We're Out of Time - How Tim Medvetz Turned Pain Into Purpose | The Heroes Project

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

🎙️ In this fearless episode of We're Out of Time, host Richard Taite sits down with legendary adventurer, former Hells Angel, and founder of The Heroes Project—Tim Medvetz. From outlaw biker to Everest climber, Tim’s journey is one of brutal transformation, resilience, and purpose. 💥 After a near-fatal motorcycle accident left him shattered and barely alive, Tim found himself at rock bottom—until a book and a spark of ambition set him on a path to the world’s highest peaks. With unshakable grit, he defied every prognosis, trained in the Himalayas and Thailand, and eventually summited Mount Everest—not once, but twice. 🗻 But the real story begins after the climb. Tim’s mission evolved: helping wounded veterans find their strength through extreme mountaineering. Through The Heroes Project, he gives those who've sacrificed everything a second chance at purpose, pride, and personal victory. 💬 This isn’t just a conversation—it’s a raw, unfiltered look into pain, purpose, and the power of the human spirit to rise, rebuild, and inspire. 👇 Tap in for links, resources, and more: 🔗 All things Richard Taite, We're Out of Time, and Carrara Treatment Wellness & Spa:https://linktr.ee/richardtaite 📧 Reach out to Tim Medvetz or support The Heroes Project:[e-mail]://www.theheroesproject.org 📌 Key moments and highlights from this epic journey below ⬇️Intro 00:00 Tim's History Of Substance Use 01:26 Living Fast & The Hells Angeles 04:42 The accident that CHANGES Tim's Life 07:20 How did the accident lead to climbing Mount Everest? 14:16 Why did Tim turn back when he was almost at the peak of Mount Everest? 19:00 How visiting injured Veterans changed Tim's life forever 30:04 Why helping others is the best thing we can do for ourselves 36:40 How can YOu help The Heroes Project? 48:32

Tim Medvetz, founder of the Heroes Project, joins the We're Out of Time podcast. The docs saying, I don't know if we can save your foot. I'm like in shock, obviously, right? I'm at to amputate your foot. I basically shattered everything to my L1 to L5. My complete back has been put back together. I'm sitting in my apartment and I'm doped up. The sun comes through the blinds and the lights hit the bookcase.

And it was into thin air by John Crackauer. I just was obsessed with this book. What was the book about? It's about the 96 commercial disaster on Everest. And I just couldn't put this book down. I wake up, I'm all sweaty. I look down, I see the book. I'm like, that's it.

I'm done. I'm going to go climb Everest. I met this kid, Keith, stepped on I, D, missing his leg well above the knee. And I was just like, hey, you want to go climbing mountain? He's like, I got no leg, man. I'm like, no, no, we'll figure it out, man, we can do this. And then we started training, fast forward. And he just wants to turn on and quit.

And I'm like, just give me like, just 30 more steps in and we'll turn around, we'll go home. He's like, that's it, I'm done. And I go, look over your shoulder. And he turns around and he looks over. He goes, is that what I think it is? I said, yeah. He got to the son, and he threw his arms up and he's screaming and he's yelling. I did it.

Thank you for listening to the We're Out of Time podcast with Richard Tate. If you haven't already, please follow the podcast, rate and review. And if you're getting value out of We're Out of Time, share it with someone else you know. Tim Medvets. Yes. That's... Medvats. It's weird.

The veteran. I know. It's strange. It's meant to be. It's meant to be. So, man. It's not my stage name, either, by the way. Really?

I'm not an actor. I don't have a headshot. And that is my real birth name. You talked about hitting rock bottom after your accident. Was addiction ever part of that chapter? And what was your turning point? No. Addiction was not in the picture.

But I guess we got to kind of rewind the tape a little bit. When I was 15 years old, I probably grew up in a small town, suburbia, New Jersey. I could see from the highest point in our town, I could see New York City. It always kind of drew me. And then probably 12 o'clock, 12 years old, smoke my first joint. And then that just sent me onto a path of multiple arrests, simple assaults, destruction of property, theft, fake identification, possession of drugs, and tend to distribute. probably about 12 arrests by the time I was 15.

And then the last one I was caught with, you know, back then it was mescaline. It was acid. It was volume. It was Coke. It was hash. It was weed. All of which was in my leather vest. How old are you?

15. No. How old are you now? Now I'm 52. Okay. So you missed the whole Kualud thing. Yeah. That was before my time.

Yeah. For sure. But, you know, get in front of the. judge. Judge basically looks at, you know, I've been arrested 12 times by the time I was 15 years old. You got a problem, kid. Like, this is it. I'm putting the brakes.

You got two choices. You're going two years in juvie or you're going to go to a rehab, a lockdown facility. And so, of course, I took the lockdown facility rehab. Next thing you know, I got police escorted to Newark Airport, got on a plane to Cleveland, Ohio, checked in, had a policeman and a rep from the hospital, escort me. to there, I'll never forget. I walked in there with the clothes on my back, right from jail, clothes on my back, then a cart in the Newport cigarettes, walked in, the doors slammed, and that was it. It was called St. Luke's, and it was in Cleveland, Ohio. It was right down the street from the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And after two months, 60 days locked down, I got out. Then I had to go to a six-month outpatient program in Summit, New Jersey. I had to go to meetings. I had to get Piss test from the probation officer. I have to get my meeting signed off. Did you ever figure out that you could sign off on your own meetings? I didn't. Back then it was, yeah, he had pagers back then, you know, so things were a little different then. But I, and then after, you know, the whole year of that 12 months, went to my last meeting, they signed off on it. I walked out of the meeting, called my buddy, picked me up in his Z-28 Camaro. Actually, there's an I rock, an I rock Z. Z pick me up. We bought an eighth of weed. I took my easy widers. I rolled up a joint. And that was it.

