Finding Your Summit

Pirie Jones Grossman is our featured for this episode of Find Your Summit Rewind Since her last visit, Pirie was diagnosed with the Epstein Barr virus. Grossman's version of the 60 know types was debilitating. Her illness is similar to Mononucleosis, except in her case, it's much more intesnse. The western medicine standard of care is 3 months of rest and lots of fluids. Of course, single mom's wh...

Growing up in Kenya, Ken's dad had 2 wives. Nsimbi had 9 siblings. His dad, a dentist was an outgoing and gregarious fellow who had a full and lively life. Moving to Seattle to share a 1-bedroom apartment with 3 brothers, in the US was a hard transition, "It felt like a downgrade." "When I look back, my mom's decision to bring us to the US was the best thing ever."

March 20, 2011 – Andy Hnilo was hit by a Land Rover as he stepped off the curb on Melrose in Los Angeles. Thrown across the street a Toyota Tundra hit him again. One accident, twice hit by trucks, a broken jaw, 7 broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and somehow he survived. With the shattered jaw and a mouthful of broken teeth, Hnilo began relearning to chew, close his mouth and talk.. Even now years la...

At a conference, as an adult well into his life, Werner Berger considered the 3 things he’d like to do before he died. Though Berger possed no mountaineer experience, he wanted to climb Kilimanjaro, the Matterhorn, and to travel to Everest’s base camp. Fascinated by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary’s summit of Everest, Werner always possessed a desire to climb mountains. To date, Werner is the ol...

Pete Koch played defensive end for the University of Maryland. He graduated the same year as his teammate Boomer Esiason. Coincidentally, Pete's Terrapins lost to Mark's Huskies in the inaugural 1982 Aloha Bowl.  1st Round Pick Pete's draft year, he's living in the dorms at Maryland, listening to the radio waiting for the phone to ring. Projects listed Pete as a likely first-round pick. Though one...

Charles Plumb talks about the rewards of personal adversity; we need to pay attention. In this Rewind episode, we discuss three things. First, Charles' philosophy of packing your own parachute. Next, recognizing that adversity is a terrible thing to waste. Finally discipline the mind, body and soul.  Packing Your Parachute Packing your parachute means being humble. During his younger years as a To...

Dr. Charles Weaver is an oncologist who founded Cancer Connect. Dr. Weaver views researching or working with cancer patients as the most positive for a doctor to do. For him, the work is an opportunity to engage with people who need information, hope and a guide. Charles life’s focus began to change. Though he was a successful oncologist, Dr. Weaver turned to, like anyone, the internet for answers...

Brett Archibald spent 28 hours alone, lost at sea with nothing but his faith, family and friends to guide him. A case of food poisoning puts Brett on the railing of the ship in a storm as he and friends crossed the Mentawai Strait off Sumatra, Indonesia. At some point, Brett blacked out and was thrown into the ocean. Once he came to, Brett watched as the ship continued on without him. 8 hours afte...

Bill Valenti is a banker, an entrepreneur, a cancer survivor, and a protest songwriter. Bill’s life is packed full of accomplishments. His tale starts by busking on the liberal revolutionary streets of Paris while attending school in the 60's. Linguist Next, is the Vietnam war. Bill decided to enlist. He was assigned to the Defense Language Institue in Monterey Ca. Bill became a Chinese linguist t...

NFL quarterback Steve Beuerlein played for six different teams, over 14 seasons. Steve played for the Dallas Cowboys in 1992/93 season, the year the team won Super Bown XXVII. Before stepping the NFL field, Beuerlein started at QB for Notre Dame. Steve established himself as a QB ready for the next level by breaking most of the passing records while starting 39 or 46 games at the school.  Raiders...

Growing up in Saudi Arabia, females didn't pick internationally famous mountain climber as an occupation. However, Raha Moharrak was an odd one (her words) who didn't handle authority well. Always struggling to fit into the cookie cutter mold, hyper and opinionated Raha sought out spots as an outlet for her energy. Now Raha is an international brand ambassador, public speaker and has climbed the 7...

