The 29029 Podcast

I wish you could sit in a room with Julie Youngblood. To feel her energy and joy is something special! Julie is no stranger to the mountain. What started in 2023 in Snowbasin has continued year after year, to different locations and expanded far beyond just the Everests she’s achieved on the mountain. It started as a small group of colleagues and spouses, but the power of the experience had to be shared.  Enter the “No Days Off” community where Julie is a leader, a connector and an example of setting and reaching big goals to her colleagues in real estate. At 29029, we ask you to step out of your comfort zone and allow the challenge to shape you into a better version of yourself. The goal isn’t that you get good at climbing mountains, but that you get good at life. "Finding Your Everest" and "Keep Climbing" should become a thread through every part of who you are. This conversation is going to leave you with questions - Questions about how you show up on the mountain but also the deeper question of how you show up for the other Everests in your life. Lace up your hiking shoes and let’s go for a walk with Julie starting back in Snowbasin 2023. Learn more about 29029 HERE

On an April evening in 2017, a small single-engine plane disappeared into the mountains of Washington State.Somewhere near 5,000 feet on the snow-covered face of Mount Jupiter in Olympic National Park, metal met rock.A distress call cracked across the emergency frequency — faint, urgent, alive.High above the Pacific Northwest, a Delta flight en route from Seattle to Shanghai heard it. The pilots relayed the call. A Navy search-and-rescue crew lifted off from Whidbey Island in an MH-60 helicopter.By 6 p.m., rescuerson that ]steep, frozen, unforgiving.Two men were pulled from the wreckage. One of them was Mike Mequio. Mike was in serious condition. There was substantial damage to the plane. But that was just the beginning of this story. Sometimes the mountains that almost take your life become the very place that can give it back. Mike is a survivor. A man who faced a mountainside once in chaos and fear but chose to return to the mountains on purpose. Not in a cockpit.Not in an emergency.But step by step.Finding his Everest. This story is about survival, healing and rediscovering who you are when you choose to KEEP CLIMBING.

At Whistler 2024 there was a different kind of green that covered the slopes of Blackcomb Mountain. Among the old-growth forest of towering trees every once in a while you’d spot a a green flash……flourescent green to be exact on top of the heads of the crew from Google. Those hats belonged to Team Green Lightning. Some may argue there is nothing “lightening” when you are climbing 4 mile 3900 foot ascents up a mountain for 36 hours, but a team they were. Colleagues by day, turned cheerleaders and confidants on the mountain. Brian Goldstein was part of Team Green Lightening. He had dabbled in endurance sport and always had a curiosity in his personality toward the extreme….but like us all it’s not too long before you find out that 29029 isn’t an ordinary endurance challenge, its a catalyst and an invitation to step into a new version of ourselves. 

At Whistler this year, we had a guest. His name was Tom. Tom walked around the world. No! Really!…..He walked around the world on his own two feet with his dog Savannah. Who better to prepare you to take on a 36 hour hiking challenge than him?Tom’s World Walk came after life threw him one of those curveballs; the ones you really don’t see coming, and the ones that change you from that moment forward. Tom was 17 years old and lost his best friend to a tragic accident. Faced with his own mortality, he resolved to extract as much as possible from a brief life.Knowing he wanted a life of adventure and understanding, he decided to go on a walk….but not just any walk… a walk around the world.He spent the next eight years saving and planning, and at age 26 he started walking.Seven years, six continents, and 28,000 miles later, he is one of only a handful of people who have traveled around the world on foot and his dog, Savannah, is the first dog to do so. His world walk was a deep dive into the kindness of humanity and an amazing example of how far perseverance can take you.Subscribe for more inspirational content from the 29029 community. Learn more about 29029 events HERE Read Tom's book, The World Walk today.

If you’ve been to 29029 or are training to take on your Everest, you know Coach Brent Pease (and if you don’t…..maybe you should stop what you are doing and open your emails with the training plan.) Brent’s story of coaching hundreds of athletes each year along their journey at 29029 is awesome in and of itself…..but there is a larger part of Brent’s story that has created the foundation of the coach we know today.That other part of the story is Brent's brother Kyle. If you’ve been lucky enough to be on the mountain in the past few years to hear Brent and Kyle speak, you know what I’m talking about. This brother team has defied the odds in endurance sport to toe the line at some of the most prestigious events in the world. They aren’t just brothers, but athletes and the inspiration behind The Kyle Pease Foundation who spread inclusion for those with disabilities in the world of endurance sport and beyond. Spending a few minutes with Brent & Kyle will remind you that anything is possible. 

