Our friend and leader Robert Alt is on the mend after his attempt to summit Mount Elbrus in Southern Russia took a turn for the worse. Upon receiving word of his harrowing journey, WCMH-TV4 (Columbus) and The Columbus Dispatch both interviewed Robert and published stories about his experience.

Robert began climbing just three years ago, setting the standard for internalizing Buckeye’s unofficial motto, “Do Hard Things.”

And after successfully climbing a number of summits in the U.S., Robert set his sights on the Seven Summits (the highest mountain on each continent). Before tackling Mt. Elbrus, with a group of experienced climbers led by a professional climber with extensive experience on Mt. Elbrus, Robert reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

If you know Robert, you aren’t surprised to hear about the difficult challenges he sets for himself. As he said to The Columbus Dispatch, he often tells the team at Buckeye “[You] should have worthy goals, goals that are difficult to achieve.”

Now we know how serious Robert is about taking his own advice! While ascending the mountain, Robert contracted a case of high-altitude pulmonary edema and was forced to forfeit his chance to finish the climb. But always one to think of others, Robert, in consultation with the group leader, decided that he would descend the mountain while the group continued to the summit.

When asked by WMCH-TV4 if he will ever climb again, Robert responded, “I think we’ll sort of take it a day at a time and see how it goes.”

As for Rebekah’s response, she told The Dispatch that Robert is “not the type to stay home and do puzzles.”

The entire staff at Buckeye truly admires Robert’s ambition and is thankful to have him back. We are also actively looking for puzzles that may capture Robert’s attention long enough to keep him away from mountains for a while. Please inform us if you know of any!

Maggie Kimmel is the communications intern at The Buckeye Institute.