Mountain climber speaks to Mountain Brook Chamber

Kent Stewart expected terrible food, freezing weather, feeling miserable and climbing through dangerous conditions when he set out to climb Mt. Everest.

What he didn’t expect was an earthquake.

Stewart, a Mountain Brook resident and president of Reli Title, talked about his experience in Nepal this spring at the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Sept. 15.

“I have been home four months now, but it still feels like a dream,” Stewart said.

During the luncheon, Stewart recounted his and his wife, Julie’s, experiences working to climb the seven highest peaks on the seven continents. He showed images of elephants near the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, riding in a cargo plane in Antarctica where they later found “nothing but white as far as they could see” and the rocky edge of the highest peak in Europe.

In South America, they helped a man down who was in desperate condition close to the top. After a failed attempt to summit Denali in Alaska, Stewart returned alone, staying in a tent six straight days on the mountain while he waited for the weather to clear, and eventually climbed to the top.

From there, he knew what was next — Everest.

“Everest has a way of not letting you go,” Stewart said.

After getting sick on his first attempt to climb it, he trained three to five hours a day for seven months, climbing the stair master with a pack on his back, and for eight months sleeping in a tent that restricts oxygen so he could more easily acclimate to the altitude. That trip ended up being cancelled, but he trained again and returned in the spring of this year. The earthquake struck while he was eating in the dining tent at base camp.

“Every time you think you have it figured out on Everest, something bad happens,” Stewart said.

After the earthquake, Stewart became a medical rescue worker before taking a helicopter down from the mountain. After returning to Birmingham, he spearheaded raising around $85,000 to help rebuild two villages where Everest sherpas live.

He plans to return next spring.

“Whether I make it to the summit of Everest or not, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world.”

To learn more about Stewart’s relief efforts and how to support them, visit sevensummitsfoundation.com.