And I never looked back. And for me, it was, you know, there's two things going to happen to you the minute you start using again. You're going to end up in jail or are you going to die? Because you have a disease. Something didn't really like click with that. Someone's telling me that for every single day for a year. And so I never really bought into that. What I did buy into, is that I needed a kick in the ass. I needed somebody to pump the brakes. I needed somebody to slow me down. And that's exactly what that did.

And so that judge literally saved my life. I don't know where I would have went after that, but I knew that the path I was on, I needed a kick in the ass and rehab and the outpatient halfway house and the meetings, all of that 100% saved my life. Okay, but hold on a second. Let's go back. You said that the minute you got out,

of your court-ordered juvenile rehab that you immediately got in the car and scored. What an ath of skunkweed and a pack of easy whiders and rolled up a joint in his eye rock, in New Jersey, listen to vanilla ice, roll it up. Okay, we'll keep the vanilla ice between us. What about the, but where did it take you there? You got out, you started smoking weed,

and how did it escalate from the head? Yeah. Well, then I, you know, got my driver's license and then, you know, continued getting arrested, but for more fighting, things like that, not drugs. Well, you're drinking, say, and if you're drinking and doing drugs, you're fighting. Correct. You know, uh, anyway, 18. You were winning. I was losing. Yeah, I guess I was winning. Yes, he was. I never crashed my car, never, nobody got hurt, and then I'm going to jail, I didn't get arrested for drugs again. 18 moved into New York City, got a job bouncing at the nightclubs, you know,

and then, you know, when you're bouncing in nightclubs, you know, the whole drinking and drugging doesn't really work. You know, you've got to be on top of your game. In New York City, you're fighting every single night, throwing people out of the clubs. So, and then 21 years old, moved to Brazil, started training with the Gracie brothers. I wanted to be a big cage fighter.

and that kept me down in Rio for two years of my life. And then my life went on to travel in the world. And then when I was 28, I came out to California, packed up the motorcycle, put the old lady on the back, drove out here, pulled into L.A. Didn't know anybody. Had it figured we had enough money to last us about six months. And then we would go back to New York.

And then six months turned into, I've been out here for like 25 years now. How bad did the drug thing get? it didn't it was bad when I was you know from basically 13 to 15 15 is when it really like peaked right and then after that it never became a problem it was you know get get high drink on a Saturday night back in the gym Monday morning back to work you know that was kind of how it's been you know for my entire adult life so tell me about the accident so fast forward I'm living out in Los Angeles and I'm in the Helsinki Motorcycle Club. Best times of my life. Life is great. I'm building motorcycles.

I'm in Los Angeles. I heard you're building them for celebrities. Oh, man, you did so many, so many. Do you ever build one for Johnny Depp? No, actually. Never built for one for Johnny. Nicholas Cage? Nicholas Cage, absolutely.

Well, that's only because Nicholas Cage. Nicholas Cage will get a dollar in his pocket and it flies right out of the pocket. Yeah, right. Yeah, that guy's never seen anything that he didn't want to buy. Yes. Yeah, I remember that one. I remember when he actually walked in my shop, which is, like, I thought he was the coolest guy. He pulled up in a Lambo.

It was like, it was like repossessed the next day. Yeah, it was like, it was like a weird, like orange, yellow or some shit. And he got out and he had purple snake leather pants on and a purple snake leather jacket with his glasses on. He came walking into my shop, and it was just like everything. The music just stopped and everybody just turned and looked. And he actually pulled it off, too. He was actually, he didn't look like a tool. He's a star.

Yeah. I mean, he's a legit. And he's a super nice guy, super nice guy. So, and I believe he was, at that time, he was dating, um, Roseanne Barr? Arquette, yeah. Lazzan Bar? No, Arquette. Roseanne Arquette, one of the Arquette sisters he was dating.

And he bought. I had a Buell blast. Bules were like a single 500-cylinder. It was a little bike that was made by Harley. But one of those for her, and then I built them in FXR. Yeah, so anyway, that just started my whole, like, career in the motorcycle world.

My entrance to L.A., I came out here. I wasn't coming out here to get famous. I wasn't even planning on staying. And so I just got into the motorcycle world, and it's just, you know, I was doing great. Making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. I'm jeans and T-shirt. I'm in LA, I got a hot chick, I'm living up off the sunset strip, like life was good,

join the motorcycle club, things are great, I'm traveling all over the world with the club, like everything is great. And then, bam, pickup truck pulls out in front of me, doing about 100 miles an hour, rapes and through the streets, bam, lights out. Wow. Yeah, ended up in Northridge Trauma Center, and it was on September 10, 2001. and everybody knows where they were on 9-11. So it was a question, where were you at 9-11?

Well, for me, 9-11 wasn't that pivotal, pivotable of a day. For me, it was 9-10 because at 7.30 at night, crashed my bike. I remember laying on the side of the road. My foot was next to my ear. You know, bleeding out on my head, coming down my eyes. Like, just couldn't feel anything from my waist down. Race me to the hospital. We're probably going to lose.

You're probably going to lose your leg. We don't know what else is going on, blah, blah, blah. And I remember I had like 12 of my brothers came to the emergency room, and they're all like my size. And the docks saying, I don't know if we can save your foot. I don't know if we can save your foot. I'm like, what are you talking about? What?

I'm like in shock, obviously, right? I'm bleeding everywhere. He's like, I don't think I could save what amputation. I have to amputate your foot. I just turned to him and I says, I wake up tomorrow morning. I better have a fucking foot or I'm going to kill you. And then, you know, he's got like 12 hell's angels around the same room. Well, yeah, Doc, you know, trying to save the foot, you know.

