4:56
- ABC News
- May 2, 2019
Couple attempts climbing feats half a world away
"We just need to be so open to protect our love and relationship first."
4:56
Ballinger, an Eddie Bauer mountaineer and CEO of Alpenglow Expeditions, meanwhile, is back on Mount Everest -- which he's already summited eight times, including once without supplemental oxygen, which only about 200 people have ever done.
\"I want you to climb fast and come home!\" Harrington told Ballinger while hanging off El Cap during their May \"GMA\" appearance.
Along with Alpenglow Expeditions, Ballinger is the expedition leader for four projects on Everest, including a research project for which he'll be attempting to spend as much time as physically possible -- as many as eight days, he hopes -- above 8,000 meters (26,246 feet) -- sometimes referred to as the \"death zone.\"
The couple, who met on Everest in 2012 and document their life on a YouTube channel, will see each other for about a week around late May, and then it's back apart -- Ballinger to attempt K2 in Pakistan without supplemental oxygen and Harrington to Peru to attempt some first ascents -- until mid-August.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/couple-ht-001-jpo-190405_hpEmbed_17x13_384.jpg\")
While they've gotten \"better\" at managing these separate trips with logistics, including planning their big trips to overlap, when asked if it gets any easier, they both said, \"I think it gets harder.\"
\"Early on it was just so cool,\" Ballinger told ABC News in April. \"It was like, 'Oh my gosh, Em's the craziest! She's going to Myanmar! She's going here! She's going there! This is so rad!'\"
\"And now the novelty of all that has worn off,\" Harrington said. \"You're like, 'Really? You want to go there? OK, cool, like, we'll just spend another month apart, um...'\"
This is especially true as \"we have this life that we've built together,\" including a dog, named Cat, Harrington said. But technology has made their time apart easier.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by DogcalledCat (@dogcalledcat) on Feb 25, 2019 at 8:40am PST
\"Now, with WhatsApp and satellite technology and FaceTime, we talk in some form every single day,\" Ballinger said.
\"It's nice to hear like, 'I'm having coffee outside, it's sunny out, here's a photo of Everest,' and I'll be hanging on the wall like, 'Oh cool, here I am on top of El Cap, I'm gonna [rappel] in.' You get to discuss the tiny little minutiae of the day,\" Harrington said.
That also means when they reunite, they don't have a whole life experience to catch each other up on, so their reintegration into being a couple, together, is easier.
Even so, that doesn't mean they're sharing an experience, and that feeling of being \"left out\" is the most difficult part for both professionals.
\"Knowing Em's having this complete pinnacle experience that's life-changing for her or a life highlight and she's doing it with other partners and they're always going to have that -- those stories, those experiences of suffering, that massive potential of success or failure -- I struggle with not being that person for her,\" Ballinger said.
That's partially why they've figured out the key to their relationship -- and the best relationship advice they have to offer -- is to be honest about everything, from potential business deals to tipsy flirtations or sober connections while they're on their respective mountains.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/couple-ht-jpo-190405_hpEmbed_10x13_384.jpg\")
\"We just need to be so open to protect our love and relationship first,\" Ballinger said, acknowledging it's taken time and effort to get there, especially since they've been living and dating in the small world of extreme outdoor athletics for longer than they've known each other.
But another way to protect their relationship is to protect their safety.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/couple-ht-005-jpo-190405_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
\"We are talking about things like having a family, and I really want to live a long life and have [that] opportunity,\" Ballinger said.
So, over their past seven years together, Ballinger has lowered the time of risk for random accidents he'll do in a year. For instance, instead of attempting a new route on Everest this year and doing K2, he spoke with Harrington to figure out which was more important to him and ultimately decided to only do K2 to minimize his time in risk zones.
In the weeks leading up to their trips, while they were both busy training, they'd make efforts to join each other, whether at Harrington's indoor climbing wall or on Ballinger's recovery runs.
\"It's time we can spend together and it feels supportive,\" Harrington said.
Their dog, Cat, is traveling with Harrington, so she let Ballinger take Cat with him on more training days.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Emily Harrington (@emilyaharrington) on Feb 14, 2019 at 8:46pm PST
And for their last week together, as morning people, they cleared their early schedules of any calls or meetings so they could \"just get up, drink coffee, sit on our deck, and talk about what we have coming up,\" Ballinger said.
After all, it's the little things that make a life together, even if that life revolves around the world's biggest mountains and walls.
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