or you just sort of rocked upfresh face with a big grin on
your face.
Olive Foran (13:57):
Yeah, definitely, altitude training is so
important, as I found out.
I rocked out with a fresh face,ready to rumble, and we flew
into look love, which is, um,that sketchy airport that you
see on all those videos.
Yeah, and that's like 2700 andI just remember being like whoa,
I've got a headache alreadydude, how do you, how do you
(14:18):
push the body through that likeyou?
Lachlan Stuart (14:21):
you're at altitude, you know you're going
higher, your oxygen's thinner,your head's probably pounding,
and then you're also exertingyourself physically, like were
there moments there where youwanted to quit that yeah, yeah,
uh, definitely more so the firsttime I went up than this recent
expedition.
Olive Foran (14:37):
But it's just, you know, you just take it slow,
right, like we're moving so slowwe're moving very far and for
long periods, but your heartrate's not.
You're trying to not keep itabove like 140.
Yeah, right, so you're movingslow.
Uh, drinking lots of water?
Yeah, water's, water's key upthere.
It's so important to stayhydrated and we didn't take any
(15:01):
altitude and medicine oranything.
Then there were definitelytimes, like there was a time so
when we got to everest base camp, we were like just down like
the path from that rock thateveryone gets a photo on, and I
actually like ended up blackingout a little bit from the
altitude and came back andeverything.
Lachlan Stuart (15:18):
But it was just like whoa do you remember,
remember that experience, likewhen you're in the lead up to it
, like I don't know whetheryou're starting to see dots or
anything like that yeah, yeah,yeah.
Olive Foran (15:28):
So I remember like my vision started blurring and
then I was like I'm probablyjust like tired, probably just
tired, and then I just rememberlike kind of collapsing and just
going black and numb and thencoming back and I was like, oh,
I need to get down.
How?
Lachlan Stuart (15:41):
dangerous is that on the mountain.
Olive Foran (15:42):
Yeah, very dangerous, very dangerous yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (15:45):
Very dangerous, yeah, so you obviously even in
that period, had people with youwho can, I guess, rescue you
should you need it.
But when you're pushing to thatlevel, that's base camp.
How many other camps are theregoing up Everest?
Like three or four, four others?
Yeah, and why are you climbingthat?
Because I know we'll talk aboutthis shortly, what's up next
next for you?
But if you were to then hit thenext couple of camps, do you
(16:06):
have to stay there and climatizeor do you just yeah, yeah, yeah
.
Olive Foran (16:10):
So this is the cool thing about mountaineering is
like, once you learn, you learnright.
Lachlan Stuart (16:14):
Um, because you don't want to do it again
hopefully that happens in otherareas of life for people right,
once you learn, you learn likegood, yeah, you take that lesson
.
Olive Foran (16:22):
But yeah, at climatizing, like we call them
rotations, and it's when you sayyou're at base camp and then
we'll climb to camp one, youspend a few nights there and
then it'll be tough, you know,you'll feel it, you'll
definitely feel it.
Lachlan Stuart (16:35):
But then you come back down but that time,
while you're climatizing, you'resort of just hanging out, are
you?
Or you're doing much physicalstuff or just get there.
Olive Foran (16:43):
A lot of the time you're just hanging out.
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah, because you just want togive your body time to, I guess,
adjust to its environmentbecause it is struggling with
the amount of oxygen that's upthere.
It's very thin, so your body ishaving to produce more red
blood cells.
How incredible is the bodyRight, it's wild To push that
and adapt.
Oh, it's crazy.
(17:03):
It's.
It's wild to push that andadapt.
Oh, it's crazy, it's crazy.
And then, like, as we'll talkabout a bit later, but what I
noticed in this recentexpedition to amadablam because
that was a lot of intenseclimbing is how the body even
adjusts to that with low oxygen.
Like it's incredible what yourbody can do talk to us about
amadablam.
Lachlan Stuart (17:18):
I know the amount itself from what we've
spoken is extremely technical.
Yeah, guys, check out his.
There's some wild footage onthere.
What was that like?
So you did base camp, you didthe Northern Peaks Sorry.
What was the first one?
The Island Peaks, sorry, yeah.
And then obviously Amidablam.
What was it that drew you tothat, knowing that it was so
technical, as well.
Olive Foran (17:39):
Well, so, as you'll see, when you get into the
Khumbu region, the SagamathaNational Park, which is the trek
to Everest base camp from aboutday three onwards, as soon as
you pass the last, you know,decently populated city called
Namche Bazaar, you just see thismountain and it's just in the
(17:59):
middle of everything.
It's just like this toweringpeak and you just can't take
your eye off it because it's sobeautiful.
And I was like I remember Iasked my god, I was like what's
that?
And he's like I'm a dublin andI was like I'm gonna climb that
next year.
And he's like okay, and then,yeah, so that first um trek to
everest base camp and climbclimbing of island peak, it's
just like we saw it all day,every day.
(18:20):
It's like what we're looking at.
And then it kind kind of grewon me and then, as soon as I got
back to Australia, I was likeall right, if I'm going to climb
this, I need to kick into gear.
So I dropped drinking, I kindof just started working towards
that single-minded goal ofclimbing that mountain.
