AEW Star Darby Allin Details First Reaction Upon Climbing Mt. Everest

Former AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin is known for pushing his body to it's limits, and is often compared to Jeff Hardy, who did similar things throughout his career. In a true test of his physical and mental capabilities, Allin made the dangerous trek up Mount Everest earlier this year, and has since been opening up about the journey in interviews. Sitting down for an interview on "My Mom's Basement with Robbie Fox," Allin expressed that climbing Everest was a spiritual journey for him, and was asked when he felt the most fulfilled.

"It's when I got to the summit, because when I was climbing – [on the] day of [climbing from] camp 4 to the summit, day of the actual summit – there was this gnarly line; we didn't move for an hour," he recalled. "I see people running out of oxygen. I see people [whose] adrenaline stops and they start to freeze, and they're like 'Yo, screw this!' Like, 'I'm not gonna die on this mountain.' Because you start to see people, like, convulsing on the mountain."

The former TNT Champion then noted that he started to doubt whether he could finish the climb, especially since he gave everyone his word that he'd make it to the top. He then explained that there's a concept called 'summit fever,' where a mountain climber ends up pushing themselves to the top even if they'll die trying.

"I fully had that! Like, there was nothing nobody could tell me to turn around at that point," he claimed. "I stuck with it, made it to the summit, I started crying and was like: man, like, I did it."

Allin also expressed what it meant for him to go out of his way to do something like climbing Mount Everest. For him, a large part of the appeal is self-discovery, in whatever form it may come. He also expressed gratitude that he's in the prime of his career and yet AEW gave him the time off to go and do something like climbing Everest.

"There's no off season. It's all year around for who knows how [long]. Then ... by the time you get out of the hamster wheel, you realize, 'Oh, there's so much I wanted to do with my life that I couldn't do!' Because you're trying to make the fans happy, the TV happy, all this stuff happy, but at the end of the day you're not making yourself happy."

"Everybody assumes I'm just an adrenaline junkie, but that's so not the case!" Allin added, explaining that climbing Everest was the most slow and tedious thing he's ever done. The AEW star noted that seeing dead bodies made him consider that he might not make it, and admitted that coming down the summit made him blackout and wonder if he was dying. "Am I tired or am I dying? You can't tell... So, yeah, I'd say my heart was pounding at that rate!"

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "My Mom's Basement with Robbie Fox" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.