Nobody survives this trajectory so that's why I think it's important that you know I really appreciate you doing this interview.

This is Ben Clark and the trajectory he's talking about is being an alpinist, climbing mountains in the Himalayas that don't have names and

carving roots where nobody has climbed. And he's right, a lot of people die living a life

like his, which makes you wonder why is he doing it? And how does

parents deal with that thinking their son's next climb could be his last. From New Hampshire Public Radio, this is Outside In, a show about the natural world and how we use it.

And I'm Sam Evans Brown.

Last week we talked about Tyler Armstrong, a 12-year-old kid who's planning to climb

Mount Everest this spring.

And if you haven't listened to it, you might want to go back and check it out

because today we're going to hear the story of an adult alpinist and how his parents

back home cope with this high-risk high-adventure lifestyle. This isn't so much a debate as a fireside tale. So take a seat. I'm going to let

Megan Tan take it from here. As a kid,

kid, I was a terrible athlete.

Why? Why do you say that?

Well, I was really overweight and, you know, just kind of a chubby kid and husky, I think is what you probably would call it.

Ben is originally from Tennessee and he didn't grow up hiking or rock climbing.

As a 12 year old less than five feet tall he weighed about 180 pounds

and no one predicted that he would be active. In fact the doctors told him that instead of playing on his

school's basketball team, he should probably be the manager.

Kind of bought in for about six months and then I decided that you know what I

had a body and I was going to use it anyway.

Ben Slim down.

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