193: Bill Burke: Retired Lawyer, Mountaineer and Extreme Adventure Enthusiast

Bill Burke

Were there mentors that motivated and assisted guest Bill Burke in during his journey towards mountaineering?“Not in mountaineering, Mark. In the law I did. I had mentors in the law that really helped me. I had a wonderfully fun and successful law career. I practiced law for 45 years all over the world, at offices with a big international law firm in a variety of different cities. I had mentors when I was a young lawyer associate in these firms that I looked up to that really helped my career, and I had a great career in law.”

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Bill Burke about making the transition from his law career to mountain climbing. “When I retired at 60 in 2003 I decided, now I have to figure out what I do next because I’m not going to go home and sit in front of the television. I’m a Type-A personality. I love adventure and risk. I’m kind of an adrenaline junky in that respect. So, I decided what would come next and I always loved the mountains. There was no figure that I was following there because it was all new to me.”

Listen to “Bill Burke – a real life Indiana Jones” on Spreaker.

What You Will Learn:

How did Bill Burke first get involved in mountain climbing? “I had an interest in the mountains. I loved the mountains. I hadn’t done any climbing at all. I then decided to take a climbing course just outside of Seattle with Alpine Ascents, a six-day course that really helped me. I really enjoyed it, and I just progressed from there to the seven summits. So, I didn’t really have a figure I was looking up to. There was nobody that was encouraging me in that way. It was all sort of self-made because it was all so new to me.”

Bill Burke talks about climbing Mountain Rainier. “The year that I took the climbing course I decided that I was going to come back to Washington that same year which was 2001 and I’m going to climb Mount Rainier, so I did. When I realised I could make it on a bigtime mountain, Rainier is a bigtime big league mountain, when I was able to succeed on Rainier and I enjoyed it, I thought, well, what is the next mountain going to be? I had heard about Mount McKinley as you say, it is now called Denali, and I said, this is going to be my next big mountain.”

What was Bill Burke’s experience like climbing Denali, previously known as Mountain McKinley? “One of the guilds that was on that trip that I took up Rainier told me, No, no, no, I think you need to try out some other Alpine peaks, smaller and not as challenging as McKinley. That is a really tough mountain. Maybe you need to go to the volcanoes in Mexico or you can go with me here and there. I listened to him and thanked him, and that next year I went McKinley and submitted McKinley. I just felt like I was ready for it and I wasn’t going to be told that it wasn’t something I was capable of . I felt like I had the experience from the courses I took, the course I took in Seattle and the experience I had on Rainier to give it a shot. It was a great trip. It was very successful.”

Bill Burke gives us a sense of what it was like when he traveled up the south side of Mount Everest versus traveling up the north. “Mount Everest straddles two countries, on its north flank is Tibet and on its south flank is in Nepal. It is a very different experience on both the north approach and the south approach. For the south approach, you get to trek up to the basecamp, which is a 35-mile trek. It is one of the most fun parts of the trip, at least it was for me because you stop in the villages. You see how the people live. You are enhanced by their culture and their religion. You are able to order off of a menu. It is just really fun. It is about a six-day trip because you are acclimatizing.

In what ways did climbing the north side of Everest differ from the right? “On the north approach by the way of Changtse, from Nepal to Tibet. Then you cross the friendship bridge there and you drive all the way into basecamp. There is a little 35-mile trek to basecamp. You drive into basecamp. You set up your camps there. So, it is a much easier approach to get into. Other differences are, in the south approach you really don’t see Mount Everest very much until you get right up the mountain and close to it. It is blocked by these huge peaks that surround it in Nepal. So, you don’t really get to enjoy the view.”

Power of Having Goals

What is Bill Burke’s mental makeup to reinvent himself to achieve what he is trying to accomplish? “I think setting goals is a big factor in success, setting big goals, doing your due diligence to find out how to achieve those goals. Actually attempting to achieve the goals, learning from your mistakes. I always tell people that ask what is the physical preparation. What is your physical regiment to get ready? I always tell them what it is. It is pretty rigorous and tough. But, mental commitment, mental fortitude, mental toughness is what gets you across the goalline, to use an NFL metaphor.”

Crash

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, Bill Burke also discusses rebounding from disappointment. “I actually climbed Mount Everest six times. But four of those times I had to turn around. I was up on the southeast ridge on the south approach. Once I had to turn around and then three times I had to turn around on the northeast ridge when I was climbing on the Tibet side. So, yeah, I submitted twice. But I didn’t summit four times. When you train so hard and there is a lot of cost and expense involved, as I am sure you know, to get there. But more importantly, when you don’t reach the goal and you don’t fulfill your dream. It is disappointing. You need to deal with that. You need to learn how to deal with that.”

Links to Additional Resources:

Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com
Emilia’s Everest – The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/