 The ASUS ROG gaming notebook featured in this video is available now from Newegg.com with a free bonus gaming bundle So be sure to check out the link in the video description It was just as hard I think as I was expecting. I might die here I was gonna have to turn back I was quite certain within about the first half hour of the hike that I was not gonna make it I expected a expedition where we would be camping out at the top or on the middle of the mountain and that it would be Take maybe two or three days I definitely was not disappointed when I found out that was not the case and when I found out about this I was really excited. I thought it would be a great trip and whether it was an overnight trip or not. I was pumped I loved the outdoors. I love hiking So I was just really excited overall. I felt somewhat ready I've been training for a backpack that I'm doing in about three weeks So I am in somewhat better shape than I was maybe six or nine months ago But still with the elevation with everything I I was a bit concerned I'm really glad that I made it but it was just as hard I think as I was expecting I didn't prepare nearly enough. The one thing I'm really glad I did is at the very last possible second and my doctor really gave me A lot of heck about this is I went in and I got a prescription for some drug whose name I can't pronounce that is supposed to Supposedly help with altitude sickness up to an altitude of around 8 000 feet Of course, the town we're staying at is at around what 11 000 feet and then the summit is over 14 000 feet So I did not nearly adequately prepare for the altitude change The one thing I was really happy with was my hiking gear Even if it had rained, I think I still would have been okay But I was I was pretty well set up for that. The real part was bringing my shoes to the cobbler I have these really nice hiking boots and the front flap on one of them is completely destroyed And the rest of it's kind of fine. They fixed the back which had no real issues and then left the front flapping I was like this is not what you do at a cobbler Took them back to the cobbler to be like okay. I need you guys to actually fix this They said oh, yeah, we close at nine on Saturday. You can come pick them up I googled them too and it said they close at nine. I show up they close at six I showed up for about six ten did not get my boots back and then I walked the whole thing In basketball shoes that I borrowed from a friend Uh, the ascent below the treeline was where I really got worried about my team overall I had realized by about 30 minutes in that neither of my camera operators were going to be able to capture The ascent with their cameras because they were at the very very back of the pack Also below the treeline I had begun to experience numbness up to from about my fingertips to here in my hand and cyanosis in the fingertips Meaning that I was succumbing to altitude sickness. I gave myself 15 minutes to have it subside And I went pretty slow to hopefully acclimate a little bit more before I figured I was gonna have to turn back I was quite certain within about the first half hour of the hike that I was not going to make it Having never hiked anything ever before not even like the grass grind in vancouver, which is the easiest thing in the world because it's just stairs Um, I went out and bought shoes. I went out and bought like cliff bar way too many cliff bars I get to the hotel and I carry my normal luggage my clothing luggage and my backpack up up the stairs And I almost blacked out up the stairs the altitude just knocked me to the floor like I could not move Without my head pounding like I I was lying in bed just gasping for air. Uh, so When thinking about the next day, I was like, well i'm gonna die I never thought I would do anything like this I mean I do like walks and hikes and stuff and not like up 14 000 feet on a mountain So yeah, no, I mean, especially not taking like keyboards and laptops and the whole deal No, I never thought in a million years I would do it. But you know what glad I did it was awesome I've done some 13 000 foot mountains before in the past. So I knew kind of what to expect not in colorado out in california um, and I knew it was going to be one of the hardest things i've ever done in my life, so Just mentally I felt like I was Respecting the mountain. So the ascent below the treeline was uh, it was the beginning of the day Full of energy. I only got maybe three and a half four hours of sleep So once I got into the woods, this is like my home ground. I'm originally from alaska So going right back into this kind of space and climbing up through all these woods and jumping through these trails was Reminding me back when I was like 10 my ascent. Um, it's pretty miserable. I was pretty horrified the entire time up I honestly didn't think I was going to make it within the first 15 20 minutes of the hike I was so out of breath and i'm like i'm only like five percent up the mountain and at this rate I'm gonna die before I actually make it to the top But there came a certain point. I think it was probably after the treeline when I was putting you know more than halfway there Where I was like, well, I've been pretty much forced into making it to the top at this point I'm not going to just come all this way and then turn around and head back down That would just be a complete failure. It was just out of the option So I just