Robert Alt Shares What He Learned Climbing Everest with Hillsdale Students

“Profound climbing”: CEO gives guide on leadership

The Collegian
By Anna Northcutt
September 18, 2025

Robert Alt almost died on the way down from the summit of Mount Everest in May, he told students in his lecture on Sept. 11.

Many back home feared he would join the hundreds of frozen corpses scattered over the top of the mountain, Alt said. After beginning their descent from the summit, climbers normally stop for only a few minute’s rest at camp four before continuing down to camp two to spend the night. This is because camp four is still in the “death zone,” above 26,000 feet.

Still, at the time of Alt’s summiting, hurricane-force winds were pushing his guide and him five or six paces at a time down a path that at many places was only eighteen inches wide. After reaching camp four, they decided to hunker down and continue their descent in the morning.

“Any stay in the death zone is normally ill advised,” Alt said. “But it ended up being the right call.”

After reaching the bottom safely, the president and CEO of the Buckeye Institute drew lessons from his experiences about goals, suffering, partnership, and summits, encapsulated in his mountaineering-inspired philosophy “Profound Climbing.”

In his talk at Hillsdale, Alt explained how Hillsdale students could use the methods he had learned to overcome their own Everests in life.

Alt first emphasized the importance of persevering through hardship.

“Now, as for me, I managed to avoid getting the upper respiratory infection until the worst possible time,” Alt said. “It was only on the final pass, the time of the mountain where I was going for the summit push, when I got the upper respiratory infection.”

Alt said he considered turning back, but eventually decided to forge ahead.

“Just a few short hours before we began the summit climb, I got to where I could breathe through one nostril, and I said, ‘That’s probably good enough,’” Alt said.

Respiratory infections were not the only roadblocks Alt faced, he said. Hurricane-force winds, gastro-intestrinal issues, and the Khumbu cough caused by Everest’s dry mountain air that can break a climber’s ribs seemed determined to hamper Alt’s ascension.

“If you only climbed when you felt really well, you would never summit,”Alt said.

Alt also emphasized the importance of the rigorous training he underwent before ever setting foot on the mountain.

The day he was most proud of was not when he summited Mount Everest, but rather when he attended a conference where he was in meetings from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m, according to Alt. After that, he had to hit the gym for four hours. He went to bed around 2 a.m., only to wake up at 5 a.m. for a three-hour conditioning workout.

“When I went through the Khumba Icefall the first time, I can tell you that had I not done that level of training, I would not have been able to succeed,” Alt said. “Being able to endure that suffering before I got on the mountain was necessary for success.”

Alt compared this to people working to pass a piece of legislation or drastically change the culture without being willing to back up their claims with carefully gathered data.

“We need to do the work and demonstrate why it matters to the average man, woman, and child impacted by the policy,” Alt said. “It goes to the old adage, you can’t beat something with nothing.”

Alt also emphasized the importance of choosing the right people to climb with. Mountaineers rope together for safety, ideally staying far enough apart that the connecting rope will be slightly taut. That way, if one climber falls into a crevice covered by snow, the person behind him will serve as an anchor.

Although this sounds simple enough, in reality, novice mountaineers often struggle to stay the correct length behind the person in front of them, according to Alt.

“I climbed at one point with a legendary climber known as Tuck,” Alt said. “He actually has a rock named after him on Everest, he’s climbed so many times, and he said anytime he climbs with a new climber, he figured that they were trying to kill him.”

Alt congratulated Hillsdale students on choosing a school with such good fellow climbers but advised them also to keep this in mind when considering life after college.

“There’s something to, ‘You’re only as strong as the weakest climber on your rope block,’” Alt said.

House Director of Sohn and Ministry Associate in the Chaplain’s Office Carly Boerema ’23 said she appreciated Alt’s emphasis on internal fortitude and the joy that comes from accomplishing hard things, as well as his admonition to choose good fellow-climbers.

“It’s really important to think about, ‘Who are we walking every day with through life, and are they helping us up the mountain, or are they pulling us backwards?’” Boerema said. “Who are we tethered to, and who are we choosing to trust, and who are we looking to lead us is really important.”

Nate Stewart ’95, a friend of Alt, said he also enjoyed the lecture. Although this was his second time hearing about Alt’s adventures, he still found it inspiring.

“It’s a challenge, and it was motivating to me to think about that and what challenges, what goals would I want to set for myself, even at 50 years old,” Stewart said. “I have begun to apply that, and watching my good friend do it at the same age is encouraging.”

Alt closed his lecture with a distinction between summits and goals. Reaching the summit of Everest, he said, should never be the goal, because far more climbers die on the way down than the way up.

A climber who gives everything in his tank to reach the top won’t be able to get back down, Alt said. Sherpas cannot carry dead bodies down the mountain, causing the plethora of frozen corpses scattered over the top of Everest. They also cannot carry live bodies.

“If you get to the summit, you’ve got to be able to walk yourself down,” Alt said.

In life, Alt said people often confuse summits — such as getting into a prestigious graduate program or landing the perfect job — with goals.

“They should be something that answers your own fundamental ‘why?’ questions,” Alt said, “And thereby be goals that don’t just get you to the summit, but ones that complete the entire mission and return you back home safely again.”