Mitch Hutchcraft is a 31-year-old former Royal Marine who recently completed a light and invigorating 8,000-mile workout. It started with a swim across the English Channel and ended on the summit of Mount Everest.
It took Hutchcraft 240 days to complete what he calls Project Limitless. First, he swam the 21-mile English Channel. Then, he pedaled almost 7 ½ thousand miles from Europe to eastern India. He ditched the bike and ran another 560-ish miles to Kathmandu and topped it off with a 223-mile hike up to Everest Base Camp.
This past Sunday, Hutchcraft finally summited Everest, ending what his team is calling the “world’s longest ascent” from sea to summit. Hutchcraft is a veteran who served six years in the Royal Marines despite being told that he’d never make the cut after he had to undergo reconstructive surgery on his knee.
Safe to say that they were wrong. He dedicated the mission to his late father and to SAVSIM, a nonprofit supporting wildlife conservation and veterans with PTSD.
This Guy Swam the English Channel, Biked Across Continents, Ran to And Then Climbed Everest
Helped out by an apparently renowned Nepali guide, Gelje Sherpa, Hutchcraft described the moment as “more magical than I could have ever dreamed.” Of course, that could’ve just been the dehydration talking, or the elevation sickness, or the runner’s high, or the delirium that sets in after you scale half the world.
You may not have heard of him until now, but Hutchcraft does this kind of thing a lot. His previous stunts include rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic and cycling 3,000 miles across North America.
If you’re the type to think it was all a waste if he didn’t document it to rack up some sweet social media likes, breathe easy knowing that he had a production crew with him along the way, capturing footage of him completing Project Limitless, presumably to be turned into a documentary or something at some point down the line.
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