“Keep moving forward.” That’s been one of Kirstie Ennis’ mantras for years. Just days ago, Kirstie and her team missed summitting Mount Everest by a little over 500 feet.

While some would have pushed ahead that last 500 feet, Kirstie’s gained wisdom from her previous climbs and knew the risk of danger and/or death outweighed reaching her goal. Undeterred, she will keep moving forward toward her goals regardless of her successes or setbacks.

Isn’t Your Average Athlete

The Seven Summits Challenge defeats even the best of athletes, but Kirstie isn’t your average athlete.

For a climber with two healthy legs, climbing Mount Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. The challenge jacks up to extreme for her as she has one healthy leg and one prosthetic leg.

The death rate while attempting to summit Mount Everest is 25%. While that would stop most of us in our tracks, Kirstie believes, “If it were easy, I wouldn’t be doing it.”

How One Prepares to Summit

For those of us who don’t participate in extreme sports, we wonder how one prepares to summit Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.

Kirstie built up her stamina and strength by starting the Seven Summits Challenge in the United States. Unfortunately, extreme weather conditions prevented her from reaching the summit of Denali, formerly Mount McKinley, in June of 2018.

Determined to keep moving forward, Kirstie accepted the challenge to summit four of the seven highest mountains over the course of the next nine months. She conquered these summits:

1. Mount Elbrus (Europe) in September 2018
2.  Mount Vinson (Antarctica) in January 2018
3. Mt. Aconcagua (South America) in January of 2019
4. Mount Kosiusko (Australia) in February of 2019

Daily Struggles and Successes

Pumped after those successful summits, Kirstie, her team, and a handful of sherpas set foot on Mount Everest on April 4.

On May 19, Kirstie posted a video announcing her team didn’t summit Mount Everest. They were running out of oxygen and time. [NOTE: There is a certain “window” of time climbers are allowed to summit so as to avoid otherwise extremely dangerous conditions.]

Her blog posts here give you a glimpse into the daily struggles and successes during her incredible Mount Everest climb. Check them out!

Having closely followed every day of her challenge to summit Mount Everest, I couldn’t be more impressed with her dedication and drive and desire to encourage others. You rock, Kirstie!

Helicopter Crashed

Extreme sports wasn’t even on Kirstie’s radar when she joined the Marine Corps at age 17. Her goal was to serve others.

While on her second tour of duty in Afghanistan – on June 23, 2012 – Kirstie’s helicopter crashed while in route to resupply ammunition and transport soldiers to an overthrown mosque. She was just twenty-one years old.

Her leg couldn’t support her weight when she tried to stand after the crash.  Several teeth and her jaw bone gone. Her brain incurred so much damage that giving her pain medication was out of the question.

“I didn’t realize how injured I was. When I learned I was no longer able to serve as a helicopter door gunner, I went numb,” Kirstie shared. “I felt like I had been robbed of everything, especially my purpose.”

Keep Moving Forward

Since her accident, Kirstie has undergone forty-four surgeries, including facial reconstruction of her jaw,  repairing a torn rotator cuff and cervical discs in her spine, and amputating her left leg above the knee (2015).

Kirstie suffered PTSD and traumatic brain injuries in addition to her physical injuries. “The invisible injuries were far more debilitating than any physical injury I faced,” she shared. “Not being able to communicate effectively was my biggest struggle. If I couldn’t express problems, then I wasn’t creating solutions either.”

As with anyone who experiences so many challenges, the road was an extremely tough one. Despite her strong fight to overcome, Kirstie contemplated taking her life.

“June 23, 2013 – a year after the crash – was the day I decided I didn’t want to live anymore. I was tired of fighting for my recovery,” Kirstie shared. “My father said, ‘The enemy couldn’t kill you and now you’re going to do it for them?’ In that moment, I realized how selfish I was being. I decided if I couldn’t do it for myself, then I owed it at the very least to my mom, dad and sister to keep moving forward.”

List of Accomplishments Runs Very Long

Kirstie might have stumbled for a moment, but she picked herself up and hasn’t stopped since. Her list of accomplishments runs very long, proving her powerful words: “I dictate what I’m capable of.”

Disabled Sports USA, an organization that provides people living with disabilities opportunities to play adaptive sports, opened up a world of options for Kirstie. She began with snowboarding and soon added skiing, rock climbing, swimming, and mountaineering.

Kirstie is a three-time gold medalist in swimming at the Warrior Games and an adaptive class national champion in snow boarding.

Between August and November of 2015, she participated in a 1,000 mile walk across the United Kingdom for Prince Harry’s Walking with the Wounded project. Kirstie left 24 dog tags along her route in honor of her military brothers and sisters who didn’t make it home.

Her passion for and accomplishments in outdoor sports landed her on the cover of ESPN’s 2017 Body issue.

Healing in the Outdoors

Kirstie’s accomplishments don’t just include extreme sports. Hungry to learn as much as she can about life, Kirstie’s earned four Master’s degrees since the helicopter crash. She also plans to earn a doctorate degree in psychology.

Each of her Seven Summit attempts, as well as her other activities, are coordinated with other non-profits to raise awareness and funds to support the Kirstie Ennis Foundation’s mission: to financially support deserving organizations that are dedicated to improving the quality of life of individuals and families. It strives to provide education, opportunity, and healing in the outdoors.

Determines What We Are Capable Of

Kirstie’s helicopter crash ended her dream of a military career. She truly thought she lost her purpose in life. Years of recovery became decision time for a young woman whose greatest desire was to serve others.

Kirstie realized she didn’t have anyone to look up to on how to navigate life with an amputated leg. Extreme sports and her foundation gave Kirstie a way to inspire other injured female veterans and amputees to embrace their inner strength and push beyond their limitations.

“I’ve learned we get so wrapped up in what we can’t do, but it’s the six inches between our ears and what’s behind our rib cage that determines what we are capable of. We control our circumstances. They do not control us.”

No Desire to Stop

Kirstie is motivated on her hard days to keep fighting as a young person or woman who is struggling may be watching. She wants to encourage her with these words: “Overcoming is a willingness to struggle. Keep your head down, have a thick skin with ears defeaned, and prove them all wrong.”

Her passion for adventure sports may seem extreme to some. Kirstie says, “Should something happen, I know I’m going to die living.”

‘Die living’ is tattooed on Kirstie’s arm. It is a proclamation that she will keep living her life to the fullest. And she has no desire to stop now.

What does Kirstie have planned after she successfully summits the seven highest mountains in the world? She has her eyes set on swimming the English Channel, completing the Great Divide Ride, and running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

Just a leisurely walk in the park, right?