And then the doc was like, okay, okay. And then boom, lights out, mask goes on, surgery room. And then I open my eyes. And I remember open my eyes. And I'm looking around me, okay, I'm alive, check. First thing I do is I remember, the last thing I remember is him telling me he's going to cut off my foot. I look down, I see my toes in a cast. I'm like, okay, great, check.

Got my foot. I'm alive. And then a hospital check. And then I start, like, noticing there's all these doctors and nurses in my room. And I'm like, what the, what are they doing? And I'm up, but I got a tube down my throat, machines breathing for me. So I can't speak. And I'm up.

And I'm like, hey, I'm over here. Help, help. I'm over here. But they can't hear me. And they're all staring up at the ceiling. I'm, what the fuck are they watching? What are they doing? I need some attention over here.

And as I, like, roll my eyes up, I look up and on the television, everybody's blue to the TV. And it's like 9.30 in the morning in the 20, towers are coming down. Right. And this is terrible to say, but my first reaction was like, turn that shit off. I got my own problems here. Come on. I'm over here.

Not realizing, obviously, the extent of, you know, how many people died, lost their lives. Right. Everything didn't happen. I was just more concerned. Like, oh, you know, this is all about me right now, right? Mm-hmm. So. As it should have been.

Yeah. And boom, next thing you know, four months in a wheelchair, three different hospitals, six months total in a wheelchair, never going to ride a motorcycle again. We're riding a horse again. Never going to do this, do that. You know, I'm at that point when I got to that wreck. I was a 275 pounds, 6'5 Hells Angel bouncing, building motorcycles, hot chick girlfriend, collection of Harley.

Like, life was good. So let me ask you a question. How the hell do you start scaling Mount Everest five times after this accident? Yeah, I mean, probably drugs, alcohol. essentially I got to get back on that what kind of drug you mean pain medication yeah so I get out of the hospital so now I'm like you know this big tough guy knoxing on being pushed around in a wheelchair but he's feeling sorry for me and then I you know graduate to the walker you know that thing with

the little tennis balls and shit right nothing cool about that then I go cooler it's cool it was cooler than the crutches it doesn't look cooler no but it's better because you fall on your ass a couple times with the crutches. How many times do you fall with the crutches? Oh, man, so many times. Yeah, I just hate that. So then I never fell with the walker. No, but I graduated from the walker to the crutches.

Right. Then I graduated from the crutches to the cane, and that was cool, right? Now I'm riding my motorcycle again. I got a turtle shell surrounding because my back was completely shattered. I broke almost every bone in my body. What do you mean a turtle shell? It was a, when you have a, I basically shattered everything from my L1 to L5, my complete back has been put back together and bolted mesh cage, titanium bolts.

But I had to wear this to keep my back straight. It was this like it was a shell, like a ninja turtle shell. How long ago was this? Well, this was, you know, 25 years ago. It was done, you know, right after 9-11, right? And so I had to wear that. I had a knee braids. I had, call you a turtle.

I had my girlfriend that time. But so I went through this whole, you know, six months. And then I started walking again. And then it was like, okay, you got to start going to rehab. And I walk into this rehab center. And I just remember, like, all these old people. And, you know, they give you the little ball thing. You know, squeeze the ball, right?

And I was just looking around going, what the fuck am I doing in here, man? Because you're used to lifting big weights. Yeah. And I'm like, this ain't for me. And I walked out and now, but I had some serious injuries. So I had to numb the pain to pretend that I wasn't hurt. I never got hurt. No way.

I'm still going to be the tough guy. I was before the accident. So, five vikinns a day, 10 vikinins a day, the tolerance starts going, 15 a day, 20 a day, whiskey to go to sleep. You know, it was just this self-destructive phase for a year. Got on the bike. I went to, you know, all over America on my motorcycle and just anything to numb the pain. And then finally, I'm like back in Hollywood, my chick dumped me.

The club had enough of me. I was completely out of control. that's when you know you had you're in a bad place when the hell's angels had enough of you you know you're in a bad place why did they have enough of you had enough of me because i was out of control i was i was i was drugged up i was i was i just wasn't in the right my area yeah i was in the right mind i wasn't you know life was just took a turn it's because drugs affect your decision making and they make you're right out of control i mean i'm i'm swinging fist that guy's in a bar with this turtle shell on and a knee brace on like what are you doing slow to fuck down

Right. Now it brings me back to when I was 15, right? And now the judge said, okay, son, pumped the brakes here, boom, sends me away. But now, all these years later, I didn't have a judge telling me, you know, you're going to rehab. So I'm sitting in my apartment and I'm doped up on the pills, battle booze. And all of a sudden, I like, this sun comes through the blinds and my little one been in apartment in Hollywood, right from Melrose, and the lights hit the bookcase. And there's only one book in that case. One book. It wasn't, I wasn't a big reader, you know. And it was into thin air by John Crackauer. And my girlfriend got it for me, like a couple years prior to that. I just, oh, thanks. This is great. I think he would like it because I always climbed. Boom. I grabbed it. Stumbled over the bookcase, grabbed it, started reading as, um, down in the booze. And I just was obsessed with this book. I couldn't put it down. What was the book about? It's about the 90s. commercial disaster on Everest where nine people lost for lives.

And I was just completely enthralled with this book. I mean, I was just like about death and mayhem. And I would go through the book and they would talk about, we just arrived at Camp 2. And I would go back to the front of the book where it had the map of the route and where the camps were. And I just couldn't put this book down all night until three, four in the morning.

