All the way from California, Jesus Vega is our next Impossible Story after meeting Claire Klein while doing the Half Dome.
I just thought to myself, is this how my friend is going to remember me?
3:59 Nation – Meet our latest Impossible Story feature all the way from California, Jesus Vega! If you tuned in last night to our Facebook LIVE video, you know that Jesus met Claire Klein while doing the Half Dome. 👉 Keep reading to find out more about Jesus’ story and drop him a 👏 below for achieving a once impossible in his life!!
Behind every 3:59 achieved is a story and we want to hear all of them. Why? Because it proves to you, me and the rest of the world that nothing is impossible.
A: Hello! My name is Jesus Ivan Vega. I am originally from Mexico (Uruapan Michoacan). My “impossible” was to hike the tallest mountain in Southern California, San Gorgonio Mountain, also know as Old Greyback. At 11,503 ft, San Gorgonio is one of the hardest hikes, if not the hardest hike in Southern California.
A: A few years back for me that hike was something “impossible” to be accomplished, because I remember the first time I went hiking, I ended up throwing up and almost passed out on the trail. That experience for me was extremely embarrassing, especially since that hike was rated as easy. I was with my friend and she got really worry about me. I just thought to myself, “Is this how my friend is going to remember me?” My first hike and I almost “die.” I was 21 years old at that time and after that experience I didn’t want to hike ever again. So, I never thought that I would have the strength to hike a mountain as tall as San Gorgonio just because of the mentality I had back then, and all my eating habits were not helping.
A: One of my friends introduced me to Racquetball and I instantly was hooked. That was the introduction to the fitness world for me. A couple of years after that, that’s when I met my best friends, my hiking partners. We did our first hike on July 11, 2017 and since then, we’ve been hiking together.
After a while of hiking together as a group, we started doing harder and harder hikes around here in LA. We got “addicted” to hike higher and higher, so we started looking for harder hikes outside the city, and that’s when we discovered San Gorgonio.
When I started doing re-search about this place, I got a little bit nervous because that’s a very long and difficult hike, and it’s only recommended for very experienced hikers – which I don’t think we felt we were ready for a hike like that yet. We knew that we had to do some training for this challange, but mainly, we had to have the right mentality to achieve it.
July 31, 2019 – That’s one of the best days of my life. This is the day we hiked San Gorgonio, 19 miles out and back and 5,492 ft of elevation gain. What a brutal and beautiful experienced that was. I remember when I first reached the summit the first thing that came to my mind was the first hiking experienced I ever had.
Reaching the top of the tallest moutain in Souther California was the greatest feeling in my life. I was very proud of myself for achieving something that a few years back I thought it was “impossible.”
A: My advice to all those people who have an “impossible” in their life, is to never give up. I believe that’s the first step in order to achieve your goals. Followed by discipline, faith, hard work, and the right mindset. I know this is easy to say and hard to do, but that’s where friends and family play a big role in your life. The love and support from them is what’s going to keep you moving forward on achieving your “impossible.”
