The idea to be on top of the world -- literally -- was born out of a whim for a Massachusetts teenager.
Ryan Mitchell, a 19-year-old from Rutland, explains why he summited Mount Everest.
"I literally thought of the idea, 'I climbed Mount Everest,' for a YouTube video title, looked into it more, and from there, I don't know, I just fell in love with it," Mitchell said.
That idea -- to document nearly every step of his journey up Everest -- came more than a year ago. Since then, Mitchell has been training hard.
"Wachusett Mountain, going up and down, for 12 hours sometimes, with a 35-pound-pack, just really beating down the legs," Mitchell said.
He flew out of Boston on April 19, slowly and surely making his way there, making sure to capture video of the 42-day journey to the summit.
It wasn't easy, but he reached the top of Mount Everest last week.
"I just started smiling to myself and tearing up -- I realized about an hour away from the summit that I was going to make it," he said. "I did most of the crying on the way up actually -- tears of joy -- luckily, I never cried tears of pain, the tears of joy came in -- because you realize you are going to make it."
Mitchell estimates the expedition cost him $120,000, money he raised from his YouTube channel playing Minecraft.
"You train for that whole time, and you envision it, I envisioned it so much, almost every day, being on that summit and getting up there, and then finally seeing it, as a reality," Mitchell said, beaming at the thought. "I just started smiling to myself and tearing up."
Mitchell arrived back in central Massachusetts on Wednesday, and he is already thinking of his next adventure as he continues to edit hours and hours of video he shot during the expedition.
"It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Mitchell said with a smile.