I finally finished it. I closed the book. I pass out. Right. I wake up and all sweaty and doped up. and shit. It's like, and all of a sudden, it was just like, I look down, I see the book. I'm like, that's it.

This is it. No more squeezing the ball thing at the rehab. I'm done. I'm going to go climb Everest. That's the bitch in, Dylan. And I grabbed my Costco-sized jug of vikikins, grabbed every single bottle in the house, went into the bathroom, dumped everything down the toilet, flushed the toilet, walked out, knocked on my neighbor's door, said, hey, I'm so blending my.

apartment I'm leaving for Nepal because what are you going to do there? I said I'm going to go climb Everest and that's a really funny reaction when you tell a friend that right? And sure enough 30 days later I put all my in the garage so bled in my apartment bought a one-way ticket to Nepal flew up there got all my climbing gear in Kathmandu flew up to the Everest region shackled up shacked up with the Serpa family and went on this journey to learn how to climb 8,000 meter peaks. And so climbed all the peaks around Everest in this whole one year, no cell phone, no Wi-Fi, completely off the grid.

And then three years of training and, you know, selling all the motorcycles, maxing out the car, all the money, and took off to Mount Everest. And how long did it take you in those practice runs to finally make it to climb Everest? Well, you know, I didn't want to show up to the mountain not knowing everything. I didn't want anybody to babysit me. Absolutely. I wanted to make sure that I showed up and I was a complete self-sufficient climber and knew everything, knew how to rescue people, myself, knew how to everything, crampons and ice axes and, you know, reading avalanche control, all that, you know. And so that took about three years of intense training.

And then I made my first attempt on Everest in 2006. and then I got about 300 feet from the summit, just missed it. How do you get a football field away from the peak and not make it? Well, that was 275 pounds, 6 foot 5, not the actual size of your average climber. Right. And then the higher you go and altitude, the more your body does no oxygen up there. And so the heavier you are, the less oxygen you have. So you don't really want to be that big.

So I just got to the point where I was moving so slow and I just was running out of steam. And then finally, you know, you got somebody down at base camp that's watching you and, you know, watching your oxygen levels and you got supplemental oxygen. And then, you know, after fighting a little bit about that, I decided to turn around. But I want to know the psychology of it. Like, forget what those guys were doing. Like, in your head, you've just. How long did it take you to get to that point? Two months.

No, no, no. You took two months to get to the... That's how long it takes? Yeah, it's usually about anywhere from 40 to 60 days. Okay, so check this out. So you're two months up there. Yeah. And you're 300 feet away from the prize.

Forget them. What are you doing internally? You must be going, I got to get there. And then you must have had to... there was something in that moment. Tell me about the conflict that you were having in those last moments. Well, the big conflict was, you know, the doctor is telling you, I'll never walk again. I'll never ride a motorcycle again.

But that would make you get to the top. Yeah, well, it's in the back of your head the whole time. So all these voices in your head saying you can't do this, you can't do something impossible, blah, blah. And then that's just driving you internally, right? Right. But then there's the reality of, you know, being a seasoned climber and knowing when it's time to turn around. Like we have a saying, how long would it take, how long would it take to have done those last 300 feet? Last 300 feet at that altitude, just under 29,000 feet.

You're moving every 30 feet is taking you probably about 10 minutes. So you're talking about 100 minutes? You're talking probably, I still had probably another two, three hours to go. An hour and a half by my mouth. Okay, an hour. at my size. An hour and 40 minutes. So at least.

So you spent two months getting to that point. Yeah. And then, now understand, I know less than anything about this. So, but for the lay person, right? Yeah. We're like, hold on a second. You spent two months. And you got another 100 minutes, an hour and 40 minutes.

I need to know, dude. I need to know what happened in that. that moment for you to say, yeah, this is, this is my life. I ain't doing it. Well, a couple things. First of all, as an old saying in the climbing world, that the summit's only halfway. You still got to get down, right? That is awesome.

How do you, let's back up. How long do you stay at the top before you start going down? Depends on the weather, but generally 20, 30 minutes, get your photos, have a moment, you know, and then you got a high tail exit down. When you're on the summit ridge of Mount Everest, it's littered with frozen bodies. There's bodies everywhere up there, dozens of them. You saw them?

Oh, yeah. They're on the route. Like, there's tons of them. Okay, but if there's there, can't you just toss them down the hill? People won't touch them because it's bad juju up there, but if they are close enough to a crevasse or the edge, we'll push them over.

But most of them, you know, are, let's say, you know, 20 feet off the trail, and it's like, what's the point? You're going to go over just leave him alone, right? But the crazy thing about all those bodies out there is that it's not a bad way to go. Because you're perfectly, well, you're perfectly preserved for attorney. It's like, like, you know, like Walt Disney, right, is in a cryo chamber and shit, right? Just go to Everest.

There's like all kinds of bodies they could bring back to life, right? That technology ever comes in. But the crazy thing is that the Ravens fly up to the Summit Ridge up there. So all the bodies that are up there that don't have like their goggles still intact, the Ravens peck out their eyeballs. So there's just these frozen bodies down there, like frozen in time with no eyes. It's the creepiest thing. And 99% of those bodies that are up there, they all need the summit.

Really? Yeah. That's why you turned around. Because they got summit fever. They didn't realize that the summit's only halfway. You got to get down. And when you're coming down, if you got nothing left in the tank, if you gave up everything to get to that summit, now you're coming down. Like, you can get in trouble real quick at that altitude.

Got it. So that's running through your brain too. And then finally it's just like the rock comes out of the head. Of course, you know, you got your expedition leader going, you know what? The rate you're moving right now, this is how much oxygen you got in your, your tank. Like you're... You have to have a tank of oxygen? Well, you're because you're on supplemental oxygen.

