Serving in the Ohio Army National Guard for nearly 20 years, Quincy Stang has risen to new heights. But it’s what he’s doing out of uniform that he hopes will bring more awareness to an ongoing problem on Mount Everest.
“There’s that no quit mentality that you’re going to kind of go after something, whether it’s big or small, and you’re going to kind of give it all you have,” Stang said.
During his recent attempt this year to summit Mount Everest, Stang’s perseverance and adaptability — skills harnessed from his military service — were stopped by Mother Nature when the weather window closed early.
“I was stuck at a piece of the climb between Camp 3 and 4. (It) should have only taken six to seven hours, it ended up taking me about 14 hours. So, with that, I had used up quite a bit of my oxygen on the final push to the summit … was very close. I could see the summit, but unfortunately, the right decision was to turn around,” Stang said.
It’s not the first time Stang has had to ‘adapt and overcome’ as they say in the military. Over his years of service, he’s deployed in support of U.S. military operations in Kosovo, Syria and Iraq. In addition, he deployed to operations tied to hurricane relief and COVID-19 with support to the Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati.