Reaching New Heights

By Suzanne Kubler

Kia Ravanfar has climbed to the summit of Mount Everest and skied back down parts of it. He’s flown off some of the tallest peaks in the world and completed four Himalayan expeditions. He big-wave surfs, pilots private planes and hang-glides, skydives, wingsuits and speed-flies.

But Kia, a structural engineering manager with the F/A-18 program in El Segundo, California, says he’s not a daredevil. He believes pushing limits and self-discovery are part of human nature.

“We all have the desire within us to see what we’re capable of physically, mentally and emotionally,” said Kia.

Kia’s passion for extreme sports started in 2001 when he began climbing during his senior year of high school. He said he wasn’t great at other sports and found himself drawn to climbing, which doesn’t involve scorecards or coaches.

One of the first goals Kia set as a 17-year-old was climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park — alone. Six years later he made it happen. The climb, which only a handful of people in history have ever completed solo, took him 15 days without a climbing partner.

“That climb was the single most difficult thing I have done in my life. It pushed me to my limits mentally and physically. I took huge falls, battled difficult climbing, fatigue and storms. But it never occurred to me to quit. I knew I had to finish this climb. For me, completion would be a lesson in perseverance; quitting would mean giving in to my fears and giving up on my goals,” said Kia.

With this achievement checked off the list, Kia could see his future goal-setting possibilities were limitless.

“That was the first time I realized I could accomplish anything I set my mind to,” he said.