There's only been probably about 200 people in the world that have climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen. Well, I don't understand. So you're walking around with a tank? Like the guy? Wait, like the guy like this, who doesn't get any ass? Yeah, the old guy with the guy with emphysema pulling the shit. In the physical therapy place, was squeezing the ball thing with the oxygen tank.

Yeah. It's kind of, except it's in your backpack, you know. Really? How heavy is it? Well, now, I mean, back 50 years ago, it was, you know, those things were like 30, 40 pounds. Now they're weighing in at like 12 pounds, which is still really heavy at that out. Really heavy. So, but yeah, it's something on oxygen is definitely a big factor in a lot of people's summits up there.

But it's still, it's not really a, it's not going to help you run to the summit. it essentially what supplement oxygen does, it keeps you warm. Really? Yeah, it keeps you thinking a little bit clearer. So, why does it keep you warm? Because what's happening is you only have a third of the oxygen that's at sea level up there. So, like, everything is slow motion. Like, even just tying your shoes, you have to think about it.

Like, you have essentially have, like, the brain of a, of an eight-year-old, essentially, because your body's dying. So what happens is when the human body is dying. Yeah, the human body is not made to survive. at that altitude. If I were to take you right now in a helicopter and drop you off on the summit of Everest, said, hang out here, be back in an hour. You'd be dead by the time I got back. Shut up. Cerebral edema, your brain would swell. Pulmonary edema, your lungs would fill with water, and then you would just die. Why didn't you die? Because the reason why, it only takes five days to climb Everest from the base camp to the summit, right? And you said it takes two years. It takes two months.

It takes two months, but the reason why it takes two months is that you're acclimating to that altitude. So what's happening is when you show up a base camp, 17,700 feet, then you go up to 20,000. You bring some loads up, you drop some tens off, some sleeping bags, then you come back down. Got it. And the next two days later, your rest, then two days later, you go up to 21,000 feet. Then you come back down. When you go to 23,000 feet, and you come back down, and you're going back and forth, back and forth. And what's happening is your body's producing red blood cells.

And those red blood cells is what you need to stay at that altitude. And so it's like your Lance Armstrongs, all your Tortoise guys are all blood doping, right? Right. And what they're doing is they're taking a drug that increases their red blood cells. So did you ever do that? No, never did that ever. I wish, actually. Right.

It would have made it a lot easier. Sure. I mean, it's not still. It's the same thing. Like, you know, Lance Armstrong got all this crap about, oh, blood dope. And they're all blood doping, right? Right. But it's still, you still got to train.

Like, what he did was absolutely, and probably one of the greatest athletes to ever live. A time, like, hats off to the guy. Just because you're taking testosterone or you're taking growth hormone, you're still got to put the work in. And he had the hottest girl at the time. Yeah. So.

Cheryl Crow, how cool is you having the day? Yeah, I mean. You're so cool, by the way. Going. So, you know, so that's what you're essentially doing on Everest, is you're increasing your red blood. cells by staying up there, you're acclimating up and down, up and down. And then finally, when the jet stream slows down enough, that's because normally all

you're around, the winds are blown between 100 and 200 miles an hour up at 29,000 feet. It's where you're flying in a commercial jet from L.A. to New York, right? And so you're not meant to go up that high, especially the winds. The winds will blow you right out of the summit. But when the monsoon season hits, the jet stream slows down to almost nil the winds for about a window of about one to two weeks. and you have to be completely acclimated by the time that window comes,

which is generally around somewhere around mid-May. Everybody right now is descending on in Nepal right now because all the ever... You're stressing the shit out of me. I'm not even kidding. I'm like sitting here going like I'm the one doing it. Yeah, definitely not Runyon Canyon, right? I couldn't make it up running canyon.

Yeah. So... Like gone. So back to where I was going. with this whole story. So now I come back. I turned around. Didn't end up like those frozen bodies up there. Right. Because the other thing that we say in the climbing world is the mountain ain't going nowhere. It's going to be there tomorrow. It's going to be there next year. Right. So boom, come back home. Train, train, train, train. Raise the money again, not cheap.

Wraves the money for what? It's about $75,000 to climb Everest. Why? Well, you got a permit that you have to pay. That's about $20,000 just to put your foot on the mountain. You're kidding. Yeah. Then you have to have all your supplemental oxygen, you have to have your tanks, you have to have porters, you have to have the Sherpas, you have to bring all your loads there, there's the food. I mean, it's like, and then all your gear, $10,000 in equipment and gear. It's giving you $75 grand to run up. You sell everything you own because it all comes down to one thing, right? If you want anything bad enough in life, you figure out a way to do it, right?

Exactly right. You know, so that's what I did. Um, and whatever, I end up picking up some sponsors the second year. And so I went back to the second year, stood on top, did it. Big F you to the doctors, I'll show you, came back to town, got back to L.A., and then you're just like, okay, you know, you're sitting there with your buddy's having a coffee, right? And you're like, so what's next, man? You just kind of, fucking Evers, man.

What's next? You know, like, ballroom dancing. What are you doing now, right? And so I'm like, I don't know. So I just kind of started getting into skydiving again. I was like doing scuba diving. I was doing all this like, you know, adrenaline sports. And then it was, never forget, November 11th, Veterans Day.

I'm sitting at home, going to the channels. All of a sudden there's some kind of big thing going on ceremony at Arlington Cemetery. And all these injured vets are getting up there and they're speaking, you know, and they're talking about how proud of American they were and they're missing legs. then this one guy out there was talking and he was, they, their Humvee ran over an IED, fire, he was trapped inside the Humvee, burned them, but he didn't look like a human, survived. And here he is on this podium in Arlington. He's talking about how proud of American he was and he would go back tomorrow and he didn't regret one day.

