Man sets world record for climbing Mount Everest in 24 hours on home stairs

By Josie Adnitt via SWNS

A daredevil Brit climbed and descended the height of Mount Everest in a single day - on his stairs at home.

Sean Gee, 37, took on the monumental challenge of climbing to the peak of the world’s highest mountain at his four-bed suburban home - and he's potentially set a new world record in the process.

In total, he completed 11.8 miles (17km) of elevation change in 22 hours and 57 minutes, climbing 8,848 meters up to the peak and down again.

He climbed up 3,277 floors - the equivalent of over 32 Empire State Buildings.

Sean has always wanted to climb Everest but couldn’t afford to do so – it currently costs £8,900 for a permit and is set to rise to £11,780 in 2025.

So instead, he decided to make the arduous journey from the comfort of his then home in Las Vegas.

Now he's waiting for confirmation that he holds the Guinness World Record for the first person to ascend and descend the height of Everest in 24 hours.

Sean, who is originally from Coalville, Leics., said: “At the time I was going through a divorce, so I needed to take my mind off the situation and thought what better way to climb Everest?

“You have so many different thoughts and feelings, what you're feeling on the start line is very different to how you feel at the end.

“After 14 hours I went into one of the rooms upstairs and cried for 10 mins then carried on.

"It was a rollercoaster, there were moments I was really happy and moments I was really down.

“It’s all mental at the end of the day – the one thing I focused on was if I stop right now what will I be doing instead? I’d rather be pushing to do something I’ll remember for years to come.

“I actually miscalculated and didn’t allow for time coming down the stairs – I thought it was going to take me 10 or 11 hours, but it ended up taking nearly 24 hours."

Sean, a content creator who posts his challenges on YouTube under the name s34ntravels, completed the challenge for a suicide prevention charity.

The idea for the monumental task came to him after completing other endurance challenges, including ultramarathons.

He already holds a Guinness World Record for the longest time playing an arcade dance game – completing 40 hours on a dance mat in Las Vegas.

“I’ve been doing endurance challenges for a long time – I always wanted to climb Mount Everest but the problem is it’s really expensive,” he said.

“It’s one of those things only people with a lot of money and time can attain and achieve."

He didn't do any specific training to complete the 91784-step climb - relying on his fitness from ultra marathons and other endurance challenges - and burned nearly 10,000 calories in the process.

And he says some climbers who had conquered the actual mountain were dismissive of his attempt – saying he should try again with all the equipment and a lack of oxygen.

However, he says he also received lots of positive comments and was able to raise over $400 for charity.

He said: “People couldn’t really process the magnitude of it until I made the video and sped it up, you can see the sun go down and up again in the background, I think that’s when it clicked for some people.

“It was funny when people had gone to bed and woken up again and I was still climbing the stairs.

“It's individual, some people enjoy going up Everest, paying and risking their life – for me this is my individual goal within the realms of what money and time I have.”

Sean carried out the challenge on Sept. 3, 2021 but has only just received confirmation from Guinness that it is a new world record.

“For my next challenge I was thinking of climbing Olympus Mons, Mars’ highest volcano on the stairs with a friend - so we’d do the equivalent of one-and-a-half Everests each,” he said.