Pam and Lauren have known each other for years, decades really. They were sorority sisters and college friends. They lived in New York City during 9/11. They shared a lot of life together. After college they went their separate ways, Pam to law school and Lauren to business school. They got married, had children. It wasn’t that they didn’t stay in touch, but they didn’t connect often…..of course when they did, it was that kind of relationship that just seemed to pick up where they left off. That’s probably why Pam figured she could ask Lauren an Everest-sized question in 2022. Pam pressed send on an a now infamous email.Lauren didn’t make it through the entire email or click through all of the links Pam had sent about 29029 before she knew without a doubt SHE WAS IN! Pam & Lauren are regular women who needed something more. They had lost something that they didn’t even know they were searching for but they found it on the side of a mountain in Whistler.  Subscribe and Follow for more inspiring content from the 29029 community. Learn more about 29029 events HERE.

At 29029 legends aren’t born—they’re forged.The red carpet on a final summit does not make you a legend, your journey becomes legendary when you continually show up, time and time again, facing struggle, fatigue, and doubt—You become a legend when you KEEP CLIMBING. In this episode, we celebrate three individuals who have become legends in their own right. Each of them has faced what some would call failure. Each of them has had to look at them selves and ask “why….why am I still here….why I am still doing this”.  They didn’t earn a red hat after one event, not even two events…….each committed to their Everest multiple times before reaching the ultimate goal. What sets them apart has nothing to do with talent or luck—it’s grit, determination, and an unwavering drive when faced with the seemingly impossible. We call them LEGENDS because they embody the heart of 29029. Their stories are proof that greatness isn’t given—it’s earned.So get ready to be inspired, challenged, and reminded that the climb, no matter how steep, is always worth the struggle. 

NEW EPISODES ARE BACK! The finish line isn't always what you dream it will be. It can be life-changing or it can be a lonely road. Are you good enough?Are you fast enough?What are you trying to prove out there? Does a finish line really define you or your life? Eric Recker experienced too many of those fickle finish lines in his life. He wanted more. He needed more. A reel showed up in Eric's social media feed - 29029 Everesting Do you have what it takes? - and a journey of self-discovery and purpose ensued. Subscribe to the 29029 Podcast for more inspiring content.Learn more about 29029 Events and our community HERE.

CANCERThose six letters….that single syllable….that one word….. Cancer might be the scariest sound our ears can register, especially when you’ve heard it before and hoped to never hear it again.But this story isn’t just about cancer. This story is about a man named David Johnson. A husband. A father. A fighter…..A 29029 alumni who knows what it means to KEEP CLIMBING. There are deep lessons taught through suffering; both the suffering we choose and the suffering we’d never in our right minds sign up for. David’s story is going to unfold over the course of seven 29029 seasons. What begins in 2018 with David will lead us to a story about Joshua, David’s son at Jackson Hole just minutes before 6:00pm on a Saturday in 2024. It’s going to be hard to leave this episode without feeling more grateful, more focused and more committed. Grab a tissue and let’s go. Subscribe to the 29029 Podcast for more inspiring content.Learn more about 29029 Events and our community HERE

In 2022, from the outside looking in you might think Vija Williams had it all. A successful real estate career that wasn’t just growing but thriving.  A beautiful family.  Dreams that were coming true.  But what wasn’t true is that narrative. Vija’s weight had skyrocketed to over 235 pounds. Her health wasn’t what it use to be. It was like she didn’t notice what was happening and maintained a skewed view of who she was and what she could accomplish. She signed up for not one, but two marathons that fall. When she brushed off her training, her coach told her she had an “Upper Limit problem”.  This concept of an “Upper Limit Problem” comes from a book, Big Leap by Gae Hendrick. It’s the idea that people set internal limits on how much success, happiness, and love they deserve. When you experience something great, like a promotion or a financial windfall, (or a blossoming real estate career) you subconsciously invite negative thoughts to bring yourself back down to a more comfortable level of happiness. At Vija’s first marathon in Patagonia she made it just over half way before being pulled off the course.  A few months later in New York City and only 100 yards from where her daughter stood cheering for her mom from the sidelines, Vija hid herself and walked off the course.  Something had to change. Vija had to change.   Subscribe to the 29029 Podcast for more inspiring content. Learn more about 29029 Events and our community HERE