After thousands of hours of training and a seven-week journey, a University of Iowa alum has become part of a highly-exclusive group of outdoor adventurers.
Current Colorado lawyer and former UI law student Nathan Frederick summited Mount Everest this spring, overcoming a torn MCL and a "harrowing" experience on the path to one of the world's rarest achievements.
According to university sources and archives, Frederick has become part of an uber-rare group of University of Iowa alumni to achieve the feat, joining recurring climber Charlie Wittmack and a small group of former university students who have reached the highest point on Earth.
A Cedar Rapids native, Frederick conquered Everest as part of a seven-plus week trip to Nepal filled with adventure, speed and boatloads of rice and "flavorless vegetables."
In the year before the climb, he estimated that he averaged about six hours per day of training — all while working full time and helping raise three children.
In reaching the peak, Frederick conquered his fifth of the "Seven Summits," the achievement aptly named for reaching the highest point on each of the seven continents.
Summit journey included 'harrowing' experiences far from peak
Just above the mountain's "basecamp" and still thousands of feet from the peak, Frederick prepared to ascend to camp one through the "icefall" section of the climb.
This portion of the ascent involves a walk over treacherous terrain and in Frederick's case, in dark, nighttime conditions to avoid the threat of avalanches or snow and ice melt. Alongside trained Sherpas who carry much of the heavy equipment during the climb, Frederick and his small group journeyed across multiple narrow ice bridges. The threat of near-instant death was looming at any of these bridges.
As Frederick crossed one of the bridges, he felt the ground below him suddenly disappear. He was free-falling for what felt like an eternity. Ice showered the crevasse around him as the bridge completely disintegrated.
Then, he was jarred to a halt.
The three people alongside him had not clipped into the safety line. Luckily, Frederick did. Neither Sherpa had clipped in either, meaning Frederick and his group could have been left without a guide if the bridge had collapsed just moments earlier. Fortunately, he was the lone person standing on that ice bridge when it gave way.
He was dangling about 15 or 20 feet into a very narrow crevasse. Frederick estimated it was a "probably 1,000 feet or so deep" rift in the Earth.
"So that woke me up," Frederick said.
Everest climb, alongside local Sherpas, was equally helpful and challenging
Frederick did as he always does on this climb, finding assistance from local Sherpas — rather than a Western climbing corporation — to help traverse through the hazardous terrain and carry many of the most important supplies on long and dangerous journeys.
That decision came with a litany of positives and drawbacks.
On the positive side, some portions of the climb were completed far quicker than is typical for this climb. For example, Frederick said the voyage through the "icefall" — even despite the intense drama of that near-death experience — was completed in about seven hours, far quicker than the average 12- to 16-hour range.
On the other hand, Frederick's diet was reduced significantly, something he doesn't believe would have happened with assistance from a Western corporation.
"Everything is rice for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and you're constantly having tasteless boiled vegetables so no one gets some sort of disease through the unpurified water used to boil everything," Frederick said. "So all your food is fairly tasteless and pretty terrible."
Despite eating consistent meals, Frederick lost about 25 pounds during the seven-week trip, much of it in the form of muscle due to a near-complete absence of protein in his diet.
Reaching the peak, block of ice and all
The journey to the peak was lengthy. An Everest summit attempt comes after numerous "rotations," the term Frederick used to refer to the slow ascent and acclimation period between camps on the mountain.
As Frederick approached the top, he would engage in "blood doping," as he called it, lacking a better term to describe the helicopter rides from basecamp to nearby Kathmandu at around 4,000 feet elevation. There, his body naturally generated "insane" amounts of red blood cells and he then returned to basecamp to attempt to summit the mountain.
At 8 p.m., Frederick and his group, led by area Sherpas, left camp and headed for the summit.
Successfully avoiding other groups attempting this climb, Frederick and his group made good time once again and reached the top of Mount Everest at about 3:45 a.m. the next morning.
Excitedly, he pulled his phone from his breast pocket in an attempt to capture the moment as he saw it, despite the darkness. Frederick's phone had literally transformed into "a block of ice." Fortunately, one of the Sherpas was able to snap a photo of Frederick at the mountaintop, capturing a moment he will never forget.
The climb proved challenging, as did the descent. On a freshly torn MCL, Frederick was forced to repel considerably more often than his peers to avoid a nasty slip that could have killed him on the way down.
But his hard work and dedication paid off, Frederick said. Those months of training came in incredibly handy in building up endurance to make this climb.
And, he joked, he was quite happy to be able to eat anything other than rice.
Family played a 'huge' role in developing love for hiking, summit success
Frederick became infatuated with hiking early in life, matching his mother's love for the outdoors.
At age six, he began traveling with his family to Colorado on summer trips to escape the dense Iowa heat and humidity. For two or three weeks each year for the next four decades, Frederick would do the same, escaping everything for the peace and quiet of the mountains.
When Frederick told his mom that he was going to climb Everest, she was as concerned as ever, despite his past experience.
"Though my mom introduced me to hiking and is a huge hiker herself (and) she's a big supporter of me, I wouldn't necessarily say she's a big supporter of these climbs," Frederick said. "They make her pretty nervous."
His wife, Tammy, joined him on his climb of Denali and ascended to Everest basecamp with Frederick, then descended to Kathmandu and awaited news "on pins and needles," Frederick said.
Without her, this climb and those before it would not have been even considered.
"I'm extremely grateful for my wife," Frederick said. "She made it possible for me to do this and it's not easy when you have three kids, all 14 and younger, to take care of while your husband is off in a foreign country and you're concerned he's going to die."
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached atrhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.
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