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How a Near Death Experience Changed Everything | Dan Wenker · Books4Guys

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: And tell you thank you for your support of Books for Guys and uh really appreciate that.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: We uh we just our our Books for Guys Player of the Week awards just kicked off for some high school football programs.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we got a lot of books going out over the next few months.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, anyone who's a community member, thank you so much because it is very helpful.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I just wanted to start by saying thank you for that.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now just doing that a little bit of research before coming on, you got a good thing going on.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So uh you know, good for you doing that, and then it sounds like you're still still doing your regular career too.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, more power to you to to do this kind of uh do this kind of things because uh, you know, us guys need help, as you know.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So anybody that's gonna bring out the best in us, we always appreciate.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's uh it keeps me busy in a good way, and you're right, man, just trying to just do impactful things, especially just in our crazy world.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I know you've seen a lot, but just you know, young guys in particular are just trying to set, just set a good path, do something meaningful, and uh, you know, help create some good memories and some good personal growth if if I can help be a part of that.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so, but Dan, I I want I'm I'm gonna let you talk for a minute because you've got a pretty wild story, you know, of getting into to rock climbing a little bit later in life, and uh then you found yourself in in quite a bit of trouble on uh on one of these experiences, which really, you know, I I'm assuming was the the main launching point of you really wanting to to share more about your life and your story and this experience.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: But man, jump right in.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Tell tell the story because for those who haven't even looked at the summary of your book yet, and we've got it posted on the website.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Tell tell everybody what happened.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me um, you know, so how'd I get into it?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just to give you a little history of me, I grew up in the city of Philadelphia.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, born and raised there, went to went to college at Penn State, but really was always a uh a city guy.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Moved from Philadelphia to Atlanta, another big city.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I referred to it as a uh, you know, a city slicker that was uh quite frankly, I was a Boy Scout dropout.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I lasted uh two weeks in the Boy Scouts, and if you would have told me I would be where I am now as far as the outdoors, I would have told you you were nuts.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, cut to the chase, our our family, because of a career move, moved out to the state of Washington in Yakima, Washington.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh as I was approaching my 50th birthday, um, wanted to do something bigger than just have another party.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, everybody celebrates their birthdays with a party and they get together, but felt the need to do something a little bigger than that to uh to make it really stand out.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I also wanted to get into better shape because I saw the path and I read something about at 50, you make the choice, right?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're either going to go down one path where you're kind of sedentary and and all that, which is you know, which is fine, but I wanted to get down the path where if something came up after I retired or some physical challenge came up, I wouldn't have to say, I can't do that anymore.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: So started, that was kind of on my mind.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you've ever been to the Pacific Northwest, the the big mountains are everywhere.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, if you go to downtown Seattle, although we were in Yakima about two hours away, you go to downtown Seattle, when the mountain is out, you feel as though you could reach out and touch Mount Rainier from downtown.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is just so awesome.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh one day, driving from Yakima over to Seattle, because we used to do a lot of business in Seattle, saw Mount Rainier and said, uh, you know, I'd like to climb that.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, which was, you know, like I said, from a guy that uh being from Philadelphia and and mountaineering and climbing mountains just not on my radar at all.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I figured that looks like a pretty tough thing to do.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so after I put it in my mind, I uh started to think to myself, I have no idea how to do that.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Went to a guy in our office where I live because if you live in the Northwest, you either know somebody or you one-off know somebody that's climbed Mount Rainier.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the deal.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I talked to this guy and he said it's very doable, but you know, it's gonna be the toughest thing that you've ever done in your life.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So he put me on a training regimen, ended up climbing Mount Rainier for my 50th birthday, put me in a great shape, lost about 30 pounds, got in probably the best shape I had been in college.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I played water polo, so I was in pretty good shape in college, but kind of got back to that to reset the bar.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And what was supposed to be a one-and-done climb ended up becoming my passion.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what I've said before is summoning Mount Rainier, instead of being the one and done thing, it just changed me.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Changed me uh physically, obviously, but changed me mentally and spiritually as well.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So got on this climbing, uh, this mountaineering journey with a bunch of other guys that I that I met out there.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, there's mountaineers everywhere in the Northwest, and they took me, they would take me on climbs, and I swore they had me along just for the sheer entertainment to laugh at the new guy that had never done anything like that before.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it was, yeah, it was a kick.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: The guys were, the guys were great, everybody's very positive, and they made the undoable very doable.