Ep. 1050: Climbing the 50 U.S. Highpoints in 50 Days with Type 1 Diabetes - Revisited - Michael Shelver & Patrick Mertes
Adventure Sports Podcast
Curt Linville
4.6 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 4 August 2024
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Climbing, Diabetes: Patrick and Michael on Project 50-IN-50 – First T1D Team to Summit All 50 U.S. State High Points in 49 Days, Overcoming Emergencies, Isolation, and Inspiring Global Diabetes Communities.
Originally published September 2, 2019
Patrick and Michael have been living with Type 1 Diabetes for most of their lives. Feeling a bit isolated and hesitant as children to venture too far away from available insulin or glucose monitoring tools, they individually pursuit adventurous lives before coming together to show the world anything is possible with T1D through their latest adventure, Project 50-IN-50
They climbed the 50 highpoints of each U.S. state and finished in 49 days – making them the first people with Type 1 diabetes to complete this achievement and joining an elite group of fewer than five people to do so the fastest in the world.
Over the course of the 2019 summer, the team road-tripped over 17,000 miles to hike, run, climb and ski through 315 miles of trails. Patrick is the first person with T1D to successfully summit the highest peak in each of the 50 states. Michael experienced an emergency Life Flight off of Granite Peak in Montana and had to miss out on a handful of the peaks. Thankfully, he’s made a full recovery. After loads of tears and challenges along the way, Patrick and Michael persevered to complete their challenge.
Project 50-IN-50 is an initiative of The Diabetes Family Connection, a North Carolina based 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. In addition to achieving a new milestone in mountaineering, Michael and Patrick have grown local and global communities of people with diabetes inspired to get outside and enjoy the outdoors.
Instagram: @project50in50
Facebook: @project50in50
Their upcoming events: project50in50.org/speaking
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey folks, welcome to the Adventure Sports podcast. |
| 0:09.4 | Today we're going to be talking to Patrick and Michael about this amazing journey, a road trip of over 17,000 miles, including hundreds of miles of hiking and running and climbing to successfully |
| 0:23.3 | summit the highest peak in every U.S. state. |
| 0:27.6 | And as you can imagine, those vary greatly, all the way from the lowest of the 50 high points, |
| 0:33.0 | my home state in Florida, to the highest Mount Denali in Alaska. |
| 0:40.8 | Michael and Patrick set out to do this crazy adventure. |
| 0:45.5 | They both have type one diabetes, which I know I have some great friends that have that, |
| 0:51.3 | and it's just this really wild part of their life that they have to constantly deal with. And, you know, I can imagine it can feel very, you know, limiting |
| 0:56.0 | or very like you're trapped in a lot of ways of things that you can do. Well, Michael and Patrick |
| 1:00.9 | are proven that you can do anything despite anything. I remember back five years ago when this |
| 1:07.2 | was a really good conversation then. I'm excited to re-listen with you. And this was, |
| 1:12.8 | I think, one of my earliest interviews. So, you know, I wasn't all that good then. Not great now, |
| 1:19.1 | but a little bit better, I think. So yeah, hope you enjoy. Let's go ahead and dive in. And like I |
| 1:24.2 | always say, maybe we should do a follow-up if Patrick and Michael have done anything. |
| 1:28.8 | Interesting sins. I know that this was quite an adventure. So pretty cool stuff. All right, |
| 1:35.5 | let's dive in. If you guys don't mind, where are you coming from today, respectively? |
| 1:50.4 | So I'm in Raleigh, North Carolina currently. |
| 1:53.2 | Okay. |
| 1:53.9 | And then I'm in Concord, California, which is kind of just east of San Francisco. |
| 1:58.5 | Okay. |
| 1:59.2 | Is that home for both of you or are you both traveling? |
| 2:02.6 | That's a question. |
... |
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