Episode 196: Reaching Mt. Everest and Overcoming Adversity in Life with Eva Steinwald (Part 1)

TRANSCRIPT

Hi everybody and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel Podcast. I’m your host, Johanna Dahlman and today I have a very special guest joining me. Her name is Eva Steinwald and she. Summited Mount Everest this year in May of 2025 at the age of 63. And that’s not all she’s done, she’s done a lot of things. She’s overcome many adversities, she’s come many challenges in life, she’s done a lot in her life and I can’t wait to showcase Eva and all that she has to bring and share with you. Eva Steinwald was born in Germany to Czechs parents and move to the United States at the age of 19. She now lives in Idaho, where she works as a real estate broker and owns a karate school, serving as both its leader and instructor.

After 26 years of marriage in 2018, Eva experienced a devastating loss of her husband. Her soulmate and best friend, that profound grief sparks something deep within her. Rather than retreat, Eva chose to fully embrace life in all its fleeting, precious beauty in all its forms. She made a conscious decision to dance with fear and embrace risk, starting with her long held fear of heights.

Her journey toward climbing the 7 summits began after summiting mount right near in 2021. Witnessing melting glaciers and changing mountain landscapes inspired a powerful mission to raise awareness about global warming by climbing the highest peak on each continent by the age of 70, which is a huge feat.

So for any of you listening out there. I’m showcasing Eva, not just because of everything that she’s accomplished, but also because she’s a true testament and inspiration for all humans, women, and age groups, that whatever you set your mind to, it can be accomplished. And potentially some of you are thinking like, okay, so how does this fit into hair loss? At any age, it’s never too late to heal at any juncture or part of your life that you want to heal something, whether it’s hair loss or another diagnosis or another health concern or condition. It’s never too late. It’s only too late when you quit and it’s only too late when you give up. Those are the only two reasons.

When we stop moving forward, we stop, settling or we start to settle, I should say. And where we truly have a choice is our decisions day to day. Life is gonna happen to us. Life happens in various ways, and yet there’s a different way to respond to it. And I think this is the biggest takeaway here. Since then, Eva has stood on the summits of Okinawa in January of 2024. At age 61, she summited Denali: June, 2024 at age 62, Mount Everest: May 25th, 2025. At age 63 with three summits behind her. And four

more to go. Eva continues her mission, one peak at a time with a mindset: Can’t. Must. Did. That’s her slogan. Can’t must. Did. And this is where I wanna start with talking and introducing you to the wonderful Eva Steinwald.

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Eva: For me, my journey really started with the passing of my husband. And so, I think there’s a lot of people, women that get stuck, when they experience something and they don’t know how to move forward. I want them to see and know that you can move forward. There’s another chapter, we have chapters in life, you can move on to the next chapter and really live life and experience life. That’s what I’m doing with my climbing and I still can’t believe I’m doing it, to be honest. I had my Everest presentation and I re- experienced my whole journey from the beginning to my husband’s passing to standing on the summit. And it was really special to experience it again and actually talking about it and sharing it with pictures and videos and watching the people in the audience, their expressions, how they were like listening and I’m like: Oh my gosh, they’re really listening. So that was really a wonderful experience.

I wanna just spread it more, put it out there and inspire and let people know, life is so precious and it’s a gift, and it’s up to us to decide what we make of life and how we’re going to experience it, and what we’re gonna give back, and it’s up to us. And I want to convey that, that we have a choice. And we have a voice. We have a choice and a voice.

Johanna: Amen. So let’s continue on, because that was a beautiful entrance. Let’s just go ahead and start with adversity, because your journey started with adversity, which kind of became the springboard for so much. So take us back to this adversity and maybe any others that you’d like to mention, and how tackling the adversity, like what were your steps, how you thought about incorporating climbing, the fear of heights. And, how did you get from A to B or in many times, A to Z.