And, yeah, I prepped for likethree months, flew in and it was
(18:41):
the wildest expedition I couldhave ever asked.
Lachlan Stuart (18:43):
Before we dive into that.
What's the um?
We dive into that while you'recoming back like you're starting
to goal set.
How important is goal settingto you?
Olive Foran (18:55):
A massive, massive man.
Lachlan Stuart (18:57):
Talk us through what your process is around goal
setting.
Yeah, a lot of people, eventhat I experienced with.
I speak to people all the timewho don't have goals or set them
but never achieve them.
You've set something that isoutrageous and if it goes wrong,
you probably lose your life.
Yeah, I guess you decidedyou're going to do it.
You worked back.
(19:17):
You said you were quittingdrinking.
What other things did you doand how did you, I guess, break
it down to the point whereyou're like I'm confident that
I'm going to be able to do this.
Olive Foran (19:29):
Yeah, well, there's always like that, I guess,
unknown about mountaineering,but I wanted to give myself the
best opportunity to get it donewith my goal setting.
So it was the same in my realestate career.
I write something down A lot ofthe time.
I set it as my screensaver aswell and I just want to always
be looking at that goal.
I just want to always belooking consistently at that
(19:50):
goal, because I believe if youwrite something down, it will
come true.
But you have to read it, youhave to keep checking in on it,
right?
So I write down I'm going tosummit Amidabam in 2025.
And then I set it as myscreensaver while I was training
and I just remember checking itover and over and over again.
And the thing about goalsetting is you have to give
yourself like structure aroundit.
(20:11):
You can't just be like I'mgonna do this but then there's
no pathway to it.
For me, it was finding I needto go find three corporate sorry
, two corporate partners.
I needed to train four times aweek, I needed to run this many
kilometers per week and I justkind of like stepped that out
and now you might not stayexactly to that and you might
(20:35):
not do exactly what you've, Iguess, set out in the structure,
but by having something to workyou worked with and towards
keeps you accountable right,something to work you worked
with and towards keeps youaccountable right.
Lachlan Stuart (20:48):
So that was my process is I'll write a goal
down and then I'll put you knowaction, action that I can nail
every week, and then I'll lookback on it such an important and
powerful point is the settingthe goal, regardless of how big
it may seem, but breaking itdown, because that's where you
realize it's manageable, or youcan have the time, or maybe you
need to sacrifice certain thingsto do that, and even to the
point where you said it didchange a little bit and it
(21:10):
didn't need to be locked instone, that plan.
But as soon as you giveyourself, I guess, that first
small step, that's where themomentum starts.
A lot of people spend so muchtime getting ready, to get ready
.
They want this perfect planbefore they do anything.
And I don't know about you, butevery time I've set any goal
that I've worked towards inbusiness and with travel, with
(21:32):
adventures, the plan alwayschanges so many times.
And you got to allow thatflexibility because I think if
you're too rigid in yourapproach, I love having the
boundaries, like is this movingme towards where I'm going to go
?
But if I find a more efficientway or if I find things that are
taking too much energy and toomuch time and don't have a good
ROI, I'm going to get rid ofthat because the goal is what's
(21:52):
most important how I get there.
It's, you know, allowed tochange how do you set goals?
pretty much the exact same wayas you do.
I Well, I always look a littlebit bigger, like I have an idea
of what I want my life to looklike down the track.
And for anyone who's listening,who is under 25, I would say,
maybe don't think as big picture, but I think as you get more
life experience it's easy to say, okay, what's five years down
(22:15):
the track look like?
Or 10 years down the track,because five years all of a
sudden isn't a big deal.
But when I was 18, five yearsis a long time, right it, five
years is a long time, right,it's a third of your life.
So I'm looking at seasons oflife.
Eventually I'll have a family,we've got mortgages, we've got
responsibilities.
So what needs to happen?
How do I need to front load mylife to have the experiences
(22:37):
that I want to have?
Hence doing things while Idon't have children or
dependents.
At the moment I'm trying to jamas much in and I know that'll
change.
It doesn't trying to jam asmuch in and I know that'll
change Doesn't mean that I cannever do those things again when
that happens.
But there may be differentexperiences that I want to have.
So I've got a bucket list ofstuff and a vision for how I
want to be as a man and how Iwould love people to remember me
and all of that.
And then every decision I makeand every goal that I set that's
(22:59):
significant.
There's insignificant ones, Iasked myself is this moving
towards that or is it pulling meaway?
Because you mentioned anotherthing writing the goal down.
For me, the reason why I dothat is it keeps it in line of
sight, because every single daythere's new opportunities coming
in and the more successful youbecome, you know, as you
continue to do more of what youdo, there's going to be people
(23:21):
wanting your time more andcoffees and other expeditions,
and it's nice, like it's cool,to feel wanted and it's cool to
have opportunity.
But every time you look left orlook right at that, you're not
focusing on what's important100%.
So for me, when I've got itwritten down in front of me, I'm
like okay, these are theimportant things.
I will occasionally look leftand look right if they're from
(23:44):
people that I respect or trustor admire, but majority of the
time it's like put the blinderson and do what's required to
achieve that.
Olive Foran (23:51):
Yeah, and it's not being rude either, but you have
a look at the most successfulpeople in any field and they
have the blinders up big time,you know.
