Project 365

In 2012, a Type 1 Diabetic climber and his wife decided to abandon the comforts of conventional life–selling all their stuff to embrace their fate traveling and climbing across North America. Their goal: complete one year, climbing every single day consecutively with no rest days while living out of a rusty 1987 Toyota Tercel and traveling–to demonstrate that no challenge is insurmountable–even an incurable, chronic illness.

Type 1 Diabetic

365

Days of Climbing

Rest Days

1825

Insulin Injections

The Story

By Steve Richert

On January 16th 2012, I marked my 13th year of living with diabetes. It also marked day one for Project 365, a diabetes empowerment initiative that I took on with the support of my wife Stefanie. The goal was to climb every single day consecutively on a transcontinental expedition–that would last for 365 days. I wanted to send a resounding message that diabetes is what WE make of it and that we are not victims. We can choose not to suffer.

Over months that followed we dealt with the highs and lows of diabetes while living on the road–we sold all our “stuff” and left our home behind–and faced uncertainty, separation, encounters with animals, heat, cold, rain, snow and dust while residing in an 1987 station wagon–all to show that diabetes does not have to be the biggest challenge we can face in our lives. Struggle is a necessary component in life and it is a gift.

On January 15th, 2013, I clipped the chains on the hardest free climbing route I have ascended to date, setting a personal record for my own climbing career to complete my 365th consecutive day of climbing–establishing the first transcontinental climbing challenge of this nature.

The Film

Steve Richert, a type 1 diabetic rock climber, takes on a year long trans-continental marathon expedition: climbing every single day with no days off to challenge the limits of an incurable condition and make a statement to the world. After 13 year of taking multiple insulin injections every day, monitoring blood sugar, diet and exercise, Steve Richert decided that having diabetes was no reason to accept defeat – in fact, it was his diagnosis that prompted a journey into the vertical world to demonstrate that the challenges we face are of vital importance. Follow his ups and downs, across North America, while living out of an old car, juggling a chronic illness, voluntary homelessness, marriage and gravity – every day, with no days off.