Laval St. Germain has something new to add to his long list of accomplishments: the Calgary adventurer just returned from Antarctica after successfully conquering the Seven Summits — the highest mountains on each of the seven continents.
Fresh from his trip, St. Germain was back at home in Calgary sharing his stories with people exercising on the long sets of stairs at McHugh Bluff.
“I do a lot of my training by running up and down these stairs,” he said. “I ran these a lot before I did Everest.”
The adventurer uses his daring expeditions to raise money to fight cancer, an effort he started in 2016.
“I had a friend, a young guy, 40 years old,” St. Germain said. “I’m an airline pilot. He’s an airline pilot struck by lung cancer so I teamed up with the Alberta Cancer Foundation, did the Confront Cancer Ocean Row. I rowed a boat from Canada to France, fastest-ever (rowboat) crossing of the North Atlantic.”
St. Germain’s adventures since then have raised about $90,000 for the foundation.
“It’s all about raising money through these weird trips I do,” St. Germain said. “I’ve climbed the highest mountain in Iraq and skied down it. I’ve biked from the Arctic Ocean to the Yukon in the middle of winter using the notoriety to try to get attention for Alberta Cancer.”
WATCH: Laval St. Germain returns home after a winter cycling adventure from the Arctic Ocean to the Klondike
The adventurer, who just turned 50, is already planning his next challenge — to be announced in the months to come — and shows no signs of slowing down.
“Anybody can do this stuff, as long as you put the work in,” he said.
For information on how to support St. Germain’s efforts, go to www.albertacancer.ca/southpole.
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