Climbing Mount Everest is already one of the world’s toughest challenges, but Romanian mountaineer Mădălin “Cris” Cristea decided to make it even harder by beginning his expedition more than 1,100 kilometers away, on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Over 113 days earlier this year, he walked across India and Nepal, reached the summit, and returned to the sea, covering a total of over 2,200 km.

The expedition was the third stage of his tougher take on the Seven Summits project - an attempt to climb the highest peak on every continent by starting at sea level, walking to the mountain, reaching the summit, and returning to the nearest ocean on foot. After Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro, Everest became both his largest expedition and the hardest mountain he had climbed so far.

Cris began the journey in Digha, West Bengal, in early March, walking between 35 and 45 km a day across rural India and Nepal. He completed the approach and return unsupported, carrying his own backpack, before joining a Nepali expedition team for the climb itself.

Despite the distance, heat, food poisoning, and difficult logistics, he says Everest remained the toughest part. “Because so many people climb it these days, people assume it’s easy. It isn’t,” he told Romania-Insider.com.

Born in Orșova, Romania, Cris moved to the UK at the age of 20 in search of better work opportunities. He discovered mountaineering after moving to London and going through a difficult period in his early twenties. Inspired by Bear Grylls’ autobiography, he climbed Mount Olympus at 23 and gradually turned his Seven Summits ambition into a much more demanding challenge. 

“I decided to double down and make it harder,” he said. “That was when the idea was born: to climb these mountains by starting at the nearest sea and walking every single meter to the top and back to the sea again.”

In the interview below, he talks about the long road to Everest, the origins of his sea-to-sea project, the risks and sacrifices behind it, and the four summits still ahead.

• You were born in Orșova but moved to London. How did that journey from Romania to the UK come about, and what should readers know about your life beyond mountaineering? 

I was born in Orșova, Romania, and I am now 35 years old. I moved to the UK from Romania when I was 20 years old in search of better work opportunities. 

That first year in London was very challenging for me. Because of my visa situation at the time, I was stuck in a job I hated; I was a lifeguard at a gym in central London, guarding a swimming pool with a depth of only 1.2 metres for eight hours a day, six days a week. I felt like all I was doing was staring at water while time passed me by. I started to dislike my life and began feeling depressed.

One day, my brother came to visit me in London and bought me Bear Grylls’ autobiography, “Mud, Sweat and Tears.” That book changed my life. Reading Bear’s story inspired me - not just his Everest ascent as the youngest Brit, but more so the fact that he seemed like an average guy to me. He was someone who worked hard and knocked on countless doors, getting rejected repeatedly while trying to find sponsors for his expedition. 

His story made me think that even an average person like myself could do hard things if I was willing to put in the work. For the first time in my life, I felt inspired and set a major goal: to climb the Seven Summits, the highest mountain on each continent.

• Tell us more about how your passion for mountaineering began. You have mentioned Bear Grylls’s memoir as an early influence, but was there a particular moment that made you decide to start climbing?  

It wasn’t all smooth sailing from the moment I read that book, and I didn’t get into mountaineering straight away. For the next few years, I partied, got into debt, and was even kicked out of my house for not paying rent on time. That final event was a wake-up call for me to change my life. 

I started getting my act together at the age of 23. I studied to become a Personal Trainer and finally began climbing mountains, starting with Mount Olympus in Greece in 2015.

At the gym where I was working, I also met my wife, Viv, who I now go on most of my mountaineering adventures with.

• Back to the “Sea to Summit to Sea” format - why was it important to complete every stage entirely on foot, from sea level to the summit and back? 

Up until the age of 30, I focused on gaining the skills needed for the Seven Summits and saving up money. Then, the pandemic happened. Covid gave me time to reflect on my goal, and I noticed that the Seven Summits had become much more popular over the years. With that popularity came more support on the mountains and more help from climbing companies to reach the summits with ease. I didn’t like this shift, but I also didn't want to give up on my goal, because giving up was something my 20-year-old self would have done. 