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we climbed all the mountains in the Pacific Northwest.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so kind of coming to where the uh the motivation behind the book is that I'd moved back to Atlanta from Washington, still kept up with a couple of the guys who were in this climbing group, and because we'd ski every year in in Montana and Wyoming.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: But then we decided we're gonna climb the Grand Teton.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, just based on my past experience, nothing is not possible, right?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you train right, and you know, in my mind, if you train right and you do the right things, you can pretty much do anything.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh we set our sights on the Grand Teton.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: We got a good team together because the the Grand Teton is a more of a technical climb at the top than what I'd done before.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, more rock, strictly rock climbing.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: The other stuff was more alpine climbing, like Mount Kilimanjaro.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't require any ropes or anything like that.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So had two guys with us.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna help uh help be the technical guy.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So there's four guys, a guy named Jim Zingerman, Mark McGuire, and uh Mark's son, Nicholas McGuire.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we were gonna climb the Grand T Town, we go up, we set up our camp at this area, with plans being that we'd get up at four in the morning and and go climb.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And during that night, uh the winds got, the weather just turned horrible.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this was uh June 30th of 2022, and the winds got up to a point uh during the night between, they told us later, between 40 to 45 miles an hour sustained up to 50 mile an hour gusts.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're in this, it's kind of this bowl where you camp before you, and so it acts like a just a vehicle to increase the the winds.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so during that night, we were in separate tents just because some of us snore, and so some people like to get better or better sleep.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I was in a tent that during that night, I thought it was going to explode and blow down the mountain.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Each, probably every 15, 20 minutes, I'd have to go out and retie the tent stays because they kept snapping because of the wind.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'd sit up on the side of my tent and get blown over when the wind gusts would come.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, and through that night, did the uh the prayer that a lot of us have is, you know, if you just get me through this, God, you know, I'll I'll be a better dad, I'll be a better husband, I'll, you know, I'm gonna be a better guy because of this because I don't know if I'm gonna make it out of here.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so, needless to say, I didn't get any sleep.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: At four o'clock, when uh Mark and Nicholas came to to grab me to go climb, I said, There's no way.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it, I've gotten no sleep.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is the most difficult climb I've ever had in my life.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh at that point I was 62 years old and and thought, you know, I'll take a bye.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so, long story short, Jim Zingerman also decided that he wasn't gonna go too.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so we decided that we were gonna climb down and uh go back to the trailhead and live to fight another day.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: So Mark and Nicholas sent us a text on their way up and said they were on their way, weather was really bad, but they would just meet us back at the trailhead and meetings at the campsite.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh while we're at the campsite, because there was gonna be four of us, there were two climbing ropes.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And with technical climbing, they only allow three people on a rope, and because they had four of us, we needed two ropes to do this.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And because they went up to to kind of get down to the to the nitty-gritty of things, Jim Zingerman, who is my buddy, who's the nicest guy in the world, and that'll come out a little a little bit more later, volunteered to carry this nine-pound, you know, 70-meter climbing rope, and we already had packs that were like 40 pounds.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, people say when you get the check that people get uh, you know, alligator arms.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I got alligator voice when it came time to try and buy.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So Jim packed that rope in his back, and so we went off hiking down, and about probably about 20 minutes into our climb down, looked at a big snowfield on the on the right, and uh decided we were gonna glissade down.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and glissading for people that don't know is is really kind of a lot of fun.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you descend the mountain quickly.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: You sit on your butt, you have your legs out in front of you, you have an ice axe, you know, to control your speed, and like I said, it's it's a kick.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot easier on your knees.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: You could descend a thousand feet in no time, and and you just laugh the whole time.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But when we went out to that snowfield, we had identified a uh rock outcropping down about a hundred feet down from us.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and Jim was going to get down there, he was gonna give me the high sign, and I was gonna meet him there.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so he went down there, I saw him get down to where we had predetermined, saw him walk around a little bit, he took off his backpack, and he gave me what to this day I I would swear that I saw the high sign.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so off I went.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because we had already packed our our gear, our our ice axes and crampons, decided to use my hiking poles instead of my ice axe because it would have taken uh you know all of five minutes to take it out and do it the right way.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, we're two guys that know everything.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: But so off I went down towards Jim, and uh, as I got about halfway to him, I realized that it was steeper than what we had thought.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: So rapidly went out of control.