Eva: I’m gonna share something that I actually have not shared. And when you were talking about diversity, when I grew up, my family is from the Czech Republic, which was under the control of the Soviet Union. My father, I lived in Munich, grew up in Munich, and my father worked for Radio Free Europe and radio free Europe broadcasted into the Iron Curtain countries. And because of that, I was never able to visit my relatives in Czechoslovakia, or they could not come out and visit us because my father was working against the Soviet Union through radio free Europe. So growing up, not having the opportunity to meet and experience family that are like my cousins, my uncles, my aunts, I think that probably already set something up inside of me to wanting to really live life when I can.

I never thought of that until just now, how it really affected me as a child growing up. And it’s so painful when you can’t visit, when you can’t leave your country or you can’t go into a country. And I know there’s a lot of countries like that out there. I hope that my story today climbing Everest is going to help you if you’re in that situation, to overcome

that. My husband of 26 years was my life, my soulmate, my friend. We did everything together and he unexpectedly passed 2018, November 14th. So that’s just like a month and a half away, the anniversary date. And when you are in a relationship and you enjoy the relationship, you never think of what if it ends just like that. It happened completely unexpected. And when that happened, my whole world crumbled because my world that I knew, the certainty and the love that I knew was gone. And I thought to myself, what now?

I realized life is so short, it is so precious, and it is a gift. And I decided at that point, I am not going to stay where I’m at and not move forward and not experience life and not be able to give back. I wanted to jump forward and taste it, feel it, even if it’s painful. I wanted to feel it, but I wasn’t sure how to do that yet. When I was a child, I had an experience where I realized I had a fear of heights, completely unexpected. Also, I climbed a peak by myself without my parents. They said: Go ahead. I got to the top, this was in Austria, and I looked down, I was completely by myself on the peak, and I realized, completely exposed, and I’m like: Oh my God, a fear of heights happened.

I had to sit down and in Europe, all the peaks have crosses. I sat down and I hugged the cross, and I prayed. I’m like: Please bring me back down. So for the first 10 minutes on my butt, I scooched down and I was so determined to get down. And when I got back to my parents, I never told my parents. They never knew I went through that. But when my husband passed, I thought, you know what? I have that fear of heights and it’s all up here. A fear of heights is just in your head. Nothing changes around you. It’s all the same, so I wanna overcome that. And so I did. I climbed a peak here in Idaho called Borah. It’s the highest peak, and it has a section that’s called chicken outrage, because people chicken out. I thought, that’s what I gotta do. I’m not gonna chicken out, i’m just gonna go for it because that’s when I’m gonna feel life. I’m gonna feel alive inside. And I did. I got to the top and I was just crying.

And when I cried, I felt alive. Even though it was painful, but it was also happiness, it was achievement. I cried and I thought, that’s what I wanna do more of because now I feel life. And when I feel life, I’m going to move forward and I’m gonna grow and I’m gonna be become a better person. And that’s how the initial journey started. I went to Everest Base camp because first of all, Nepal is very mysterious to me. And I thought, how cool would it be to be at Everest base camp? And this was 2022 for my 60th birthday to be among all those climbers that are going to climb this mountain that is just like a different planet. I trekked to Base camp and as I was there I was in awe. Because I was watching the climbers and I thought, this is incredible. But never thought in my mind that I would actually climb Everest was not even on the radar for me. When I was there as well at Base Camp, I decided if I fly all the way to Nepal, I want to climb another peak, something that’s higher than Borah and something that’s higher than Rainier, which is 14,600, which I climbed.

And so I thought: I can do 20,000. What’s another 6,000 feet? That’s how my mind sometimes thinks is not really thinking about it, just doing it and just jumping right into it. And I have to say it was the hardest thing in my life. I thought I was going to die. 20,000

is very high up there, there’s very little oxygen and it was very steep. But the amazing thing is when you push yourself beyond your comfort zone and do things you don’t think you can do when you achieve them. And when I was on the top, I was like: L ook at all those peaks. If I can do this, what else can I do? So I always felt like I can push myself further and push myself further. And so from there I went to Denali, which is 20,000, but completely different. You have a 45 pound pack, a sled behind you, and you pretty much live on a glacier for 3 weeks, and it’s very brutal. Someone asked me, how do you describe Denali? I describe Denali as relentless. You never have time to really relax.