But at saying that it isimportant to reach back and help
someone else If you believethat they can get there, you
know what I mean.
Lachlan Stuart (24:08):
Definitely that's also for me.
Five years ago, I probablywasn't as focused on that.
I would definitely go for a lotof coffees and catch ups with
people, but I was still tryingto get myself to a point where I
could breathe and I built thelife that I am living and the
life that I'm enjoying livingcoming out of a place of
(24:30):
scarcity and pain.
I hated my life and I hatedmyself so much that I just knew
I didn't want that.
Therefore, I would do whateverthe opposite was of that, and I
didn't really know what that wasat the time.
I was just like if I don't wantto be broke, I need to earn
money.
If I don't want to be lonely, Ineed to find love.
You know, if I don't want to bementally unwell, I need to get
(24:52):
mentally happy and healthy.
And so I was figuring out whatworked for me in that process,
which meant a lot of trial anderror, as I figured out and
found out things that work forme and I've media, especially
younger people.
And this was me when I wasyounger.
I thought I had it all figuredout, but I didn't.
I just didn't have enough lifeexperience.
So me I was trying to givepeople advice and give myself
(25:14):
advice that I didn't yetunderstand.
So that's where I think theexperience came in.
But I needed to get myself to apoint where, financially, I was
sweet, I'd done the things thatI was essentially trying to
tell people to do, and that took, you know, for me it took 11
years.
I wish I was one of thosepeople on social media who
knocked it out of the park inthe first 12, 24 months, but
that just wasn't my journey.
Olive Foran (25:34):
But the good thing is through.
I guess more time you learn,more lessons and also you know
what goes into building.
Yeah, so you don't want to letit go, you don't want to let it
slip.
You're even more committed thansomeone who probably did it in
a year or two, exactly, yeah youunderstand what you've got to
lose.
Lachlan Stuart (25:52):
And I went to the bull riding on Saturday
night.
I caught up with some mates Ihadn't seen for 15 years, which
was cool.
They're great lads andeveryone's sort of going through
this phase of life wherethey're cutting back on drinking
and other things are becoming apriority, and we all stopped
hanging out 15 years ago becausewe were all together, were
menaces, yeah.
And now you're sort of watchingthem come into different phases
(26:15):
of their life and you're seeingthem want to change their
habits to be better for theirfamilies and for themselves.
And I think, yeah, to yourpoint.
It's just you don't get to givethe opportunity.
Like I was having a beer andhaving a chat with them and they
were asking me questions likehow did you cut out alcohol?
As I have a beer, no, but likehow did you change your
(26:35):
relationship with alcohol?
How have you done this?
And I got to ask them questionsabout things, because everyone
is an expert in something thatyou're not.
And yeah, you do get to havethe opportunity as a young
person, and definitely as youget older, to give back, because
I think if I can help peoplehave the quality of life that I
have.
Just like I'm sure you'reexcited to help people have the
(26:57):
experiences and adventures andquality of life that you have.
It's a very cool feeling.
Olive Foran (27:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Which is that thing aboutreaching back right?
Yeah, yeah, letting someoneelse have the experience, yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (27:07):
I think you can't always be the person who's
leading.
You've got to know when tosupport as well, and I got to do
that.
The Tumor Grammar 150 year,what was it?
I keep forgetting the event,but it was a cool event the
school put on.
This young fellow was running100k so I got to help him and
that was awesome, like I wasn'treally running or doing anything
(27:28):
, but I was like he's helpinghim with food and cramping and
all kinds of stuff, but watchinghim get to go through that, I'm
like he started the day.
A very different person to howhe finished it yeah much as I'm
sure you have with everyadventure.
What it probably leads into agood question from obviously 15,
when your mom passed away, tonow, 26 or 11 years later,
(27:48):
you've done what?
Olive Foran (27:49):
three or four wild high three, three high high
altitude mountains.
Lachlan Stuart (27:55):
How has that shaped you and how would you say
you've?
You're different to thatyounger version of yourself.
Olive Foran (28:02):
I would say probably the biggest difference
is now I have the belief that Ican really just do whatever.
I can do anything, and it's notcoming from a point of
overconfidence or anything likethat, it's just coming from a
point of just if you commit tosomething fully, you can make it
(28:22):
happen.
It's crazy, when you set yourmind to, can you shut out all
the noises we were talking aboutputting the blinders up what
you can achieve.
It's fantastic.
And I would probably say theyoung, 15 year old, oliver Foran
, didn't really believe that.
You know, and I think, throughchallenge, seeking out challenge
, I kind of learned more aboutmyself.
(28:44):
When I'm under pressure, Idon't freak out and you start
building yourself as a humanbeing.
And yeah, I'd probably just saythat's the biggest difference
from young me to me now, and themountains and the experiences
had on those expeditions andjourneys had a lot to do with it
.
But also just growing up, yeah,was the probably the bigger
(29:06):
player in it.
Lachlan Stuart (29:07):
How was it, though?
So your first step, the blokewho baited you and got you to do
that first hike, then obviously, that was probably a pivotal
conversation in your life thathas shaped you into the man that
you are today, because a lot ofyour growth from what you just
shared then came through doingthe hard things and putting
yourself in situations where youcould either back down or you
(29:27):
could step up and step into whoyou wanted to become.
