PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland man has set a record by climbing the highest peak in each state and he did it in almost half the time as the record holder.
Colin O'Brady grew up in Portland, attending Lincoln High School. After graduating, he was recruited to swim at Yale.
But 10 years ago, tragedy struck. O'Brady was severely burned in a fire while in Thailand. Burns covered nearly 25 percent of his body. Doctors told him he would probably never walk normally again.
With his competitive spirit, O'Brady set out to prove them wrong and 18 months later he did just that. He trained and competed in his first triathlon. Not only did he finish, but he finished first. After six years of competing in triathlons and ironman challenges, he put set his sights on another challenge -- speed climbing.
He set the record for the fastest person to climb the tallest mountain on each continent, and reached the north and south poles. He also set the record for the fastest time to climb those same 7 summits.
After that, O'Brady had a different challenge in mind.
"I wanted to do something that touches everyone in this country by going to each individual state," he said
So in late June, he started in Alaska and spent a week climbing Mount Denali. O'Brady flew to Hawaii and then to the East Coast. Some were easy, like Florida's Britton Hill which sits 345 feet above sea level. He said others, like Gannett Peak in Wyoming, were much tougher.
"Gannett Peak in Wyoming is 40 miles roundtrip and earlier that day I had done Utah 27 miles roundtrip," O'Brady said. "So there was a sequence of about four to five days where to finish this off was 150 miles, 60,000 feet of climbing, 6 different states. The travel, the lack of sleep all in there. So it's been quite a marathon."
After 21 days, he finished in his home state on top of Mount Hood.
"Mount Hood was especially special this morning because for the first time, I wasn't just tagging the summit and coming back down. The clock stopped when I reached the summit of Mount Hood," O'Brady said.