It’s all about survival and getting to the top. But the hard part was my first attempt in 2020, let’s see, 2023. I did not make it so I could have looked at it as: Ok, I failed. I made it to 16,000, and weather turned us around. I felt like, how can a mountain not let me summit after I trained forever? And here I am, I feel ready to go. But the mountain said: No, it’s not your turn. You gotta turn around. And then I realized whatever summit you’re trying to challenge or whatever summit you’re trying to overcome. So like whatever Everest you have, it’s not always reaching the summit of that, but it’s the journey along the path and the transformation of yourself. And I realized I learned so much about myself on that climb that I’m going to apply that to my future clients.

So of course I get back down the first thing I do, the first thing I sign up for next year, I didn’t even hesitate. I’m gonna sign up for Denali for next year. That was a whole year out. And I thought that’s a whole year. Maybe I can do something in between. My family, because we’re from the Czech Republic, I have family in Chile, Santiago that I’ve never met, and that was part of the whole Soviet Union situation. So I had a cousin, and an aunt in Santiago and I thought: What if I climb Aconcagua the highest peak in South America and go to Santiago and visit my family that I’ve never met? And so I did, and this was December 23, January of 2024.

Family’s just so special. And the amazing part is even though we’ve never met each other, we even looked alike. We even looked alike, which is crazy. And we felt so close. I don’t speak Spanish, my cousin spoke very little English, but her daughter spoke English. It was so wonderful to finally meet family and it’s important to do that. So I did Aconcagua and I have a a tagline that I live by, it’s called Can’t. Must. Did. And that came about when I climbed Aconcagua. We were at high camp, which is 19,000 feet. Aconcagua was just shy of 23, and of course in my head I’m like: I’ve been to 20. What’s another 3000 feet? Shouldn’t be that hard. We get to 21,000 and I started to trip a lot and I realized in my mind: ,aybe I can’t do this. Maybe I can’t summit Aconcagua.

Then all of a sudden I fall. And my guide, a sweet Argentinian guide, he turns around and he says: Eva, I’ve been watching you. I’m like: Oh my God, he saw me trip. He said: You’ve been tripping and now you have fallen. I’m like, oh my gosh: He’s gonna send me off the mountain, and guess what he said? You’re off the mountain. I’m like, first I don’t do Denali, and now it’s Aconcagua. I’m like, this cannot be happening. So I dug really deep inside and I said: Give me one more chance. If I trip just a little bit, I’m off the mountain. He paused and then he said: Ok, Eva, but I’m gonna be watching you. So for

the next 2 hours, every single step, I picked up my foot and I made sure I didn’t trip, and that became my must. Then I made it to the summit and I did.

And so I use that in my personal life now in all my climbs, because in life we have choices, and whatever we decide to do, that’s where our life goes. When we tell ourselves we can’t do something 99% of the time, it’s really a choice. You can do it. Is it gonna be easy? Oh, probably not. Can you get up at 4 o’clock in the morning? Probably, yes you can. You choose not to. Can you start your own business? Yes, you can. But in your head you say: I can’t. So it’s a choice, and whatever your choices are, that’s where your life goes. But the one thing if you always go by: I can’t do something, your life will never change.

You’re gonna be on the same path. Your life will not change. So when you have choices, switch over to I must, and then you do, and your life changes. So I use that in all my personal and climbing. I summited Denali in 14 days, which was very fast. I was so excited to get to the top. And I will say Denali is you sleep on snow in a tent, you put up your tent, take it off. Completely self-sufficient and you really have to dig deep to not give up and stay mentally strong. So from there, I knew my next climb would be Everest. So I had a whole year, a whole year is a long time. And to stay focused, I did consistent training. I watched my intake of food and my whole life was really scheduled around my training for Everest, because I really had to not physically only prepare, but mentally prepare. And that meant going to bed at a specific time, getting up at a specific time, not going to events because I didn’t wanna get sick. So I was very aware of what I needed to do to actually be ready for Everest.