I hated the fact that I knew that I had to finish the hike But it was cool Uh, I think they had a little bit more brawn than brain and they just decided to like we're gonna do this and they did it Um multiple people made like kind of like wrong decisions Like I think Luke probably should have turned around earlier, but he was like a monster. He's like I don't give a shit I'm gonna make it to the top. Nothing is stopping me and you would ask me. Are you okay? Like nope, i'm still going above the treeline. The ascent got much easier for me I actually didn't experience any altitude sickness related symptoms once I got past the trees and aside from i'd say the really the really tough part was the extremely vertical rocky and Not very grippy slope where your feet could easily slip out from under you That was about halfway between the treeline and the actual summit. That was the most difficult part for me where we were basically taking 20 maybe 30 40 steps and then we were sitting down and uh Taking like a bite of cliff bar and then a drink from the camel back before we could keep going Being on the summit and actually achieving this. I mean we thought about this over a year and a half ago And I always say this is an excuse to work while having fun at the same time because I love doing this kind of stuff actually being up there and doing it it was I don't know kind of a weird feeling and it was I had this weird I didn't I almost felt nothing and everything at the same time you look around and it's like this amazing view and then you're like Playing doom Which is the game that got me started on land gaming and the game that got just about everyone else started on land gaming and the game That got land gaming started pretty much in the first place standing at the top of a fourteen thousand four hundred foot mountain is one thing standing at the top of a 1,400 foot mountain with a bunch of guys with laptops and keyboards playing doom on a land With the batteries that we hauled up and the router that we hauled up and we got like Notebooks strewn across rocks and we got keyboards in our laps and we're all Yelling because cain is killing everyone and so there's victory cries from like that one spot and then Moaning from pretty much everywhere else. It was unlike anything that i've ever ever experienced before in my life It was absolutely stunning and beautiful And yet I was looking at a screen but not the whole time So I got to have both of those outstanding experiences at the same time You know, it's funny that you ask that because the most memorable thing for me was actually not necessarily The summit itself or the view from the summit It was when I began to realize how high up we were when I was looking down on lakes And they were getting smaller and smaller. So it maybe wasn't one image, but it was Hiking for 10 or 15 minutes and realizing how much higher I was than I was even 10 minutes ago And just marveling at what we were achieving and the people around me that were doing it too Because I had people in front of me that I was watching make the climb and I had people behind me that I was looking back at Watching them come over the same terrain that I was and having that experience of progress Was uh probably the most memorable thing about the trip for me Oh hoisting the Highlander flag was was unreal. I mean what we went through to get that flag made at the last minute And then standing there having had so much of our team actually make it to the top I mean I straight up didn't think I was going to make it. I was sure Brandon wasn't going to make it and Just being able to all be there holding the flag having it waving flapping in the wind was a A truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'm so proud of Brandon when he came over the top of the hill I was floored because we crossed a small creek at the very bottom And his foot fell in and he barely made it across the logs and I was like dude We're like 15 minutes into this you're not going to make it man And as we were had all finished packing up and we were at the end of the journey and we were going home He comes up over the edge and i'm like dude come here There's no time for you to sign the book the snow's coming down, but I got the camera You got to touch the flag that's at the top. I'm gonna video it it happened So I was I was so proud of them. I was just exhausted. I was out of breath I I kept looking up at everyone else that was in front of me and I wasn't I was like i'm not gonna be able to keep up with them How am I gonna how am I gonna do my job because like as a camera operator? I I have to capture what's going on and I just I was working really hard and I Really really did not have any confidence that I was gonna make it You just have to keep believing and making sure that you find a rhythm and everything that Don't don't get in the zone where everything that you think is pulling you down. Just Make it leave your head and and just keep on pushing Knowing I was so close to making it and then just making the decision to turn back I I don't think I regret it couldn't catch my breath like even just sitting there I was gasping freezing I just had to turn back and I think that's the right choice So Corsair gives us like, you know k95s and k70 rgb keyboards and I thought we were gonna get a mouse So I know the guys at Corsair were like, haha, they're gonna carry this to the top I knew they were laughing