In 2019, “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” singer Mike Posner re-entered the mainstream when he vowed to walk all the way across America after taking a multi-month sabbatical. The singer started in New Jersey and would make his way to Venice Beach, California entirely on foot. Unfortunately his trek was halted when he was bitten by a rattlesnake in Colorado, which caused him to be airlifted to the hospital. In a happy ending, Posner finished the walk across America in October 2019, celebrating on Venice Beach.
This year, nearly two years after the near-fatal hike across the United States, Mike Posner has a new mission: to climb Mount Everest. Posner has been undergoing intense training to prepare for the climb for the last 18 months, and seemingly has been planning it since right after finishing his last major walk.
“Coach, he has a really good quote, he says 'train for climbing mountains by climbing mountains,” Posner told Metro Times. “But the important part of the snake story is that I kept going. I went back to the spot that the snake bit into my ankle, and I continued walking. And within a month, I had gone up over the Rocky Mountains. And it was getting over those mountains that I started to dream about Mount Everest. And I thought, you know, I could do that. It's not gonna be easy. It's actually gonna be really, really, really hard. But I'm proving to myself right now I do hard stuff.”
11 people died during 2019 attempting to climb Mount Everest, and even some of the fittest and most experienced climbers have not come out on the other side. Posner has accepted the risk and vowed to become as fit as he possibly can in order to survive the “death zone” that is the nearly 30,000 foot mountain.
Posner isn’t just climbing for himself, though. He is raising $250,000 for the Detroit Justice Center, a nonprofit law firm looking to transform the criminal justice system. “But I came across this organization, Detroit Justice Center, and I was blown away by the work they're doing,” Posner said. “And so I thought, I want to climb Mount Everest anyway, so if I can help raise money for them, I should do that. So I am.”
[Via]