
Lee Donald: Finding Euphoria
From Cool Conversations with Kenton Cool by Cool Conversations
January 13, 2026 · 1h 23m · Episode 160
About this episode
Lee Donald shares her journey from overcoming personal struggles to summiting Everest and finding euphoria in the mountains.
Our first guest in 2026 is Lee Donald, an award winning PT who summited Everest in 2024 and has found a love for the big mountains. Becoming a PT in 2011 helped Lee to overcome an eating disorder, alcohol addiction and depression, and she describes the feeling of standing on Everest as 'from rock bottom to the top of the world'. She trained for Everest in both the Alps and Ecuador, although her training was beset by a series of pitfalls and mistakes that she describes to Kenton. If you have a dream to go to Everest, you are likely to find Lee's story highly relatable, and her enthusiasm will add an extra dose of motivation!
People in this episode
Host: Kenton Cool
Guest: Lee Donald
Topics covered
- mountaineering
- personal transformation
- overcoming addiction
- fitness training
- inspiration
Keywords
- Everest
- mountains
- personal trainer
- addiction recovery
- inspiration
- fitness
- mental health
More episodes of Cool Conversations with Kenton Cool
- Everest short: Karl Egloff · May 19, 2026 · 28 min
- Everest Short: Jakob Muehlbacher · May 12, 2026 · 46 min
- Everest Short: Benny Lieber · May 5, 2026 · 24 min
- Everest Short: Ben Ayers · April 28, 2026 · 47 min
- TFTT: Carstensz Pyramid · March 24, 2026 · 1h 3m
- TFTT Argentina Part 2 · March 10, 2026 · 1h 1m
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