How important do you feel it isfor people listening to do hard
things?
Olive Foran (29:34):
I think it's the most important thing.
Lachlan Stuart (29:36):
Yeah.
Olive Foran (29:37):
I think we live in a world now where everything's
so accessible and easy and thenyou take yourself out of it and,
like a good experience is go toa third world country and see
how they live daily.
There's more entrepreneurs inthird world countries than there
are in any Western country.
Because you have to think likethat there, I think the most
important thing is to go seekchallenge, or challenge is going
(29:58):
to seek you at the end of theday, a way to look.
Yeah, and actually what I justsaid then was something it's
just a mantra that popped intomy mind when things got hard
climbing amadablam and it justkind of stuck around and it kind
of has so much meaning to whatI believe a human needs to do to
live a life that's fulfilling.
(30:19):
It's so good, yeah what's it,amadablam?
Lachlan Stuart (30:22):
I know there was some wild things that happened
on there.
What was a moment on that trekthat had a significant impact on
you?
Olive Foran (30:30):
yeah, um, there was one standout moment and that
was, uh, we just climbedlobashay east peak, which is
another 619 meter, I believe, umpeak, near everest, and then we
trekked the next day back to,also that same day, um, back to
I think it was farish.
And then we went to amadablamand when we got there we met
(30:53):
this amazing group of people andbecame like friends, base camp
family straight away.
And there was a lovely austrianfather, daughter and son-in-law
.
They were by far the mostcomplete and, in my opinion,
best climbers at base camp, sowe were kind of all leaning on
them because there were someproblems with ice covering some
(31:16):
of the ropes, so we needed to gofix a new route, which the AK
Sherpas ended up doing, but theywere the ones that were going
to go open it up by climbing itright.
So they went.
We were meant to go the dayafter and, yeah, unfortunately,
like they did it in an amazingtime, but unfortunately, um, the
papa fell from the top 1500meters and unfortunately passed
(31:38):
away, and that it was just ourteam left in base camp.
Everyone else was on themountain.
That put everything inperspective for us, that base
camp.
Everyone else was on themountain that put everything in
perspective.
For us, that was so hard?
Lachlan Stuart (31:48):
what was going through your mind when you got
the call and found out that that?
Olive Foran (31:52):
had happened.
Well, first it was we need toget the daughter and the
son-in-law off the mountain asap, which we, thanks to our lead
team leader, gesmar, ended uporganizing very quickly, and
then it was just like they werethe best.
I'm not even like an eighth ofa climber that he is, you know,
and I'm going to go and do thissoon.
So I would lie if I said therewasn't like a little bit of like
(32:15):
shock and self-doubt creepingin, but it got stamped out very
quickly as well.
Lachlan Stuart (32:21):
How did you stamp it out?
Because even when we were onthe run and you were telling me
that story in my mind, I havenever been in a situation like
that, like I've pushed myself inso many different instances,
but I don't think there haveever been life or death, and so
what you do is quite often a lotof life or death situations,
(32:43):
and then you see it happen withsomeone who is a more
experienced climber.
How do you overcome that?
Olive Foran (32:51):
yeah, yeah, we'll overcome it.
I basically decided to flip mymind and just start thinking
positively about the mountainagain.
That was a big thing becausethat one event sent pretty much
75% of the climbers home.
Also, the weather turned didn'tmake things easier, that just
happened, and there was probablya two-week waiting period
(33:13):
before the next opportunity togo and climb.
So most climbers said, no,that's not going to happen,
we'll come back next year, we'llcome back later this year.
I just went.
I feel like there is anopportunity here and we kind of
spoke about it as a team.
We spoke about what happened, wespoke about things that we
could work on, and safety was abig thing.
(33:35):
So we made a new plan whichinvolved more of a staged
approach to climbing themountain, not just pushing from
camp two and one push to get upand down, which takes like 28
hours.
With those conditions we'relike all right, well, let's
bring a tent up, let's pitch atent at camp three, which is
very sketchy, but if we can geta few hours of rest there, get
(33:55):
some food in, get some caloriesin, then we will have a good
chance of pushing and, at theend of the day, stepping back
and not being emotional about itand being like how can we build
on this, how can we learn fromthis and move forwards which was
tough, you know what I mean,because it's such a sad thing.
And just to have to take theemotion away only a few days
(34:16):
later and make a plan on how toactually make it happen was
different to anything I've hadto do before.
But we built the plan.
We ended up doing the climb andsummiting and, yeah, it took
everything I had as a human.
Lachlan Stuart (34:33):
Why didn't you quit?
75% of people are walking away.
You're probably seeing themleave in droves.
Yeah, what was it within youthat decided you didn't want to
quit?
Olive Foran (34:42):
I'd probably like I'm a bit of an extreme person I
would say that had a lot to dowith it, but also just I just
had belief that it was possible.
You know what I mean?
I was like other people havesummit of this mountain this
season.
Lachlan Stuart (34:55):
I'm going to be one of them Even when the bad
weather came in.
Was that just another hurdlefor you to overcome?
Olive Foran (35:00):
Yeah, that was the most tedious two weeks.
It was crazy because themountains are alive, there is
absolutely no doubt about it.