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jim is coming at me faster and faster.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's standing between these two big boulders, and as they're coming at me, I'm thinking to myself, you know, I'm gonna hit these boulders in order to stop, and this is really gonna hurt.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: When I got closer to him, as I'm speeding toward him, realized that there was a path in between these two boulders and slid through the two boulders past Jim, who was standing there, and as I passed him, realizing he was standing on the edge of a cliff, went by him, went in the air over the cliff, and dropped 60 feet into an underground ice mode, into a hole in the ice.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as I'm falling, I've given this analogy before, is as I'm falling, it's like when you fall in a dream where you really don't know where it's gonna end.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was pitch black.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: I got the wind knocked out of me, I got knocked unconscious.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when I came to, I was standing on a ledge in the dark next to a raging under underground waterfall.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Behind me was an ice wall, to the left of me was an ice wall, and I'm standing there thinking to myself, without a way out, I don't know how I'm gonna get out of here, and this is a really bad situation.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So started screaming up to Jim after I kind of grabbed my senses, but also pulling from training, we took a lot of crevasse rescue training, because when you're on the big mountains, you need to know how to rescue yourself if you fall into a crevasse.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so what went through my mind at the time was uh breathe easy, remain calm, because panicking at that point would have been just really bad.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and also at that time heard a voice that came to me and said, uh, today is not your day to die.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: So don't know where you stand on all of that, but as clear as day I heard it.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: But so I started screaming up to Jim, um, not knowing if he could hear me because that waterfall was just if you've ever been next to a waterfall, it's hard to hear.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so up above, you know, Jim would tell me later that, you know, he saw me coming toward him, sees me blow by him, and because he knew where I was headed, didn't jump on top of me because then he was thinking to himself, then we're both gonna be in that hole, that he could see somebody go over the cliff, disappear in the hole, and then there was complete silence.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the first thing that went through his mind was this is gonna be this is pretty bad.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, life is gonna change.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: I just watched my bunny die before my very eyes because all he could see was the hole in the ice there that was down below.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't know how far down it was, he didn't couldn't see where I landed.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way out, he could see the waterfall go in, go into the ice, and then about 150 or 175 feet down, he could see it come out.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So he's thinking to himself, this is he's done.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so he uh looked at his phone, tried to dial 911, we had no, he had no service, and then uh in a panic plea, he screams out, he's uh, you know, Jim's a man of faith, he's a doctor.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's thinking to himself, you know, after he heard me calling his name, started thinking, well, at least he's alive, and then he realized, no, this is bad because I don't know how to get him out of there.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's gonna die of hypothermia while he calls my name.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jim throws out a prayer and says, uh, God, I need you now.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: In the middle of the wilderness, no one's out there, nothing going on.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly he remembers in the midst of everything gone on, he forgot that he agreed to carry that rope.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: He goes back, grabs the rope, starts throwing it down, but the what power of the waterfall where he saw me go down is blowing that out.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so now he's feeding it down like a fishing line a little further away from the waterfall.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Down below, you know, probably about 30 minutes has gone by at this time.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting colder and colder.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: My hands are starting to get really cold, I'm shivering uncontrollably.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm standing there in the dark and looking at the rock wall in front of me, thinking to myself, this is where I'm gonna die.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the dark, all of a sudden I feel a tap on my shoulder, reach my left hand around me because I didn't want to, I was on this ledge that I knew the waterfall went down next to me into a further darker area.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Went around and grabbed it and realized it's a climbing rope.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: So pulled on the rope.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Long story short, I end up climbing out, came up there, popped my head out of that hole where I had fallen in, and there sits Jim by himself, you know, all crunched up.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's got this rope around his waist.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and the first thing he says is, Dan, it's so good to see your face.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, yeah, it's great to see you too.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Jim would refer to that later on as a Lazarus moment.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he thought I was dead, and now here I am popping out of this hole.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so he would also say, we did a uh an interview with Backpacker magazine, and what he would say is that when I jumped on top of him because there was nowhere else to go, that my skin was as white as a sheet, and my body temperature was as cold as ice, because at that point I had been down there probably about 45 minutes.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, he ends up blowing a rescue whistle.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: By chance, there is a park ranger coming by on the trail, he comes down, calls for a what they describe as a short haul rescue.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So they lower this basket down and it's designed to rescue mountaineers off the side of a mountain, take me down to an ambulance where there's a bunch of people there, they take me out, put me in the ambulance.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's a rescue EMT in the ambulance, and the guy's talking to me and said, uh, you know, he's trying to talk to me because he was concerned I was hypothermic on the fringe of uh going into shock, or he was concerned that I that I had a concussion.