I decided to double down and make it harder. That was when the idea was born: to climb these mountains by starting at the nearest sea (0 metres) and walking every single metre to the top and back to the sea again.

In 2024, I took the first steps towards this goal and climbed Aconcagua, South America’s highest mountain, starting from the Pacific Ocean in Chile. After finishing that expedition, I took several flights and a bus to get to the Indian Ocean in Tanzania, and in February of the same year, I climbed Kilimanjaro, sea to sea.

• So you completed Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro from sea level before taking on Everest. What did those first two expeditions teach you? 

Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro presented opposite challenges. On Aconcagua, I found the actual mountain climb to be the biggest hurdle. At the time, it was the highest peak I had ever climbed at 6,959 metres. To reach the summit, I had to spend three weeks on the mountain doing acclimatisation rotations - going up into the thin air to allow my body to adapt, then descending to lower altitudes to recover. Living at over 4,000 metres for more than two weeks taught me how important it is to take care of yourself - eating, sleeping, and drinking enough, so that you’re in the best possible shape when the time comes for the summit push.

Kilimanjaro, on the other hand, taught me how to deal with walking long distances in hot and humid conditions. I averaged around 35 kilometres a day in 36-degree heat and 100% humidity; it was brutal. Right at the start, I suffered heat stroke and developed a lot of blisters, which made me question if I would even reach the mountain, let alone climb it. 

Another challenge in Tanzania was getting used to standing out like a sore thumb. I never had a support vehicle with me on any of the walks, so I was completely reliant on getting myself there and back safely. 

These two expeditions made me realise exactly what the Everest expedition would ask of me. They were the perfect preparation.

• For Everest, you hiked over 1,100 km across rural India and Nepal, reached the summit, and walked all the way back to the sea. What did the full expedition involve in terms of distance, duration, elevation, and the main stages of the route? 

The expedition involved walking between 35 and 45 kilometres daily from the Indian Ocean through rural India and Nepal until I reached the Himalayas and, eventually, Everest Base Camp - a 1,100-kilometre journey one way. I climbed the mountain with the help of an expedition company, which took around 40 days due to the long acclimatisation process, and then I returned to the Indian Ocean on foot.

I started on March 4th in Digha, West Bengal, India, and finished on June 24th - 113 days later. Over that time, I walked more than 2,200 kilometres and hiked a total elevation of 36,136 metres.  

• Which part of the Everest expedition proved the most difficult - the long approach, the climb itself, or the journey back to the sea? 

The climb itself, for sure. It’s a funny thing with Everest; because so many people climb it these days, people assume it’s easy. It isn't. I have climbed dozens of 4,000, 5,000, and 6,000-metre peaks unguided and unsupported, and Everest was by far the hardest. 

Because you spend such a long time over 5,000 metres, your body’s ability to recover is diminished. During those 40 days, we worked our way up and down the mountain doing acclimatisation rotations, and the closer we got to our summit push, the more exhausted I became. You attempt the summit in a state of extreme fatigue after spending three days climbing from Base Camp (5,300 metres) to Camp 4 in the "Death Zone" (7,950 metres).

The final push to the summit and back down to Camp 2 has as much to do with mental determination as it does with physical ability. 

That being said, the second hardest thing was dealing with the heat and humidity of the flat lands of Nepal once I hiked out. Moving from -40 degrees Celsius to +40 degrees took me more than a week to adapt to. For the first few days, I even resorted to starting my walks at 3:00 AM while it was still dark to avoid the worst of the heat.

• How do you manage the practical side of such expeditions, including routes, food, accommodation, equipment, safety, and physical recovery? How independent are you during these journeys, and when do you rely on local guides, logistical teams, or other support? 

I planned the entire route myself using Google Maps and various hiking maps. I actually didn’t take the shortest route from the ocean to Everest because I couldn’t cross the border on foot where it was most convenient.