Like the tragedy happened andthen the mountain just snow,
wind, snow wind.
Like we were getting 20centimeters of snow for like the
following week and then alittle bit into that second week
(35:20):
as well, and it's just like itwanted no one up there and then
we were just patient like wewould.
Just there was a lodge that wasprobably 10 minute walk from
base camp so we'd go stay therefor a few nights to get a shower
in and like a proper shower andall of that.
Then come back to base camp andplay cards, hang out and like
we checked our gear 48 times andit was just a huge test on
(35:45):
resilience and patience.
Lachlan Stuart (35:47):
at the end of the day, do you feel there was
any pressure to prove yourselfas well at this point while
you're going up the mountain?
Obviously when you you didn'treally have from what you shared
, have too many people, asyou're leaving real estate,
doubt you or tell you you're anidiot, but they're just like are
you sure?
And you're like no, but we'llfigure it out.
Was there any, I guess,pressure of people or
(36:09):
expectation or perception backhome that drove you up the
mountain as well?
Olive Foran (36:14):
not really.
To be honest, I feel like I'vegot some amazing people in my
corner and they like, when Imake a decision, I think through
their experience, it's likehe's gonna do it, doesn't really
matter what we say.
They supported me and they'relike if you think this is the
right decision, I can guarantee.
Like behind closed doorsthey're like get back, get off
(36:36):
this mountain right now.
But I kind of made the decisionthat this is what I wanted to
do and this was going to be mytesting ground to prove that I
can do it.
Because, yeah, like all thestuff that happens huge tragedy.
But it was one of those momentswhere we're like, if you're
going to do it, you're going toneed to give everything you got
and more, and then you might getit.
(36:58):
You know what I mean.
There were no guarantees, butthe stage was set and I just
wanted to take that step.
Lachlan Stuart (37:04):
So awesome.
I get so inspired because whenthere's, especially when there's
opportunity to quit and I don'tthink people would bat an
eyelid if there was a death oreven the change in weather it's
very easy to people just go ohman, there were so many things
out of your control and youallowed them to determine your
outcome.
That's how a lot of people livelife.
They live life, I guess,reacting to things out of their
(37:25):
control and they get pissed offby them or they allow them to
determine their results, where,in this situation, which was
literally life or death, youstill chose to be in control.
As challenging as it was, yousaid, you started shifting your
approach to viewing the mountainas still a fun experience and
something that you were capableof, and I'm also sure the
evidence of hiking the twopreviously had taught you some
(37:47):
skills and got you comfortable.
In that moment you didn't justgo to the crazy one.
Olive Foran (37:52):
No, no, no, no.
I learned a lot those twoprevious climbs and I was very
lucky to have, almost like, amentor who was our team leader
is gesman um he, his skill andmountain is like second skill
and strength, second to none, soit was good for me to know that
we had him in our corner aswell.
(38:12):
And then my climbing partner, alithuanian guy, andy, also very
strong, and gian, who I endedup it was just gian and I who
ended up summiting yep one oflike the most humble but
powerful human beings I've evermet.
So I was like there's a team offour here, we're taking on the
(38:34):
risk management.
Quite well, we're building anew plan.
We're all strong in our ownways, a lot of them physical,
I'd say.
My biggest attribute was mymental strength and I was like
let's do it.
You know what I mean.
Like it's still here, we'restill in the season, like I
believe we can, and that's notto say that like if the mountain
(38:55):
said no up there, we would haveturned around.
But I think, because we waitedit out, it threw us a bone, yep,
and then we just made best withit, just chewed on it.
Yeah, that's it.
Yeah, but they like it all camedown to the team how important
is team like?
Lachlan Stuart (39:10):
talk us through what you're looking for when
you're putting a team togetherto do what you do like.
What attributes you're talkingabout?
You mentioned strength.
You mentioned your best abilitywas your mental like.
What else you're looking forwhen you're assembling?
Olive Foran (39:22):
team, yeah, yeah.
Well, people that aren't justgoing to give up when things get
hard, because there is oneguarantee in the mountaineering
and it will get hard at somepoint.
You will have a massive headache, you could be a little injured,
it could be like negative 20 30degrees.
You'd be in a blizzard like itis gonna suck at some point.
But you want to.
(39:42):
You want to surround yourselfwith people that aren't just
going to throw the towel inright and not saying that
throwing the towel is a badthing because it's very smart in
the mountains if it does get abit too wild, but also like you
don't want someone at the firstsign of danger.
That's just like no, yeah, I'mdone.
So that that's probably themost important thing when
building a team is just findingpeople that have that resilience
(40:03):
and also people that you cantrust.
You know what I mean because,like when we, so gun and I, went
to push for the summit, it tookus nine hours from we left at
12 30 and we got up there like 955, so just over nine hours to
climb to the summit how longyou're living at 12, 30 in the
morning or midday, midnight farout, yeah, and like so, the.
(40:25):
So it's funny, you climb on blueice and it's like this right,
so what's?
Blue ice is slippery as shit,isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, that's the crampons.
So you're just front crampons?
Yeah, right, using the frontcrampons for hours and hours and
hours.
Lachlan Stuart (40:38):
And when you were using those.
Are you into it or yeah?
Olive Foran (40:41):
yeah, so you're like chipping away and just
trying to get it in there.