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's trying to talk to me to keep me awake, and he said, You know, you're pretty lucky.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Well, yeah, I think I'm pretty lucky.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it was interesting he said that because the first ranger on the scene told me I was lucky.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's actually a ranger that's attached to that basket as you're dangling from under the helicopter, he's strapped and he's so close.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, while you're gone down the valley there that he could talk to you, he told me I was lucky now this guy is, and I said, Well, yeah, I think I'm I think I'm pretty lucky too.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he could tell I was taking it kind of lightly, and he points at me and pretty sternly, this guy named John Colina's got a booming voice, and he says to me, He says, No, you don't understand.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Over the past few years, three other people have gone into that ice moat where you went in.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: All of them were body recoveries.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're the first rescue we've had.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm in the ambulance, I go back there, and that obviously that moment hits you hard.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a uh, you know, in the South, we they refer to it as a come to Jesus moment.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that was that was kind of mine.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: But they take me to the hospital.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: I found out later after CAT scans and and and x-rays and everything else, I had actually broken my leg.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my left leg snapped it all the way through.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're kind of amazed that I was able to climb out of there.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, that's that's my story.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and as a result of that experience, uh wrote this book, Staying on Guard.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the title is taken from, you know, the mistake that Jim and I made.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we let our guard down.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was a beautiful day.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the middle of the wilderness, doing what we loved, didn't do things like we had been trained and use our ice acts.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: We thought we were smarter and we could do it the other way, and it all almost cost me my life.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: But that applies also to our lives as well, you know, no matter what you're doing, just always to uh stay on guard and from there, you know, the the book's message is is really three things, Chris.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know, the outdoors changed my life, put me in great shape, gave me a better appreciation for what goes on.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you spend any time in the wilderness, you know, just the enormity and the beauty.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'd get every mountain summit I've gotten to, I'm in tears at the top, just thankful of just the beauty and everything around me.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, also the the idea of a what-if life, and I that's what I refer to in the book that, you know, as you get older, you know, you're a young guy, but as you get older, you tend to, you know, start to say, well, I don't do this anymore because I'm getting older.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do that anymore.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I say, you know, if you have a what if, what if I could do that, you know, live your what-if as compared to say, not anymore.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: So for my 60th birthday, climb Mount Kilmindjaro.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, for 62, I was trying to climb the Grand Teton.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: At 65, I went back to the Grand Teton and got to the top.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and that was after two strokes, which is a whole nother story.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, living a what-if life, just the life that we're given is so wonderful.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why I wrote the book is to is to share that with people, and and really uh that's the message is to live a fulfilling life.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I believe in miracles now too, and that's uh a strong message as well.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So many things came to play that day.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the fact that Jim carried that rope, the fact that uh, you know, the rope hit me in the dark, the rope, the fact the rope was long enough, the guy, the rangers walking by at the right time, or else we would have spent the night outside.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just all those things kind of came into play.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the motivation of the book, and and uh it's amazing where it's taken me since then, and and uh really would uh ask you to investigate it and and if you do end up reading it uh you know for your people that are out there, then uh drop me a note.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to love to hear from you.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh in there there's an exercise about your what if moments that you could fill out and love to to hear what everybody's what ifs are.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my deal, that's my story.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Dan, I love I love your approach to life, even just after some scary things like that, because man, you're right.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, life is so precious, it's also very short in the grand scheme of things.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I I I you know I'm not too old yet, I'm in my 30s, but for some reason I think about time a lot, and I'm always like, man, how can I create a good moment for someone else?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: How can I create a memory?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: How can I spend more time with the people I care about?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: How can I accomplish this?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because for some reason I already have that clock in my head where I'm like, man, it's gonna go by faster than I think.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: And uh maybe it's you know talking with people who have, you know, lived longer and they're like, dude, you better maximize it because it's gonna go by fast.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I look at that a lot.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd I just love your take on trying to maximize and do things and not have excuses of uh because nothing makes me more mad when I hear someone say, Oh, you know, I'm I'm too old to try that now.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, no, you're not.