And I love this country, man. And like, and he's sitting there. I'm sitting on my couch, like, you know, getting all choked up. And I'm like, you know, swallowing and trying to like, you know, I'm wiping the tears and then it was this boom it was like the light bulb went off i was like man like maybe i got something to offer these guys right so started making some phone calls and then me and a buddy we went down to balboa naval hospital which is like the walter reed out here in california and i went down there and got a little tour and met some people

and i remember just having a coffee sitting out in the courtyard and i remember at that time there was 112 inpatient amputees, all 18, 20-year-old kids missing limbs going by me in gurneys, one after the other after the other. Man, it disturbed me. And at that time, I remember, like, the biggest thing on the news was Jay-Z and Beyonce going to Cuba. And I'm like, why is this not on the, why are we seeing this on the news? Like, this is like, I just watched like three, four dozen 20-year-old kids missing

lens. Like it was just, it was disturbing. And I got on my, fire up the bike, pulled out of the hospital, drove up the road, pulled into a gas station, bought a pack of Marlboro Reds, sat on the curb and just like chain smoke the whole pack. Just couldn't believe what my eyes just seen. And then that was it, man. I was like, I'm going to do something about this. And sort of made some phone calls and I met this kid, Keith, stepped on IAD, missing his leg, well above the knee, about halfway up his thigh. And I was just like, hey, you want to go climb a mountain? He's like, well, I got no leg, man.

I'm like, you know, real funny. Big, big jokes for you are. I'm like, no, no, no. We'll figure it out, man. We can do this. And then we started training and fast forward. We're in Russia on a mountain called Mount Elbrus. And we're about in the whole month, we're on that mountain.

All he wants to do is go back. I want to go back. I want to go home. This is enough. I can't do this. I can't do this. Come on, man. you got this. We can do this. We can do this. And then finally, we're going up at Summit Day.

And we're going. And he's just, his stump is blistering and bleeding. And he just wants to turn around and quit. And I'm like, just give me like, just 30 more steps. And we'll turn around. And then he goes 30 steps. Okay, let's turn around. I'm like, come on, you got 20 more in you. And then another 20 steps. And then another 10 steps. Just come on, five more. Just go a little bit there. We'll sit down. We'll take a break. And then we'll go back home. And then finally, we sit down. We come over this little ridge line. We sit down. I'm like, just relax, relax. He's like, that's it. I'm done.

I'm not doing normal of your steps. We're going home. I'm tired of this. I can't do this. And I go, look over your shoulder. And he turns around and he looks over and he goes, is that what I think it is? I said, yeah, that's the summit. I said, get up, man.

He gets up and he puts the up to the top? He puts the leg back on. And he, I take the rope off him. He's like, what are you doing? We do? I'm like, this is a real nice, easy path. You're not going to die on it. I'm like, the same about the war, saying about your family.

This is all about you. I didn't carry you up here. You got your ass up here. So get up there and go take what's yours. Go get it. And he took those last hundred steps and I sat there and I watched him dragging that prosthetic leg and he got to the summit and he threw his arms up and he's screaming and he's yelling. I did it, man, I did it.

And he screamed. He's crying. And I'm sitting there like watching this like all unfold. And I'm like, holy shit. And I had a buddy, my climbing buddy. And mine came and filmed it. And after he's going through this whole thing, I'm like, all right, let's go. go, we got to get out of here, you know?

He's like, hey, leave, you better get up here. And it dawned on me. I was like, because at this point I've summited, you know, all the biggest mountains around the world at this point. And it was the first time in my climbing career, per se, that the last thing on my mind was getting up to the summit and taking that picture and going back home and putting the picture of me on the summit of Elbrose and Russia on my mantle and telling my boys, you know, all yeah, I just climbed on everything.

That was the last thing on my mind. Watching him take those last hundred steps, it just changed my life. Okay, you're making me cry like a man right now, so we're stomping, okay? Well, I'll finish it up with this. That was the moment when, because you've got to understand something at this point in my life, you know, it was boxing, jiu-jitsu, skydiving, motorcycle racing, all these things. I realized that these were all solo sports. So all about Tim, the mother-fitting Tim show.

And that moment on that summit, watching him take those last hundred steps, that was the moment when the Tim Show finally died. And that's when the Heroes Project was born. Dig, you are a hero. Nah, I ain't the hero. These guys are the hero, climbing a mountain with no legs. That's a fucking hero. And serving his country.

And I never served my country. You know, I was in Hell's Angels, different kind of military. You weren't in the military? Never. my dad was. That is amazing. So is that your dad's dog tag? No.

It's Chrome Hearts, fancy. Oh, Chrome Hearts. Hollywood guy, you know. I love that. It's part of my look. I got it. Everybody needs a look. Yeah.

Anyway, so the reason why the whole Heroes Project got started, it was just my way of serving the guys who served me because I never served. And it was my way of being a proud American and giving back to these guys. Because I never signed the dotted line. I'm the exact way. I have the exact same feeling about the military. I cannot be of service to them enough because, man, I was so stupid as a child and I was raised by wolves. I had no clue about the military.

Like, I never gave it a thought, you know? And plus, I was so ravaged by drugs. Yeah. You know how that is. Yeah. Okay. to know what I love most about that is about that story these people didn't think they could do anything none they thought their life was over yeah they would never be the same they'd never get

another girl yeah they never have kids they never be able to do what they used to do in life that has changed their whole outlook on life. If you can climb Mount Everest with a stump, okay, there's nothing you can't do. That's what it tells them. You have changed their entire lives. You understand this, right? Does that make you uncomfortable? It doesn't make me uncomfortable.