When I got to Everest, you’re there for 6 to 8 weeks. That’s a very long time. You are removed from your comforts, from your family, from your bed, from your food, anything that makes you feel comfortable and safe, you’re completely removed and you’re placed in an environment at 18,000 feet where every day is survival every single day. So when I was there, every day was success because I survived that day. I may have not had the best rest, but I survived the day. So every day on Everest, no matter if you reach the summit or not, is a success. Being at 18,000, your body is not made to survive. So if you get sick, if it’s digestive issues or you get a cough, or I had a blister on my lip, it does not heal up there. And so I did get sick about 2 weeks. Once I got there, I got a stomach virus and I threw up one night and my guide came in the morning and my guide was so sweet. And I said: Oh, I threw up last night. And his eyes. It got that big because you knew it was not a good thing. And of course in my mind when that happened, I knew the chances of me starting my summit push was very small because the chances of me even recovering and being strong enough was very low.

And my whole world started to crumble, because I thought, here I am trained for a year, paid all this money and I may not even be able to go. So you can’t let your mind go off. You need to come back and stay focused and decide what can I control? What can I control? I am sick, but what can I control? Because that’s the only thing that I can do, is what I can control. I can’t control what someone else does, but what I can do. So my expedition leader said: You’re not gonna get you need to fly to a lower elevation to even

have a chance of recovery. And the first thing that came to my mind when he said that is that means I have to hire a helicopter just for myself to fly down to 9,000 feet and all I could see at first was dollar signs. I’m like: Oh my God, more money that I have to spend. But then I stepped back and I thought, you have invested so much time and money already into yourself to be here.

You already invested all that you need to invest again. So I invested in myself, which is so important in our lives to invest in ourselves in so many different ways. If it’s education or whatever it is, you have to invest in yourself. So I decided I’m gonna invest in myself. I left for 3 days, had the most amazing helicopter ride all by myself, which was the coolest thing. It was a wild ride. And I was it looked love for 3 days at an inn that only had organic food, and it was so good and I was able to eat it and keep it down. But the most amazing thing is I had a bed with a heating blanket and I didn’t wanna leave because it felt so good. But the other thing that I did while I was there is. I started to visualize, I meditated, I visualized and I did breathing exercises 2-3 times a day and to really heal myself. And within 3 days I felt so strong. I flew back to base camp and as I landed at Base Camp, I felt like I could conquer the world, I felt that good.

And so I knew the money that I invested for those 3 days. Oh my gosh, it was like nothing because of what it did for me. And that really reflects in life where you have to invest in yourself. And so we went for the summit push, which was incredible. Summit Everest. There are 4 camps and we were fortunate enough to go from base camp through the Khumbu Icefall to Camp one, which is 19,000. And then we stayed there one night and then we went up to 21,000, stayed there one night, and then we went to camp 3.

And that’s when it gets hard because it’s like this. And you start wearing oxygen was 23.5, and that camp is so steep that the Sherpas have to dig into the side of the mountain to put tents up. And so at nighttime, if you had to use the restroom. You did not leave your tent because it was so dangerous that you could slip, all the way down. So you actually had a little container, in the tent where you went to the restroom. When we went from camp three to camp 4 is the death zone, 26,000 or 8,000 meters. That’s the first time I saw a dead body. There are 3 dead bodies on the way to the summit where they’ve been there for forever and they’re all frozen, but they’re very close to you and it’s a reality check how serious the mountain is and that you have to be very focused.

Not start wandering with your mind and just be very focused and listen to your body. If your body doesn’t feel right, you need to turn around. It is so important and the one thing that I really worked on is not to think of how far is it to the next camp. I never thought that far. I had no idea. It’s 8 hours from 3 to camp 4. I was always just in the moment and being there because that was survival, being in the moment when I arrived at camp four, it almost felt like I already summited because it was the death zone. I got into my tent. I was like, can I take my mask off? I need to eat something. My guide, who is from Nepal, he already took it off. He was walking around and I’m like: Wow, I guess if he can do it, I should be able to do it. So I took my mask off and I went outside to go to

the bathroom. I almost died. I could barely breathe. And so I don’t know how he did it, but it was amazing. There’s just very little oxygen there.