at us I just knew that they were laughing knowing that we were gonna carry these things to the top now I cannot stand gaming on a laptop because I just don't deal with the keys So I was I put it right on top of the keyboard and I was really really happy And I I made sure that I grabbed the brown switches because I like the brown switches a lot So I like dug through the pile and I made sure I got that one There was only like one or two of them and I grabbed it So I was really happy about that and then the gaming laptop was completely overkill because we're playing doom, right? So we've got the asus laptop. It's got the the brand new 4710 in it So we're just taxing the hell out of that 4710 with doom, but it was a really sleek laptop I I do like the aesthetic of it. The descent was terrible I was fine all the way up and then we started coming down and I couldn't really breathe properly I started getting seriously dizzy. I had a migraine and I think due to the migraine I couldn't really see very well. It got to a point actually at one point where I couldn't see pretty much at all Uh, I threw up about six times, which is a big problem dehydration and stuff like that and it was It was bad. Once I got to the tree line though I laid down for about five minutes. I'm in the trees. The air is a lot better there's a lot better in the trees and it is even in town and Spraying back up and I was completely okay. Everything was gone. No vision problems. No more vomiting. Everything's fine We start going down and then we realized jimmy's not really Keeping up with the pack and he's got a whole bunch of problems with his knees and he's feeling sick and all that kind of stuff So so on the way down I got past the steepest part and right after the steepest part I literally felt like I had no energy in my body whatsoever And my knees were starting to like hurt really bad because I just had no energy and Austin and I run back and shoulder carry Him we start rotating bags around. I'm carrying jimmy logan's helping And we eventually kind of make it down right at the point where we're rationing water because we have basically none left We're eating tons of different food We have no communication with the base camp at this point in time when I was coming down at one point Linus was anchoring me and then Because I couldn't see then he takes off. He's like i'm gonna go get some footage up ahead. I'm like, okay And I kind of stay there and then I see him sprinting down the hill and i'm like, oh So guess he's not coming back. Thanks, bro And then we're trying to get down the last part through the trees We're messaging kane and we're trying to message people and we get a message back That's like some quote from some freaking movie that I don't even remember like thanks, bro So we're trying to get down this mountain. We have no water left. People are seriously dehydrated like having actual issues We're carrying people like Ridiculous I get down to the bottom like we all get down to the bottom There's a lightning storm part way through we all get down to the bottom. I'm ready to murder linus I'm ready to murder kane. I'm ready to murder multiple people But i'm just like i'm just gonna shut up and wait and see what the stories are. Everyone had good stories So it was okay. I didn't have to kill anyone and then yeah, that was that was the dessert All by myself in the snowstorm wearing a shirt and windbreaker. I had Like this much of gatorade left this much of a cliff bar left and I was thinking I could actually die up here. I had bumped into a couple who were who were making their way down. They're like hey Do you need some water or food? I'm like Yes, please Okay, so we kind of came around this bend and you come around this bend and then there's these last set of switchbacks and you can see the the Parking lot down below but there's still like another good quarter half way through But there's still like another good quarter half mile to get down these switchbacks right as we come around there some Rain starts falling and we start to hear a couple lightning a couple thunderbolts I started counting as soon as I would see a flash The first one was only maybe five or six seconds still too close to comfort But we just as soon as we started hearing the first one or two we started moving much much faster Coming around this one switchback is the most vivid experience that I had. I was looking straight down. I could see uh, Brandon and um Who's still in front of me at that point? uh Brandon and Luke were in front of me and at the end of the switchback where it turns back just beyond Lightning bolt just straight down and no no delay at all between when the lightning bolt went and the thunder So it's just like it's on top of you at any moment You're thinking if lightning hits a tree next to me, it could arc over to me and you could just die or or maybe just Get really badly injured. I guess but uh, so at that point we were fearing for our lives and the adrenaline took us the rest Of the way down the mountain. It was harrowing frightening Kind of terrible experience, but uh, honestly very memorable and in retrospect since nobody died, I guess good to some to some degree Let it be known to the world that linus is a litterbug you should be ashamed of yourself we're in a beautiful place I threw it in here shame and you threw it on the ground. You threw it on the ground. I threw the rest of the cake too You