Ep. 566: Climbing the 50 U.S. Highpoints in 50 Days with Type 1 Diabetes - Michael Shelver & Patrick Mertes
Adventure Sports Podcast
Curt Linville
4.6 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2019
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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
Photo credit here
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| 0:00.0 | like from my perspective I had just seen Patrick slide you know 50 yards how far it was and hit |
| 0:06.3 | rocks and there was dust that flew up in the air Patrick's either severely injured or like something |
| 0:12.7 | is up like there's no way that he's okay from that fall this is the adventure sports podcast |
| 0:20.7 | trying to help you find adventure every day in any stage of life you're going to This is the Adventure Sports Podcast. |
| 0:24.5 | Trying to help you find adventure every day in any stage of life. You're going to hear from explorers, adventures, business owners, and anyone living their life a little more out of the box than usual. How many times is the term thrown around that anything is possible? |
| 0:47.0 | Every once in a while we get to meet people who are examples of that, who are actually doing it. |
| 0:52.6 | And today we're talking to Michael Shelver and Patrick |
| 0:57.0 | Murdiss, who have been living with type 1 diabetes for most of their lives since they were children. |
| 1:04.0 | And I understand for a lot of people, when you get diagnosed with something or you find out you |
| 1:08.6 | have something, a condition or injury, it feels a lot of times |
| 1:14.4 | more limiting than it actually is. You know, you say, oh, I can't do my one thing I love to do anymore. |
| 1:21.7 | And as, you know, we've heard it a thousand times on the show. Sometimes it's an injury. Sometimes it's |
| 1:26.9 | something like being diagnosed |
| 1:28.2 | that forces you in a different direction with your life and helps you discover new passions. |
| 1:32.7 | So today, I hope you enjoy the story. It's full of adventure. It's full of endurance and determination |
| 1:39.2 | and perseverance. And I'd really appreciate if you check these guys out, Project 50 and 50.org. |
| 1:45.6 | Their achievement is amazing. |
| 1:47.5 | They climbed the U.S. 50 high points, which is every state's high point, in just 49 days, |
| 1:53.6 | driving over 17,000 miles to make it happen. |
| 1:57.7 | Pretty crazy. |
| 1:59.1 | So congratulations to them. |
| 2:00.6 | They literally just finished like a couple weeks ago |
... |
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