With eight Everest summits to his name — including one without supplemental oxygen — alpinist Adrian Ballinger is a giant in the mountaineering community. But he was never supposed to be a mountaineer in the first place.
This week on Out and Back, Adrian opens up about how his one-year deferment from medical school turned into 20. The mountain guide discusses the challenges of guiding clients up the world’s tallest mountains and how a fateful encounter on the side of Mount Everest led to meeting his fiancée, professional climber Emily Harrington.