After 17 years, having climbed 42,367 meters and completed 200 kilometers of brutal open-water swimming, 44-year-old American athlete Rob Lea has achieved an unprecedented feat in human history — becoming the first person to complete the 'Double Seven' (completing the Seven Summits and the Seven Oceans) challenge!
"I can’t believe I did it, I’m completely exhausted, I just want to lie down and rest!" The real-estate agent and endurance athlete collapsed on the shore of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, his body streaked with salt and smeared with green zinc oxide.
On June 30, Lea spent 12 hours swimming across the Tsugaru Strait, which connects Honshu and Hokkaido — the final leg of the challenge he had pursued for the past 17 years.
According to Lea, to date only about 44 people have completed the 'Seven Oceans' challenge; hundreds have completed the Seven Summits — and before this, no one had completed both challenges. He believes he is the first person to complete the 'Double Seven' challenge, which combines mountaineering and open-water swimming. He climbed the highest peak on each continent and completed the 'Seven Oceans' challenge — an open-water swimming series that requires swimmers to cross seven iconic straits alone and without assistance.
01
A journey spanning nearly twenty years
Lea, from Utah, USA, was once an age-group world champion in the Ironman 70.3. As early as 2009 he climbed Aconcagua in Argentina, which reaches nearly 7,010 meters, and at that time the 'Seven Oceans' and 'Seven Summits' challenges were not yet on his radar.
In 2017, Lea underwent ankle surgery after an injury and was advised by doctors to stop running. To motivate his rehabilitation he needed a goal, so he turned his attention to crossing the English Channel.
Image source: ig@rob.lea
Lea did not do it alone. His wife, professional ski-mountaineer Caroline Gleich, climbed five of the seven peaks with him and accompanied and supported him from a support boat during most of his strait swims.
She mixed his liquid feeds and tossed bottles to him on a retractable line. "Riding those small boats across some of the planet's roughest open water isn't for the faint of heart, and I'm exhausted too. It's a different kind of tired, but very rewarding."
Image source: ig@rob.lea
02
From climbing peaks to crossing oceans
Most people train for just one extreme environment, but Lea trained his body to handle both high-altitude and open-water conditions. In 2019 he climbed Mount Everest and 46 days later crossed the 33-kilometer English Channel. To complete that challenge he put on 30 pounds, mainly eating pizza and heavy cream. In frigid seawater, wearing only a swimsuit, body fat served as his insulation.
He knew he could swim the distance; the real difficulty was hypothermia. "I spent years in cold plunges and icy lakes, doing everything I could to get my body used to the swim." There were other dangers. During his English Channel crossing he was stung more than a hundred times by jellyfish. He almost began to enjoy that nuisance. "I even kind of looked forward to those compass jellyfish stings — they helped keep me awake during nearly 12 hours in the water!"
Image source: ig@rob.lea
Seven months before his final crossing of the Tsugaru Strait, Lea spent over 14 hours crossing the 43-kilometer Kaiwi Channel. The deepest parts of that channel are frequented by cookiecutter sharks that can attack swimmers, so organizers required him to swim the deepest section during daylight — which meant facing the risk of shark encounters as well as strong winds, huge waves and strong currents.
Six hours after finishing that crossing he was hospitalized with swimming-induced pulmonary edema, a dangerous buildup of fluid in the lungs. "When I was swimming, I was literally drowning in my own bodily fluids!" he said. It took him three months to fully recover.
Image source: ig@rob.lea
03
The challenge made me stronger
For Lea, motivation came from a wealth of emotions and experiences. "You experience a shift from the lowest valleys in life to the highest peaks — sometimes in an instant — and doing these things makes me feel more alive." He hopes the project will inspire people to go after goals that scare them.
"Each of us has a dream that scares us, like the mountain you can see from your back window. I hope this project inspires people to mark that day on the calendar and turn the dream into reality."
Image source: ig@rob.lea
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#44-year-old completes 'Double Seven' feat，which part of his journey do you admire most?#
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