Vern Tejas has spent his life in the mountains. In this episode we discuss his achievements, evolution as a climber and his ability to make correct choices in complex settings.  First, his list of accomplishments is beyond extraordinary. Tejas is the first person to ever climb the 7 summits 10 times each; the 70 Summits. Vern summited Denali 55 times. Teejas' 39 summits of Vinson, in Antartica, re...

Tafa Jefferson has never taken an easy path. He started football late, not playing until his senior high school season. After choosing UOP, the school dropped its football program. Undaunted Tafa stayed at UOP and worked his way through the schools emerging entrepreneurial program. After graduation, Tafa was drafted in the 1st round of the NFL Europe draft by the Chicago Bears. Before he could get...

Cokie Berenyi is working for a #perfectday. Cokie and Mark climbed Denali together, sharing a tent and working on the same rope team. Their mutual appreciation for one another's spirit, determination and focus was realized on Denali as they pushed through to the summit.  Whether summiting a mountain or moving her life to Colorado, Cokie is focuses on flexing her fear muscle; using it to get past c...

Life has a habit of throwing us into difficult places. Yet, it also has the power to reveal our best qualities amidst those times. Mark Brunell is a perfect example of positivity. After going through a lot during his days on the NFL, he has remained undefeated, both on the field and in life after football. He shares with us almost everything about football, from playing in a small high school to c...

We all get stuck, most especially when life throws us in situations we never expected. The key to all of that is to keep on moving forward. Thriving day-by-day, Elizabeth Miner shares her journey. As a single mother of two at such a young age, she has endured through the struggles and persevered to becoming the successful businesswoman and coach that she is now. She shares some great values in lif...

Cynthia Besteman of the successful skincare line, Violets Are Blue, returns to talk about a very exciting partnership. As audience would probably recall, Cynthia previously shared how she had overcome breast cancer and developed her natural skincare line through the whole process. Cynthia updates that the company's doing great and growing by leaps and bounds. Her biggest news is that they are part...

Standing up through life’s adversities says a lot about a person; more so when amidst all of these, you still continue to offer a helping hand to others. Michael Ketterer is a man who not only possesses a great voice that deserves a golden buzzer on America’s Got Talent; he also has a great heart and a strong moral compass that inspires many. He shares to us the value and gift of family as he reco...

Moving forward to your dream path is not always about taking on the uphill climb. Sometimes, you meet some downward turns that test you. The same goes with former NFL head coach of the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts Jim Mora Sr. His NFL career took its own ups and downs, but with hard work, timing, and luck in between, he has taken the challenge and moved up to the Big League. He shares...

There are never new ideas, just new applications of old ideas. What started out as simple pool exercises and turned into a creative expression and a full pool training workout. American professional volleyball player, sports announcer, fashion model, and actress Gabby Reece says the pool offers a no gravity environment that lets you train hard in a way that you’re not impacting your joints and com...

To live the way you want and do the things you love to do, sometimes you have to get off the treadmill and carve your own path. Nate Boyer knows this all too well. Nate wanted to choose his own path and rebelled against going the linear path of going to college and getting a good job. He wanted to embark on adventures and make a difference in the world. He ended up working with autistic kids and e...

Society thinks that everybody is just sitting inside prison plotting out their next crime when they get out. Kenyatta Leal says that's definitely not the case. There are men and women inside, who are trying to change their lives and trying to do better. Kenyatta fell under the three-strikes law and ended up in prison 25 years to life and ultimately ended up co-founding The Last Mile prison rehabil...

The biggest issue we see our country angry at times is because maybe we're not having conversations, especially uncomfortable ones. Pac-12 Network’s college football analyst and New York Times bestselling author Yogi Roth finds it really interesting what you find out when you talk to people from different backgrounds, races, religions, political leans, especially in this era right now. In his podc...

Life is a mixture of different perspectives and views. American war hero Pete Turner served on numerous tours of duty including Croatia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but this time around, he’s busy doing his own podcast called Break It Down. Pete describes it as a blend of different perspectives and stories from people from all walks of life and all types of profession, talking about the reality of thei...

Your life can change in an instant. Chris Norton’s changed forever in a football accident, resulting in severe spinal cord injury. Imagine being told by doctors that you would never be able to move again. Are you going to spend the rest of your life feeling sorry for yourself? Or are you going to make a stand? When they tell you that you have a 3% chance of moving anything below your neck again, f...