I, you know, I had. for me when I was going through when I got out of the hospital bed and I got out of the wheelchair, you know, the squeezing the ball thing didn't work for me. You know, the rehab units didn't work for me. I had to take it into my own hands

and go climb a mountain and put myself, you know, in harm's way, right? And that was my vehicle to getting from the summit, from the hospital bed to being a man again, to get my life back. And my vehicle was climbing mountains. So I just figured, well,

that worked for me. Maybe I have something to offer these guys because, you know, I broke every bone of my body, a metal everywhere. I said, but no comparison to losing a limb or two limbs. Some of these guys I've worked with it. But so that I can't compare it with my injuries. But I could relate with what it's like going from the hospital bed and being a pushed around in a fucking wheelchair

and people holding the door for you after I just would, you know, walk into a bar, you know, and be on top of the world or walk into a restaurant and just being on top of the world and being a bouncer and, you know, and riding the Harley, you know, and being all, doing all the tough guy, right? And next thing you know, I'm in a wheelchair and people are feeling sorry for me. And so here's this kid who joins the Marine Corps. He gets out, right? And he's got the buzz cut. He's back home for a weekend, you know, home. And he's, you know, used to carrying an M60 around the battlefield. He's got a platoon of guys under his command. He walks into a bar. He comes out with 10 phone numbers from every hot chick in the bar, right? And next

you know, boom, steps on IED, and now he's in a wheelchair, missing the legs, and everybody's feeling sorry for him. And that's the part I could relate with. And so I figured if this is my type of rehabilitation, maybe this might work for them. And a lot of these guys, like, there's a lot of worthy organizations out there, fly fishing, therapeutic fly fishing, and horse therapy, and, you know, all this like adaptive golf and like all these things, right? But some of these guys. They just, it doesn't work for them. And the only way to really truly rehab these guys is you have to put them back on the battlefield again to truly heal them, get them back to be the Marine they were. That makes sense to me. You know, and so... Let me ask you a question.

You know any, uh, any of these veterans or military people that were addicted to drugs at the time? All of them. I don't, let me say that. I'm saying that loosely, because when I meet, most of these guys, you know, they're coming right out of the hospital. You know, they got them on gabapentin, all these nerve meds and pain pills and, you know, all these. How do they get off of that? Well, interesting is that they can't go up Everest on opiol. Exactly. And that's always the first conversation I have when we start training. I'm like, we got to get you off this. Because these types of narcotics, they affect your respiratory system. And that's the last thing you want at 20,000 feet. That's that, dude.

You think you're doing great. And you think you're hauling ass. And you're moving in slow motion like you're on Thorazine. It's like there's no, that is, that isn't, it just doesn't make sense to me. So how did these guys, how you get these guys clean before their training to go up to Everest? I put them back in harm's way. I put them on a mountain. And then they realize at, you know, even small mountains here in Southern California,

a 10,000 foot mountain. And then they realized, I don't even have to. Like, I give them the whole speech about the drugs ain't going to work and the nerve meds and all these pain pills and shit. And you get them in 10,000 feet. And they're like, you know, on their knees, gasping for air and just falling apart going, oh, this ain't working. This doesn't work together.

The same peanut butter and jelly. Drugs and climbing mountains and the outdoors just doesn't work. And so it's the natural evolution of it. And so the therapy that I give these guys, you can't. You can't get from the local drug dealer. You can't get from CVS and Walgreens. My therapy that I give these guys is giving them outdoors. Natoidorphins, right? Do you know who it helps the most? Who's that? Who do you think? The man upstairs? No. Who's it helped the most? Their friends and family, everybody around them? God, man. You are such a hero. You don't even know what the hell I'm talking about. Do you? Clueless. You're the one that benefits the most.

Yeah, I mean. No, no, listen to me. You're the one that benefits the most. Because you can't think about yourself when you're helping others. It's impossible. Okay? And that gives you meaning and that gives you joy. One of the hardest things I had to do this whole journey is tell people that I can't help

them because. I can't afford to house them. I can't bring them out to Los Angeles. All my programs are here in the local mountains in California. I need to build a retreat center. So I start reaching out, come to find out. There's not one retreat center in the entire state of California. So I approached the Forest Service.

I find this great piece of land up on Mount Baldy, which is literally an hour from this podcast studio. And that's where I train a lot of the guys. I train them. That's the first step before I get them to the big mountains. And I found this great piece of property, no Wi-Fi, no cell phone. sewn completely away from all the city, but you can see Hollywood in the distance from the top of the mountain.

Went to the Forest Service, gave my idea. I want to do this great thing. Bring it back to life, this old property. They went for it. Five years dealing with federal bureaucracy a year and a half ago, they gave me my permit to build. And then I went to the county. Stop. Five years to get a permit.

Yes. To do God's work. Yeah. five years. California suck. Suck. Well, it gets worse. It gets worse. So that's the federal government. I just want to move. I want to move. I just hate this place.

I know, but I hate it. Yeah, I get it. But look out the window. It's 80 degrees in sunshine. Dude. And I got three. It's 80 degrees in sunshine in Florida. I ride a motorcycle every single day. I got three 10,000 foot mountains that are an hour from the Sunset Strip. We have the best restaurants. There's a lot of good in California, right? As long as you can put aside all the politics and all the bulls, that stuff.

But back to... Yeah, if you don't ever turn on television, okay, or ever speak to anybody, California's great. Yes. So after this five and a half year journey with the federal government, which is the U.S. Forest Service, they approved it. So, okay, we're going to let you build it. Now I got to go to the county and get my actual building pretext. You can't hear it. And then get aggravated.