I was lucky, like mine werequite new, so that was still
very sharp, so it kind of tookme one or two kicks to get in
there.
But yeah, you're just kind oflike chipping away at it hours
and hours and hours of justclimbing uphill how the quads
feeling booting into a bit ofice non-stop.
Lachlan Stuart (41:01):
Oh it was more the shins.
Olive Foran (41:02):
My shins were like black when I came down.
That's nuts, yeah.
But yeah, and Garn and I likethis, is you know that trust
thing again, right?
So the last 200 meters beforethe summit, like we'd just been
going up and down over thesehills that we thought were the
summit for hours, and then wefinally like see it there and
the ice is buried Sorry, therope is buried in ice and we're
(41:24):
like, oh no.
So we looked at each other andit wasn't as steep as the rest
of it, like we were kind ofalmost there.
So we tied into each other andwe just walked it, which is a
bit red hot because we weren'ton any fixed ropes or anything
towards the end there, but wewanted to get to the summit.
I trusted him, he trusted meand we did to get to the summit.
(41:45):
I trusted him, he trusted meand we did it, which was awesome
.
Lachlan Stuart (41:48):
What was it like when you summited?
So you said what?
6,000, how many?
812, yeah, so just shy of 7,000.
Yeah, Far out.
What was it like when yousummited?
Talk us through that.
Olive Foran (42:00):
Probably the most beautiful moment of my life,
ruined by me falling asleep assoon as I got there, as you do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I um, I gotto the top and I was like whoa,
I sat down and just like went tosleep, for I think it was
probably like five, ten minutes,and then Garnt's like hey, take
(42:22):
it in, take it in, we're notgonna get back up here for a
while.
Lachlan Stuart (42:27):
Fucking hell and then.
So when you woke up and likewe're just looking around what
was going through your mind?
Olive Foran (42:35):
I was just like I can't believe that we just did
this, like we overcame so muchadversity to get to this moment
right now, like this is justwild, and like we had this clear
view of the peak of MountEverest and it felt like there
was nothing else up there exceptus, the mountain that we were
(42:57):
on and Mount Everest.
That's just what it felt like.
It was just this wild feelingof energy and connection and,
yeah, man, I was just taken back, like so, so much respect for
that area and just that part ofthe world.
I just think it's somethingthat, if you can get a chance to
go and have a look at, becausethere's some big things in this
(43:19):
world, these mountains are someof them.
Lachlan Stuart (43:21):
Yeah, I have no intent on climbing them, but I'm
keen to see them.
Yeah, yeah, you've mentioned insocial posts and stuff,
climbing for your mum.
Would you be open to sharing, Iguess, what that really means
to you, because you haveobviously touched on who you
want to become for her, but whenyou're obviously doing the
things that you're doing with, Iguess, your mum in the back of
your mind what into you, yeah,yeah.
Olive Foran (43:47):
Well, it means a lot, man, being able to do these
tough things, and I do them.
I do them for myself, but I dothem for my mom as well, which
leads on to what I'm wanting todo turn this into uh, which
we'll mention, talk about soon.
But being able to do this forsomeone, I think, makes it even
more powerful, right?
Lachlan Stuart (44:05):
yeah, I always just wanted to make my mom proud
as a kid and I was like well, Ithink this is a pretty cool way
to do it and I enjoy it good onyou, man like see people who
are executing these things isinspiring, knowing a small
fraction of what you've had togo through to do it and it's not
(44:25):
always just the physical thingsthat you have to endure the
biggest challenges.
I think are the mental, becausethe mind controls what happens
next.
You know, obviously dealingwith the loss of your mom, then
being on a trek where someoneactually passed away, the things
that I feel would go through mymind would probably stop me.
So the fact that you were ableto tame the mind and get those
(44:47):
physical challenges overcome aswell, like it, is so impressive.
Olive Foran (44:51):
Yeah, I thought about this and, like at base
camp, I was definitely, I reckon, in my opinion, the most
inexperienced climber there.
One of them and definitely wasnot one of the strongest, you
know what I mean Not even close.
There were some amazing humanbeings at base camp, but I just
think my mentality got me overthe line at the end of the day
(45:12):
and just being able to put upwith a bit of suck or a lot of
suck, plenty of it yeah, it'sinteresting and it's kind of a
cool leveler as well, like ifyou have the right mentality
about things, you can do someamazing feats as a human being.
Lachlan Stuart (45:28):
How do you train your mind?
Is there anything that you do?
Olive Foran (45:32):
now.
Yeah, I guess, when I was likebuilding it up, not really, I
think it just kind of came fromhaving these massive traumas in
my life and just trying tonavigate them.
And, yeah, like losing peoplethat are close to you is
probably one of the hardestthings in your life, but it's
one of the best things forbuilding mental resilience and
(45:54):
everything like that.
And I've had a few terrible,terrible cases over the years.
So I think it's just,unfortunately, some of it's
attributed to that.
But more recently, like I gaveup drinking, which was a mental
challenge as well, because, likebeing an Aussie and I've got an
(46:17):
amazing bunch of mates and it'shard to not just go have a beer
all the time with them.
You know what I mean Exactly.
