MtnMeister

Tim Medvetz is the founder of The Heroes Project, a non-profit organization that works with veterans, soldiers, marines, and military families and communities on all levels. They have taken disabled veterans to the tops of mountains all over the world, they are currently in the process of training an injured marine who lost his leg in Afghanistan, Charlie Linville, to the top of Mt Everest. Tim also has an amazing story of his own. An ex-Hell’s Angel, Tim was in a serious motorcycle accident where he broke countless bones and nearly had his foot amputated. If that wasn’t enough, he awoke from his accident on September 11th, 2001. A year after his accident, he set out to climb Mount Everest.

Trevor has hiked some of the most legendary and difficult treks in the US including an unassisted, solo, end-to-end, thru hike of the Appalachian Trail (2,175 miles in 2008). In 2009, he completed the 2,654 mile Pacific Crest Trail. What makes these treks even more impressive is that Trevor is blind. In 2005, Trevor became blind in only a few months’ time, abd after a period of mourning, he set out to regain the skills he needed to function in society (and much, much more).

For the past five years, Mark and Janelle Smiley have been working on a demanding project: completing the 50 classic climbs in North America. If they complete it Mark and Janelle will be the first people to have done all of the climbs. The climbs are based off of a legendary book called Fifty Classic Climbs of North America written by Allen Steck and Steve Roper.

Ann Trason is a legendary ultrarunner and was one of the best in the world in the 80’s and 90’s. She has broken 20 world records, many of which remain today. She won the Western States 100 14 times, and her time of 18:06:24 at the Leadville Trail 100 is woman's world record. This was written about extensively in Christopher McDougall's Born To Run.

Sasha DiGiulian is a professional climber and a full time student at Columbia University in New York City. She is a 3 time US national champion, a female overall world champ, and has completed numerous iconic first female ascents all over the world. In addition to climbing and school, she is an active athlete ambassador for many organizations.

Fredrik Marmsater is a professional adventure photographer doing work in both commercial and editorial environments. His photographs have been featured in just about every major outdoors publications, most recently with magazine covers on Alpinist and Backcountry.

In this episode of MTNmeister, Ben Schenck reflects on how the Meisters helped him in the 2014 NYC Marathon. Highlights of episodes featuring Dean Karnazes, Rebecca Rusch, Dave Hahn, and more are included. 

Vanessa O’Brien is a mountain climber, explorer, public speaker and former business executive. She has climbed the highest mountain peak on each continent and has also skied the last degree to the South Pole in Antarctica and the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean. Vanessa is the fastest woman to climb the 7 summits (10 months) and the fastest woman to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam (just under 11 months). O'Brien is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of The Explorers Club.

Debra Searle is a British professional adventure, author, BBC Sportscaster, Gender Equality Ambassador,  a wife and mom. Most notably in 2002, she rowed across the entire Atalntic Ocean solo after her then husband and rowing partner had to be rescued. Debra is also a motivational speaker and works with companies world wide to help them achieve greater gender balance at senior level.

Dave Hahn is one of the world's most accomplished mountain guides, with an impressive list of summits. These include but are not limited to 275+ summits of Mount Rainier, 20 summits of Mount McKinley, 33 summits of Antarctica's Vinson, and 15 summits of Mount Everest.