At 8:13 p.m. on Monday, the credits of Halloween: Resurrection started to roll, and Joseph Condron dissolved into tears of joy. He had a good reason: At age 43, he’d just made history, becoming the first human being ever to climb Mount Everest and watch all 10 installments in the Halloween horror film franchise.
Incredible! Condron’s feat is unique, unmatched by any mountain climber or film fan in history.
To do it, Condron had to brave more than 29,000 vertical feet and 920 minutes of film, and that’s not even considering the fact that descending Everest is often even harder than climbing it in the first place! It’s no surprise that what Condron just did was long thought impossible.
Others have come close. American mountaineer Ed Viesturs has climbed Everest seven times and seen 1995’s Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers. The U.K.’s Paul Noble has climbed Everest and seen an impressive six of the 10 Halloween movies. Still others have watched every single Halloween film but never made it to the top of Everest.
All impressive in their own right, but now they’re making way for history. Condron’s monumental achievement stands alone, and this incredible graphic only begins to suggest its scope:
The most mind-blowing thing is that he did it at a time when there are more Halloween films in existence than ever before. Ten films and the tallest mountain on earth: It seems insane, and indeed, there were times it appeared Condron would come up short. When the Rob Zombie–directed Halloween was released in 2007, it was unclear if Condron would ever achieve the elusive goal.
But it was then that Condron produced a stunning run of achievement: He watched the Rob Zombie reboot early the following year before knocking out Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982) in 2009, climbing Mount Everest for the first time in 2010, and seeing Rob Zombie’s Halloween II (2009) in 2012, leaving just Halloween: Resurrection (2002) standing between Condron and immortality.
Then, in 85 awe-inspiring minutes last night, he finally did it. Condron watched Halloween: Resurrection, and in doing so, vaulted himself into a newly forged pantheon of one.
Amazing. It just proves that when you dare to push the limits of what is possible, you can climb Mount Everest and see all 10 films in the Halloween franchise. Inspiring!