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're not.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, let's go.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you look at, you know, just recently, you know, the guy that that just set the record for the uh hiking the AT.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Through hiking the AT, you know, just set the record at 91.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so he's got, you know, you look at what that guy did, and and uh and actually that actually is the second time he said it, but you know, there's so many things, and all it takes is a little bit of conditioning, a little bit of of uh, you know, doing the right things.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do anything extreme, but you know, whatever it is, there's just a an amazing, wonderful world out there.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh not only that, if you have kids, you know, just to just be in decent health, so you can do things with your kids and your, you know, we just found out six weeks ago our daughters uh expecting twins, um, which is you know, which obviously strikes a mark for me.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if I would have died, obviously I wouldn't uh be able to be here for that, but also to be able to to be in in uh decent shape and realize that uh to enjoy that as compared to being the you know, the granddad that's just kind of hanging out, the one that can be involved in in what they're doing and ha take them on fun adventures.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: You may need to uh to go do a couple more mountain climbs, get ready for the the twin energy.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that'll be a different that'll be a different stamina that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: You need when they're running around.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, it'll be uh it'll be that'll be pretty cool.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Cause yeah, it's interesting because my daughter is the one that's climbed, she's climbed a few mountains with me as well, our daughter Caroline.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so it'll be uh it'll be interesting to see what uh how that trickles down.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it's and Dan, I uh I've had a similar s story, and it was a long time ago, but I certainly believe in angels and miracles and and things happening for a reason, especially when it's not your time to go.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, and I've talked to a few others and and now yourself who have had these moments of like, man, I shouldn't be here.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I wouldn't be here without some sort of higher power keeping me around.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it it does it does change the way you look at life, it changes the way you think, and maybe that's why I think about time so much, just subconsciously.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: But it is it is cool in a sense, if for lack of a better term, to hear you experience that and to be able to explain how you felt in that moment of basic I you know what again, I don't even know.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: You you did the story you were sharing.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm hanging on every every edge of it, but I just still I can't imagine what's going through your mind in that moment of when you are in the air.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I'm I'm thinking of it, I've been bungee jumping before, and I remember being in free fall and really just being kind of like you described.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's one of the most freeing things you can ever experience because you just have no control.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm and in a sense, I can imagine that's a little what you felt too, on top of fear, but really just you are that's the one time you have nothing you can control.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's hard to explain that to people who haven't experienced that before.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a uh it's a it's really a bizarre thing and it's pretty surreal.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how it's stuck.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the accident was uh four years ago now, but it's uh sticks with you.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and that actually is, you know, that the the motivation behind the book is I started, I jot down a bunch of notes when I got back right after the weekend, thinking that I just need to keep this fresh for a lot of reasons.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And and a bunch of things came into play, quite frankly.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Ended up meeting a uh meeting some people that introduced me to a book coach.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I wrote the book, but he has a uh a way to kind of break it down how you can systematically write a book and you know, another little thing uh about me.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was a uh I took remedial English in order to get into college.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh so to r to write a book is really pretty amazing, but it was very therapeutic and cathartic.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, writing the book, I you know, this I wrote the book two years after the accident, and I'd go to bed at night after writing, wrote pretty much straight through for about three months, and would go to bed at night and slept better than I had slept in a long time.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I was amazed at how all that stuff still stuck around after that period of time.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it it accomplished it accomplished a lot of things on a personal nature, but then you know, getting it out there and sharing it with other people is really that's the purpose.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the the purpose is to a better life, it could end at any time.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, do those things you got on the edge of your mind and figure a way to get it done.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Dan, just just a couple more questions for you.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: What's been one of the most, because I was gonna ask you just kind of your process of what it took to get the book written and and really when did you decide to do that?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you you kind of explained that.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, now that it's been out there, you did mention, you know, a lot of incredible things have come from it.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: What what are some of the most, I guess, just proudest moments for you personally that you've been able to experience since the book's been released?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what are some things that people have shared with you and then what are some things what are some opportunities where you've been able to share your story or talk more in depth about it?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: What's what's been just some of the most joyous moments of this journey for you?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Really, it's been the the conversations and the the people that I've met and and you know it's a path, Chris.