Cason Crane now has only two more of the world’s tallest mountains to climb as he raises money and awareness for gay youth suicide prevention.
He became the first openly gay climber to conquer Mount Everest on May 20.
“It was so freaking amazing,” he wrote on Twitter.
Crane, 20, will enroll in Princeton this fall and created The Rainbow Summit Project as a way to combat gay youth suicide prevention.
The Project was born from tragedy. As a junior in high school, one of Crane’s friends committed suicide. He was further shocked in 2010 by the suicide of Tyler Clementi at Rutgers, someone he did not know but whose story touched him.
“Confronted by the tragic deaths of my friend and Tyler and witnessing daily the trials and tribulations facing LGBTQ youth, I felt compelled to work to make things better for these youth,” he wrote on his blog.
Climbing mountains to raised awareness was his contribution to the Trevor Project, as are the more than $105,000 in donations he has raised for the group.
Crane’s parents financially support his climbs and are also supportive of his efforts to raise awareness, he told OutSports.com.
But he has to conquer the mountains on his own, which is no easy feat.
“What it really, really requires more than anything else is mental fortitude to just put one foot in front of the other for six, seven, eight hours a day for weeks at a time,” he said. “Overcoming obstacles-physical, mental, emotional-thinking you won’t ever be able to make it, thinking you won’t make it up the mountain and just somehow committing until you get up to the top safely and back down safely.”
Before he starts his first semester of school, he has one more climb on his calendar. In July he’s scheduled to take on Denali in Alaska.