And now... I see, hear it. I'm going to snap. I'm going to lose control. So, hey, okay. Good news. though, it ends up a really great story. All right.

So after a year and 10 months, almost two years, I just received word last week that I'm getting my building permit. Next week, we're doing a groundbreaking ceremony. Seven years? Six and a half, yes. Dude, you could have been a doctor. Well, here's the good news. The good news is that we're going to actually put the hard hats on, dig the shovels into the ground.

When's this happening? Memorial Day weekend on Friday afternoon. We're going to start it. This Memorial Day? Yep. And we start building. But because of this journey that I've been through, I figure I got enough money to last us about six months.

So to build this thing, it's going to be cheap. It's going to be about $7 million. That was not a problem. But it is a problem when you're telling people, I'm going to build this veteran treat center. It doesn't exist in California. We're going to do this. This is now when are you doing it.

Now that we're actually digging, now we go into fundraising mode and then building this thing, that doesn't exist in this state will be here long before we're gone. I'm out. And that's where I'm out right. That's where I'm out right. I'm out.

So here's where the rubber meets the road. What can, and dude, I'm telling you right now, okay? I've been doing this six and a half months, okay? I can't believe how many people are watching this. I don't even deal with the listening part of it, the Apple and the Spotify. I don't even care, okay? this is the I watch the YouTube because me I want to see I want to connect I don't even talk to people on the phone if if I can't FaceTime them I don't even want to speak to them yeah in the same way yeah because I want to hit 25 I want to connect with you I get pissed off when I FaceTime on dude I was doing this like the minute FaceTime came out somebody said I said I'm like you could do this yeah and I've been doing it and people think I'm a weirdo on the same yeah I'm like look if your pants around your ankles you're sitting on the shit okay I get it, okay? But like, why can't we just talk? I can't see. You're in New York. I'm in

LA. What's wrong with that? Yeah, there's nothing. No, no, no, no. What's wrong? What? Taking a FaceTime call on the... Yeah, I'm not talking to FaceTime on the shit. It ain't happening. Everybody thinks that. I'm... I call everybody while I'm on... Because I, dude, I sleep three hours a night as it is. I work 20 hours a day around the clock. It's like, what? I mean, I'm not gonna... It's like, come on. That you do your best thinking in the shower and on the toilet. Yes or no? Yes, but there's one thing you're missing here.

Give it away. That's me time. Not our time. That's me time. Oh, I don't have any me time. Yeah. I don't have any me time. Yeah, well, you got to have some me time.

It's like when I bring these guys up to the mountains, right? It's a complete disconnect. And I have a very strict no cell phone policy with the guys. Right. And they get a little, they always question, well, I'm just going to take my phones for, take pictures. I'm like, no, this is how it works. You want to come along the program. There's no cell phones.

It'll be there in your trial. when we get off the mountain. What's the problem? What's the problem? It's because we're going to be up on that mountain. We're sitting in that tent, right? And then all of a sudden, you're going to take your phone out. It won't work.

There's no cell phone no Wi-Fi. And then you start scrolling through text messages, photos, and just that simple action. You know what that does? That takes you off the mountain and puts you down there. That's right. And I don't want you down there. I need you up here. I need you in the now.

I need you to take all this shit in. And it's been a big factor in rehabilitating these guys. It's just that disconnect from all the noise down here. You know, wives and kids and, you know, bills and all the shit comes along with the noise. You need to just disconnect. What I want to know is how do people support you? Where can they donate? How can they get involved in the Heroes Project?

Well, it's definitely not a PSA message. It's not the reason why I came on this podcast. No, no, no. This is why you're here because this is why I say you're here because you're doing God's work. And there are people out there that are going to be, dude, I cried twice on this thing. Okay? There are going to be people that are moved by this thing.

And they're going to want to give. And a lot of people listen to this. Like a couple hundred thousand people are watching every episode now. So where can people donate? How can they be of service? At heroesproject.org, go on there, tells you everything about what we're building. We're having a groundbreaking ceremony

this Memorial Day. But yeah, Heroesproject.org. It's got everything on there. You donate to there. There's all kinds of different things. You can buy a damn hat. Every little bit counts, you know? You just bought me this hat.

Yeah, that's a limited edition right there, brother. It's a limited edition? Chromeheart's hat right there. Do I wear it like this? No, like that? No, I think you should go backwards with it. Backwards? Yeah, yeah.

But then you can't. No, I'm not doing it. No, you're not doing it. I like the Heroes Project. That's what I want. The Heroes Project, the coolness factor just went up like 10 notches right now. Did it?

Not really. Yeah, it did, actually. Are you kidding? I'm 58. There are no cool 58-year-olds. Maybe like Brad Pitt and George Clooney, but other than that, there are no cool 50s.

Oh, Downey. He's the coolest. You got a podcast now. That's cool, right? Spreading the word. You got 200,000, followers, that's cool. You're doing something, right?

No, the 200,000 viewers, but by the end of the year, I'm pretty sure we're going to have a million viewers. That's good, man, yeah. It's corny, but what we do in this lifetime, that goes in eternity, right? Oh, my God. Do you know it's crazy? I don't even want to get into that. All right.

So check it out. Check it out. Hereosprudek.org. Where can people reach? Where can people reach you? Because, well, let's go on the website. Hey, man. There you go.

We're going to leave on that winning. Sure, we go. Done. Thank you for coming. You're having me, bro. I appreciate. You ready to smoke a cigar? Let's do it.

See you next Tuesday. Ban. That's it. We're out of time. Please subscribe on YouTube, click the thumbs up, and leave a comment. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast and Spotify, and leave a rating and a review. And share the We're Out of Time podcast with others you know who will get value out of it. See you next Tuesday.