A daredevil Brit climbed and descended the height of Mount Everest in a single day - on his stairs at home.<br /><br />Sean Gee, 37, took on the monumental challenge of climbing to the peak of the world’s highest mountain at his four-bed suburban home - and he's potentially set a new world record in the process.<br /><br />In total, he completed 11.8 miles (17km) of elevation change in 22 hours and 57 minutes, climbing 8,848 metres up to the peak and down again. <br /><br />He climbed up 3,277 floors - the equivalent of over 32 Empire State Buildings.<br /><br />Sean has always wanted to climb Everest but couldn’t afford to do so – it currently costs £8,900 for a permit and is set to rise to £11,780 in 2025. <br /><br />So instead, he decided to make the arduous journey from the comfort of his then home in Las Vegas, USA.<br /><br />Now he's waiting for confirmation that he holds the Guinness World Record for the first person to ascend and descend the height of Everest in 24 hours. <br /><br />Sean, who is originally from Coalville, Leics., said: “At the time I was going through a divorce, so I needed to take my mind off the situation and thought what better way to climb Everest? <br /><br />“You have so many different thoughts and feelings, what you're feeling on the start line is very different to how you feel at the end. <br /><br />“After 14 hours I went into one of the rooms upstairs and cried for 10 mins then carried on.<br /><br />"It was a rollercoaster, there were moments I was really happy and moments I was really down.<br /><br />“It’s all mental at the end of the day – the one thing I focused on was if I stop right now what will I be doing instead? I’d rather be pushing to do something I’ll remember for years to come.<br /><br />“I actually miscalculated and didn’t allow for time coming down the stairs – I thought it was going to take me 10 or 11 hours, but it ended up taking nearly 24 hours."<br /> <br />Sean, a content creator who posts his challenges on YouTube under the name s34ntravels, completed the challenge for a suicide prevention charity. <br /><br />The idea for the monumental task came to him after completing other endurance challenges, including ultramarathons. <br /><br />He already holds a Guinness World Record for the longest time playing an arcade dance game – completing 40 hours on a dance mat in Las Vegas. <br /><br />“I’ve been doing endurance challenges for a long time – I always wanted to climb Mount Everest but the problem is it’s really expensive,” he said. <br /><br />“It’s one of those things only people with a lot of money and time can attain and achieve."<br /><br />He didn't do any specific training to complete the 91784-step climb - relying on his fitness from ultra marathons and other endurance challenges - and burned nearly 10,000 calories in the process.<br /><br />And he says some climbers who had conquered the actual mountain were dismissive of his attempt – saying he should try again with all the equipment and a lack of oxygen. <br /><br />However, he says he also received lots of positive comments and was able to raise over $400 for charity. <br /><br />He said: “People couldn’t really process the magnitude of it until I made the video and sped it up, you can see the sun go down and up again in the background, I think that’s when it clicked for some people. <br /><br />“It was funny when people had gone to bed and woken up again and I was still climbing the stairs. <br /><br />“It's individual, some people enjoy going up Everest, paying and risking their life – for me this is my individual goal within the realms of what money and time I have.” <br /><br />Sean carried out the challenge on September 3 2021 but has only just received confirmation from Guinness that it is a new world record. <br /><br />“For my next challenge I was thinking of climbing Olympus Mons, Mars’ highest volcano on the stairs with a friend - so we’d do the equivalent of one-and-a-half Everests each,” he said.