Yeah, so I think just anythingmate, mate, like in the biggest
thing is like if you want to dosomething but you know it's
going to be bad for you,training your mind is not doing
that simple.
Lachlan Stuart (46:35):
Yeah, it's that simple.
But then that's where thechallenge right.
It tests them mental, not somuch the physical action that
you're taking.
Yeah, yeah, 100.
What was it like coming downthe mountain so you fell asleep
on top?
Then you get to take it in.
It's this euphoric feeling.
Is it easy to get down?
Olive Foran (46:51):
or what's it like going down the mountain, no, no,
so coming down is very, veryhard.
So we came down to camp threeand at camp three I was
absolutely ruined, so we decidedto spend a night there and then
, when we spent the night there,we had a massive snowstorm come
(47:13):
through and it was one of theworst experiences of my life.
Yeah, so we just had likemassive winds I'm not 100% sure
what the kilometer per hour was,but it was wild and like my
zipper, like I don't know if itripped open or froze or
something, but it was just openall night and I couldn't shut it
and we were just gettingpounded by just like ice and
(47:34):
snow and everything was frozenand I still have nightmares
about that.
I recorded a message of beinglike this could be it.
I love you all.
Lachlan Stuart (47:44):
And that was so.
There was probably a pointwhere you're like I could die
here 100.
Yeah, it was the scariestmoment of my life what's it like
being that close to death whereyou actually record a message?
Olive Foran (47:53):
well, the next day I deleted it so stupid?
yeah, that would have beenpowerful um, I think it might be
in my uh history, yeah, yeah,I'll have a look later, but yeah
, it was a lot I wasn't reallythinking of like, well, I'm
doing this right now.
I did more like I had not,because the Sherpas that I was
with were in the tent next to meand it was just my tent that
(48:15):
was getting pumped.
But I was too exhausted Ididn't think to just move tents
as well.
Simple solution, yeah.
So I'm just going through thisand I'm like this is the worst.
This is it.
This is it which, to be fair,definitely could have been so.
Camp 3, right, is on this ridge.
That's maybe like two and ahalf meters, three meters wide,
(48:36):
and it's just 1,500 meter dropseither side.
And the thing about up there aswell is you can't like we
didn't have any like proper wayto tie the tent down, like these
tents were not tied down, so itwas just us and our body weight
that was keeping them kind ofsweet there and like you dig,
you dig out of like a platformin the snow and everything like
(48:58):
that.
But man, the wind was wildcoming through so it was so
scary and you just felt like atany point if it just got
underneath you just on it.
Lachlan Stuart (49:08):
Was your team calm in that moment, or how were
they sort of well?
Olive Foran (49:12):
everything froze in their tent as well so like,
like I had my boots off and Iwas in my summer suit, I had
like all my summer socks on andeverything inside of a negative
30 degree sleeping bag.
So my body was fine, buteverything else in the tent was
just, and including my face, wasjust either frozen or like my
face was windburned, like mylips were just like big gashes
(49:32):
at this point.
Um, it was not comfortable.
Lachlan Stuart (49:36):
Not at all that is crazy, man, like people
obviously get to see photos ofyou summiting these things, but
very rarely do they get to seeor experience the whole stuff.
You know all the adversity andthe moments where you're like
I'm screwed here that you gothrough, and so it does.
I guess that's the beauty ofsocial media now is with stories
and stuff, you can startdocumenting more of that,
(49:57):
because I even think about itwith the 58 marathons there's no
people can see I was injuredand they can go out and run 5K
and go, wow, how'd you back upand do marathons day in, day out
, but they'll never understandhow freaking cold it was for the
first 32 days and what it'slike being out there for hours
at a time with wind and snow.
You just can't replicate thatunless you actually go out and
(50:19):
do it.
Yeah, yeah.
I wish there was a snow filteron instagram that you could just
like freeze it for a little bit, just get off a negative five
degree blow that.
Olive Foran (50:31):
Yeah, jesus man, that's really cold.
But he did 100, yeah, but, um,so that next morning, like we
were, we just I just kept saying, like the sun will come up, the
sun will come up, the sun willcome up.
Eventually the same sun came up.
We were in such a bad way likeI'll show you a photo after this
, but it was just like not allright how we were.
We hadn't really drunk water.
I accidentally left my wateroutside of my sleeping bag, an
(50:52):
ice block.
So I had an ice block.
Yeah, like the boots were frozenso you had to like thaw the
boots out to get them back on,and they've got boa twisters or
connectors or something, so Icouldn't turn the boa because it
was frozen.
So, yeah, we were in a bad wayand then we called the base camp
to basically say, hey, we needto get airlifted off this
(51:13):
mountain asap.
Like we are beat up here, and,um, the heroes that drive those
helicopters ended up getting usoff, which is cool.
So you got rescued.
Yeah, we got rescued on the wayback down after what was that
like for you?
Lachlan Stuart (51:27):
like mentally, did you feel like you'd failed
in a way, or how?
What was going through yourmind?
Olive Foran (51:34):
no, I didn't think I failed.
I think, then and there, thatwas the right decision.
I think I think I would havepaid the ultimate price maybe on
the way back down, because itwas the conditions just got so
bad.
So, yeah, it was a toughdecision to make, definitely,
but I think it's, you know, onethat I'm happy I made at the end
of the day, and it gives me theopportunity to now go and climb
(51:55):
again.