We stayed at camp for 6 hours, only resting, and then we went for the summit push. We left at 8:30 PM We walked through the night all the way. I summited at 7:48 AM 11 and a half hours, and it was like this the whole way. The hard part was there were so many people on that day that sometimes you were stuck. You could not move. You had to stand because people were not moving, and sometimes you were in the same spot for like 10 minutes and it’s cold. And so I would close my eyes. I would inhale the oxygen and send it to my fingers, and then I would inhale the oxygen and send it to my toes just to keep my body warm and try to move around.

When you get close to the summit, there’s a section that’s called the Hillary step, and it’s very exposed. It’s like that, and you walk along the ridge. And I remember being back home visualizing the Hillary step. Because I still have a fear of heights, it’s still there, it’s not gone. And I’m like: When you’re there, don’t look down just watch where your feet are. So when we got to the bottom, I looked up and I’m like: Oh my God, that is so long. I thought it’s 10 minutes. It’s like an hour of fully exposed. And I’m like taking a deep breath in. And I said: Ok. you watch where your foot goes and that’s all you do. Don’t look down, just watch where your foot goes. One step at a time and we pass 2 more dead bodies that have been there forever. As you pass the Hillary step, it flattens out and you can’t see the summit the whole time. You don’t see the summit, and then all of a sudden you make a turn. I look up, I see all this color and the color are prayer flags, and I’m like, that must be the summit.

So I turn around to my guide, I said: Is that the summit? He said: Yes I’m like: Ok, let’s go and I wanna go. And I’m like: Oh, no. One step, two step, you can’t go fast because you just can’t breathe. When we got to the top, it was very surreal. It was almost like an out of body experience that I’m actually standing on the highest peak of the world. It took me a few moments to really realize where I was, and it’s not very big. It’s almost the size of a living room, and there were about 10 people there. We were like looking around, we’re starting to take pictures, take her mask off a little bit and then put it back on. But then something amazing happened. More climbers came up and there must have been like 25 or 30 climbers on the summit. All kinds of different languages and different flags. I have goosebumps and they were putting their flags up. They were talking, they were hugging so many different languages and it was a celebration. It was almost like a party, and there was so much beautiful energy and relief that we made it to.

The summit is such a relief then though, you realize you have to make it back down and back down. Most of the accidents happen on the way down. And on the way down it was hard because your body is exhausted. You don’t have the adrenaline anymore. So that you really need to focus and I passed 2 new dead bodies that happened on that day on the way down. They have dreams just like I had my dream to make it to the summit. And they may have made it to the summit, but they didn’t make it back down. And so sometimes when you have a goal, you can reach for the goal, but you also have

to look at the risks that you’re facing. Are the risks worth it? And lots of times the risks are worth it as long as you can manage them, but sometimes the risks are not worth it. So maybe you need to step back and try a different time, whatever that is, whatever that goal is.

I like to dance with fear and embrace risk. That’s just the way I live now, but the risk has to be calculated, something that I can manage. And when I was going up, I knew I was tired, but I knew I had enough to make it back down. I had enough. But this is the crazy part. When I left camp 3, which is 23,000, to go for the summit and then come back to camp 2, I did not sleep for 40 hours. For 40 hours and I think if someone would’ve told me ahead of time, you’re not gonna sleep for 40 hours, I’m not sure what my mind would’ve decided. That’s really something that you can’t even comprehend, especially at 26,000, 27,000 feet. But it shows something else, how strong we are. So many times, we underestimate what we can do as a person, as a human being. We underestimate and we don’t give ourself enough credit. And we are so much stronger than we think we are. And I want your audience to realize, believe in yourself. Believe in yourself and don’t listen to naysayers.

You know what you can do in your heart. You have to go with your heart. No matter how hard it is, it will make you feel alive and you’re living life and you’re making a difference. And when you’re living life, in my opinion, you give back. Because it’s like a circle. It’s like a circle.