After bagging 59 of Colorado’s 14ers in a single winter season and setting the fastest known time over the Mosquito and Tenmile mountain ranges, Breckenridge mountain athlete Christopher Fisher set his eyes on a new outdoor pursuit. 

Instead of trying to summit peaks in the Rocky Mountain region or quickly scrambling over an entire mountain range, Fisher decided to take his mountaineering skills and passion outside of not only Colorado, but the U.S. as well.

With a burning desire to climb more challenging and testing peaks, Fisher decided to travel to Himalayas this past spring in hopes of summiting the fourth-highest peak in the world — Lhotse — in speed-record time.

Standing at 8,516 meters above sea level, Fisher attempted to summit his first 8,000-meter peak, but the trip ended up not going as planned. Fisher attempted to summit the 27,940-foot peak in a speed- record time alongside fellow mountain athlete Tyler Andrews, but the harsh weather in the Himalayas did not cooperate and both athletes were forced to turn around before reaching the top.

“The day that we started, we got caught up in a pretty bad blizzard above the icefall,” Fisher said. “Everything was covered in the all-out blizzard. The crevices were covered, the trails were covered, so we got turned around with the weather and retreated back to the icefall at basecamp.”

With the specific weather window now closed for the Lhotse expedition, Fisher returned back to Colorado from Nepal a little disheartened and disappointed with not being able to achieve his goal for the international trip.

“We went out there to climb something big and the weather really shut us down,” Fisher said. “When climbing a mountain that big, you have multiple weather systems within the mountain. The forecasts were all over the place and unfortunately we got the short end of the stick in terms of that specific expedition.”

Although he was bummed out that the trip did not pan out the way he envisioned, Fisher quickly recognized that the situation was out of his control and got back to training for a fall trip to the Himalayas.

“Within a couple weeks of getting back to the U.S, my goals shifted and my eyesight was on the future of coming back to Nepal to climb again,” Fisher said. Being able to maneuver and navigate those emotions was interesting. It was definitely a really sad part of the journey, but I recognize that failure can teach me a lot.”

Leaning on the knowledge he gathered in his attempt to summit Lhotse, Fisher began tailoring his training towards summiting another 8,000-meter peak in the Himalayas — Manaslu. Instead of speed climbing the eighth highest mountain in the world, Fisher decided to set expedition goals that most mountain athletes would turn away from in an instant. 

“It is 26,781 feet and the eighth highest mountain in the world, so my first objective was to summit it without oxygen,” Fisher said. “My second objective was to ski from the main summit.”

Once arriving back in Nepal, Fisher began prepping his body to reach the summit of Manaslu without any supplemental oxygen by climbing up to different camps across the mountain in order to acclimate his body.

“We made acclimation trips up to 5,800 meters to Camp 1 and then we made several heavy-pack carry days to Camp 3, which is like 6,600 meters,” Fisher said. “Two days later, I then went back up to pretty much as high as I could. I ended up carrying my skis up to almost 7,100 meters which was the highest I had been on this expedition leading up to the summit day.”

Ideally, Fisher would have spent a couple more days getting more used to the very thin air before trekking up to the summit, but the weather forecasts started to turn sour, forcing him to immediately make an attempt at the summit of Manaslu.

Soon after spending a day climbing up to 7,100 meters, Fisher began climbing from base camp to the summit of Manaslu. Fisher made steady progress up the mpressive peak, carrying his skis from 7,060 meters to 7,500-meters before deciding to drop them because of the weight and how much they were slowing him down.

Feeling lighter, Fisher continued to climb upwards into the sky. As the air grew thinner, Fisher’s forward progress began to slow down. Moving around 200-meters an hour, Fisher continued to press on, determined to summit the behemoth of a mountain.

After beginning his journey to the top of his first 8,000-meter peak at 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 23, Fisher stood at the summit of Manaslu at 4:30 p.m. Dressed in a long-sleeved shirt, a windbreaker, hiking pants and ski boots, Fisher enjoyed the summit all to himself and took in the surrounding views.

“It was a crazy feeling,” Fisher said. “I halfway expected it to feel much, much worse at that altitude. Once I reached the summit, it was this super emotional moment for me being able to stand on the highest peak I have ever touched.”

After taking in the moment by himself, Fisher was able to make a radio phone call from the summit and share the accomplishment with his family and girlfriend. 

“The views were out of this world,” Fisher said. “It was a picture-perfect day up there. … It is cool to experience the whole thing and really delve into the emotions of standing that high after pushing yourself, by yourself.”

Beyond the breathtaking views, Fisher also encountered a perfect snowfield full of skiable powder at the top of Manaslu. Although Fisher’s skis did not make it to the top of the mountain, Fisher still views the expedition as a massive success that will set him up well for future adventures across the world’s highest peaks.

Fisher plans to spend another few weeks in Nepal climbing other nearby peaks before heading to Chile and Argentina in December. In the spring, Fisher will attempt to climb Mount Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen.