Benedikt Boehm has always had a lot of energy. It got him into trouble when he was a kid鈥攈e couldn鈥檛 concentrate at school, couldn鈥檛 sit still at home. But then he discovered cross-country skiing when he was 11. 鈥淔or the first time, I saw that all of that energy was a good thing, as long as you focused and managed it,鈥� Boehm says.
He hasn鈥檛 lost that focus. Now, at the age of 42, German-born Boehm is听CEO of the ski brand Dynafit and one of the most successful speed mountaineers in the world. He has听climbed听and descended some of the planet鈥檚 highest peaks听on skis without supplemental oxygen, including听26,361-foot Gasherbrum II in Pakistan and 26,781-foot Manaslu in Nepal. Most mountains of this stature take three to five days to summit;听Boehm and his climbing partners听tackled听them in less than a day, in part to limit their exposure in the 鈥渄eath zone,鈥� an extremely high-altitude听area听where there is an insufficient听amount of听oxygen in the air.
鈥淚t just makes more sense to me to be fast,鈥� Boehm says. 鈥淎sk anyone: Would you like to spend four days in the death zone听or 12 hours?鈥�
Boehm started formulating his听approach to mountaineering after he graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2003听and began working with Dynafit鈥檚 marketing department. Back then听ski touring wasn鈥檛 that popular with big-name athletes or the general public. 鈥淣obody was thinking about it,鈥� he听says. 鈥淏ut I had this fascination with bringing the athletics of cross-country skiing to the adventure of big-mountain summits. I thought that version of the sport could be sexy.鈥澨�
鈥淚t just makes more sense to me to be fast,鈥� Boehm says. 鈥淎sk anyone: Would you like to spend four days in the death zone听or 12 hours?鈥�
In 2004,听Boehm听and听two of his friends attempted to quickly summit and ski the glaciers of some of South America鈥檚 highest mountains, including 22,205-foot Nevado听Huascar谩n. They succeeded after a series of false starts听but听suffered the entire time, eventually landing in a Peruvian hospital after drinking from a stream听with a dead cow in it. 鈥淚 still have nightmares about that trip,鈥� Boehm says. 鈥淓verything that went wrong was our fault. We didn鈥檛听have enough food, we didn鈥檛 have enough drink, we were moving too fast at elevation, we were young and showing off. But it was so important to go through that failure. We learn by falling and getting up again.鈥�
After that disastrous speed-summit attempt, Boehm recalibrated his approach to the sport, focusing on preparation, patience, and honesty. 鈥淚 learned we have to go slow to go fast,鈥� he听says. 鈥淒rink, eat, be willing to turn around if something goes wrong, and above all, know your weaknesses. If you鈥檙e not brutally transparent about your skills, someone will get hurt.鈥�
This methodology has served听him well as he鈥檚 aged. In October, Boehm set a听speed record听on Dhaulagiri VII, a 23,773-foot peak in the Himalayas of Nepal. Starting from base camp at 16,086 feet, he climbed to the summit and skied back down in seven听hours听53 minutes. But his most elegant ascent might be his longest. In 2018, Boehm climbed 18,606-foot Mount Damavand, the highest point in the Middle East, starting from the Caspian Sea, the lowest point in the Middle East. It was an epic听87-mile adventure that required a mix of biking, hiking, and skiing. 鈥淲ith these superendurance projects, the mindset gets better because of the experience, allowing you to compensate for a lot of physical weaknesses,鈥� Boehm says. 鈥淚 think I perform better on an 8,000-meter peak now than I did ten听years ago, because there鈥檚 so much strategy and instinct involved.鈥澨�
That鈥檚 not to say Boehm relies entirely on his mind to complete these projects. He trains constantly, climbing between 16,000 and 32,000 feet on skis each week during the winter and running the same听elevation in the summer. With his full-time job in Munich and responsibilities as a husband and father of three, this means he鈥檚 up at three or four every morning听and heading into the Alps.听鈥淚 always do it before work, before 9 A.M., when nobody is missing me,鈥� Boehm says. 鈥淢ost of the time, I train with a headlamp. There are only 24 hours in a day, and we don鈥檛 know how many days we have, so I try not to waste time. I don鈥檛 even cross-train听or stretch or do yoga. The calendar is too tight for that. I focus on being in the mountains.鈥�
And he makes sure that every training session is building toward听something greater. 鈥淗aving a goal is the key,鈥� Boehm says.听鈥淚t creates energy, allows you to build momentum. I realized at a certain point that I wasn鈥檛 getting up in the morning because of what I accomplished yesterday. I get up for what I want to accomplish tomorrow.鈥澨