I also tried to follow main roads so that I always had accommodation at the end of the day. In Chile and Tanzania, I camped a lot, but in India, I was concerned about standing water and mosquitoes. Aside from a few very early mornings on my return walk, I only walked during the day and avoided the night for safety reasons.

On the walk to Everest, I took one day off every week to help my body recover. I tried to stay on top of my calories as much as possible; I ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, carried meal shakes, and ate two vegetarian meals daily consisting of rice, chickpeas, and lentils. I tried to maintain a vegetarian diet, but I got food poisoning on the second day after I arrived, which caused me to lose weight that I struggled to regain over the following weeks.

One of the most ambitious things I managed to do was maintain a basic strength training session two to three times a week before starting my daily walk. I did this to preserve muscle mass and, more importantly, strength for the climb itself. Walking on flat ground for 36 days would have otherwise caused me to lose a significant amount of the strength needed for the mountain.

Logistically, my wife flew from London to Nepal with all my mountaineering kit for Everest. I met her three days before starting the Everest Base Camp trek. Seeing her for three weeks on the mountain was a huge moral boost; not seeing her for three out of the four months was one of the hardest parts of the expedition. 

I did the walk to and from the mountain completely unsupported - just me and my backpack. On the mountain, I was assisted by Asian Trekking, a Nepali expedition company. They provided the logistical support, and I was guided to the summit by Pasang Sherpa.

• You have experienced several dramatic situations in the mountains, including helping save a life on Mont Blanc in 2016. Could you tell us what happened back then and share some of the other experiences that have stayed with you most strongly?

In  2016, I was attempting Mont Blanc; it was my first major peak. I was climbing the mountain alone, something I definitely do not recommend to anyone. Near the summit, the weather turned dangerous with high winds and poor visibility, so I decided to descend. I did this together with a British father and son, James and Matt, whom I had met the day before.

While crossing a ridge, James slipped on the ice and began sliding rapidly toward a 1,000-metre drop. Because he was roped to his son, he was about to pull Matt over the edge with him. I reacted instinctively; I leapt for the rope, threw myself onto the slope, and drove my ice axe into the snow to perform a self-arrest. I managed to stop his fall just metres from the edge.

That experience has stayed with me because it was a sudden realisation of how quickly a "cool mission" can turn into a tragedy. It showed me the brutal reality of high-altitude mountaineering. However, this didn't put me off climbing; instead, it made me appreciate how much work I had to do to get closer to my Seven Summits goal with the right skills and respect for the environment.

• Which of the remaining summits will come next, and what are the biggest challenges ahead?

I have four left, and they all come with their own unique challenges. 

Mount Elbrus in Europe and Carstensz Pyramid in Oceania (Indonesia) both present political challenges. In both cases, getting to the mountain is likely to be harder than the climb itself because of the instability in those regions. Mount Vinson in Antarctica will probably be the last one on the list, simply because of the immense cost and logistics involved.

Next up is Denali in Alaska. I’m still deciding whether to do this expedition in 2027 or 2028. I have a feeling that, as an expedition as a whole, this will be the hardest one yet. It involves crossing grizzly territory and dragging sleds loaded with gear up a glacier. Denali is also infamous for its weather, and even the descent poses risks as the rivers begin to swell with the start of summer. Out of all the peaks left on the list, this is the one that excites me the most.

• After so many years in the UK, how strong is your connection to Romania? Could you imagine returning to live here one day?

At the start of 2024, after 11 years in the UK, Viv and I left and are now living a digital nomad life - working, travelling, and climbing in different countries around the world. This lifestyle is actually allowing me to spend more time in Romania by working from here. I get to see my family much more often than when I was living in the UK, and I’m very grateful for that. I honestly don’t know where we’ll end up settling in the future, but at the moment, we’re enjoying our “gypsy lifestyle.”

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Cris is posting a weekly video series on the Everest sea-to-sea expedition on his YouTube channel, Train to Summit, and also shares his adventures on Instagram at @traintosummit.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photos: courtesy of Mădălin Cristea)