Lachlan Stuart (51:56):
So what is next?
You always working on something.
Olive Foran (52:00):
Yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (52:00):
What's in the goal book?
Olive Foran (52:02):
Yeah, definitely always working on something.
Yeah, what's in the goal bookgoal?
Yeah, definitely.
Well, all the lessons that Ilearned from amadablam, I'm
going to go and well, basicallywhat happened was I want to
climb everest right, but I wantto do it in a way that's going
to raise a lot of money forbrain cancer.
And I got an email from mypartners over in nepal the other
day basically saying thatunfortunately, amadablam doesn't
count as like a prerequisitenow to climb Mount Everest.
(52:26):
It's got to be 7,000 meters orabove, which I haven't done yet.
So in the next few months I'mgoing to go to Kyrgyzstan and
climb Lenin Peak, so I can pickthat.
Lachlan Stuart (52:37):
And so what's the difficulty of that climb
compared to Amidablan?
Olive Foran (52:42):
It's high.
It's high, so altitude would betough, but from everyone I know
that's climbed it.
There's a few people that I'vespoken to about it already.
They say it's not astechnically challenging, so I'm
really excited to just go there.
Also, I want to do it in a bitof a different style this time.
What do you mean by that?
I want to carry my own gear allthe way to the top, so it'll be
(53:04):
with a bigger pack what do you?
Lachlan Stuart (53:06):
how much weight are you looking at there?
Olive Foran (53:08):
like 18 kilos, yeah , yeah, when you go.
So we'll obviously set up acamp three and then push.
So I won't be carrying 18 kilosto the summit.
I'll leave it stashed at campthree.
But for the rest of the climb,um, it'll be, yeah, the 18 kilos
on the back and so when haveyou set a date for that, or?
Talking to some local companiesover there.
Lachlan Stuart (53:29):
It's looking like it's going to be early
august and that's going to behere in no time, and how soon
after that, so that'll allow youto qualify for everest?
And then, how soon after thatdo you plan on doing everest?
Olive Foran (53:40):
ideally next, next year, beginning of next year.
And what's the height ofEverest?
8848.86, yeah.
Lachlan Stuart (53:46):
He knows it too.
And how will you like, in thelead up for this next one,
what's your training look like?
Olive Foran (53:53):
Yeah, definitely.
So some lessons I learned upthere is we don't like if we're
getting up to like 170, 180 BPM,we're doing the wrong thing.
You know what I mean?
Or something's gone terriblywrong.
So I'm going to really focus onmore of that zone two, space
and cycling as well, becausethere's only so much running
(54:14):
that you can do.
Yeah sure.
Unless you're a lucky student,just keep going.
Yeah, exactly, biking is goingto be probably a big part of it,
and just climbing outdoors yeah, just way more time at the
crags on the ropes.
And, yeah, just learning allabout that.
Lachlan Stuart (54:32):
And you're looking for more brand partners
at the moment as well.
Like to, when I say brandpartners, people to you know be
part of this with you that cancontribute, whether it's through
finances or connections, insome way as well.
Right, 100, it's an importantpart and I don't think I've
spoken enough about it, but Icouldn't have done what I did
without our sponsors and thesupport.
(54:53):
So even when you have big ideas, it's like you've obviously
executed on a couple and I havedone I mean a year, nearly seven
years, worth of challengesbefore I got my first sponsor,
because people not always, butthere's a number of people who
ask me how do you get sponsors?
And I think one you got to havethe runs on the board to show
(55:13):
that you can back through,because they want to know what
invest in you, because generallythere's not going to be a huge
ROI.
Their brand's going to beeverywhere while you're doing
cool stuff.
But most of the brands thatinvested in me just wanted to
see some cool things happeningand obviously got behind the
mental health cause, which was abig part of it.
And while we're raising funds,you're raising funds for brain
cancer.
So if there's any businesses orpeople out there, get in
(55:36):
contact with Oliver as well.
One last question.
Please One last question.
What would you say to someonewho's stuck chasing success?
Olive Foran (55:44):
they don't even want.
Stop, simple, yeah, if youdon't want it like, there's no
point chasing it.
I think I heard a podcast theother day, right and Will Ahmed
he founded Woop and he said I'ma finance like, I've got a
finance background.
That's what I was focusing on.
I had nothing, I had no ideaabout the health, the technical
(56:04):
side of things, the technology,but he's like.
I listened to that voice in theshower or in the back of the cab
after, you know, a dinner out,just that quiet moment.
I listened to what spoke to meand this is what I built and I
just thought like that's soincredible and I want to emulate
that.
You is what I built and I justthought like that's so
incredible and I want to emulatethat.
(56:25):
You know what I mean and Ithink more people should.
You know what I mean.
Like a world filled with peoplechasing their passions and
following their dreams is goingto be a happier place than one.
People just doing what they'retold when they're told and not
saying that that's a bad thingat all.
But just find what you want todo and if you want to be an
(56:47):
accountant, be an accountant.
You know what I mean.
Be the best fucking accountantyou can be, exactly, and when
you're in alignment and you'redoing something because you're
passionate about it, everythingelse doesn't really matter.
You know, what I mean.
It'll work itself out.
You know what.
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