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I uh it just it blows me away.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And a couple things stand out.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: One is after uh probably about three or four months after my accident, uh my brother was telling me about, he said, uh, you know, these he told me about these this woman that had an accident in the uh up in the mountain or the hills in in Pennsylvania.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny because I had just finished reading about this lady that was that had an accident on uh on a mountain out in in California in the Sierras.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I thought they were the same people.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And actually it was two different women.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and both of them, you know, could have died as a result of their experience.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh so I reached out to them and you know, told them about the book, about the story and and all that kind of thing.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we still communicate to this day, and and what the Woman woman would say is is that you know, a lot of people when I had this accident and and when I came back and I was healing, they would tell me, you know, I c I imagine how you felt and all that, and she says, they can't.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know when you're when you're that close to death what how that impacts you for the long term.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, This is the first conversation I've had that I know somebody really hears what I'm saying.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so it benefited me as much as as her.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: The other is in writing the book, there's a uh I talked to a therapist when I got back as a result, and there's a lady here in in Atlanta, and and I make the acknowledgments, her name is Meg McElroy and met with her a few times in order to get some things off my chest.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and after I wrote the book, I mentioned her acknowledgments in there about you know what she's done for me and the work that she does.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: She ended up uh giving the book to her dad, who is 94 years old.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and he's he was an old school guy, you know, where he never she told me later, she goes, you know, my dad never really understood what I did because he would constantly say, you know, people pay money just to come and talk to you.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't really get that.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: But after seeing the acknowledgement and and the the benefits of what her therapy did for me, he came back to her and said, you know, now I get it.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this you've you've changed this guy's life, you helped him out, you know, all these things happened.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, four days after he tells her that, he dies.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, she comes back to me and said, you know, it was just so wonderful that, you know, my dad finally knew what I did before he passed away, and that we both had this interaction.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and I don't say that from a I speak from a humble standpoint and not from you know a standpoint of bragging, but you know, that that book, and I can give you a bunch of other stories, Chris, that are like that, when I speak, you know, and people come up and share their experience about either a near-death deal or how their faith has gotten stronger because of some events in their life.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, is separate from all that, how the outdoors is just either revitalized, refreshed, or has just transformed their life just by being able to hike outside and seeing how wonderful things are.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: So those are the things that that's how I benefited.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: The more people talk to me, the more I benefit from the whole deal.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, man, Dan, I love that because I'm I'm I'm receptive to that message and and agree and believe in everything you share.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I I I truly believe and I mean it sounds like you already are.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: You've you've impacted so many others to to think about things a little differently and to look at things through that lens too.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait to hear, I'll share with you when when I share this episode, you know, what people say or what messages I get, because I imagine I'm gonna get some.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I plan on giving your book to a few people that I know too, just for different reasons.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: But Dan, man, thank you so much for sharing your story on our platform.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm very proud to spotlight your work and your book.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, I've I've already got three or four names in my head that I'm gonna send your book to because I just think they would enjoy it for different reasons and take something away from it for different reasons.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking forward to reading it with them and and discussing it.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'll I'll get back to you once that's done and just what I hear and make some connections there.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: But man, just keep sharing this story because I think it's it's it's impactful.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I can't imagine the fear, but but the amount of positive things that are coming from it now is a pretty cool thing to know and learn and just see what you're doing.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: So man, can't wait to keep up with you and just follow along and just see the impact that you continue to have.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Chris.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Really, first of all, you know, grateful for the platform, you know, and and uh, you know, I know you hear this all the time, but uh but just reinforcing the work that you're doing, you know, and and uh and keep it going.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh, you know, what I would say is is uh yeah, it's in whatever book you want to want to have, would uh you know, happy to to sign to myself, you know, there's ways and we'll talk about how to uh how to get that.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, the the thing I would close with is is what I've found is is that what almost became the worst day of my life actually is the best day of my life for for just so many reasons.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh I I I just hope that message sticks.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I I have no doubt it will.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: So appreciate it, Dan.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks a lot.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Take care, Chris.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: See ya.