After a helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2012, Kirstie Ennis lost her left leg. But the former Marine sergeant refused to allow the injury to define her. Now, she has climbed six of the seven highest peaks on each continent, with her sights set on Mt. Everest next month. Ennis joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today” to talk about those monumental climbs and how she hopes to inspire anyone facing the climbs of their lives.
Ennis served as a helicopter door gunner in the Marines. On an extraction mission, her helicopter crashed, and she was seriously injured, but she and everyone else on board survived.
“We all made it. And I have some pretty spiritual beliefs on that. We actually had a helicopter go down six months earlier where it killed all six crew members. And to this day, I fully, wholeheartedly believe that the reason that my crew and I faired as well as we did was because the boys of the earlier crash, the boys of Iron Hill zero six, didn’t let history repeat itself,” Ennis said.
Due to her injuries, Ennis would need to have her left leg amputated above the knee. But, she said, it’s the invisible injuries that hurt the most.
“I didn’t see a point in living anymore when I was forced into this medical retirement. I didn’t want to get out of the Marine Corps, but I lost my purpose and lost that identity. I had to figure out what I was going to do next,” she shared. “But I recognize that we’re very fortunate. … So, even on my darkest of days now, I’m just going to continue convincing myself to put one foot in front of the other, to continue living for those who aren’t here anymore.”
Ennis turned to the outdoors as an alternative medicine. She began winning snowboarding competitions, then started climbing mountains.
“All of my climbs have been so different, just the different people that I’ve met, obviously different cultures and then just the climbs themselves. Some of them teach you resiliency, some of them teach you patience. Some of them have taught me how to glacier travel, how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and how to suffer well,” Ennis said.
Ennis and her team create all her adaptive gear themselves so she can climb the mountains safely. She’ll climb Mt. Everest in April, but has no intention of slowing down afterward.
“After I got out of the Marine Corps being a helicopter door gunner, I really wanted to continue pursuing how I was going to serve and still be in the sky. So hopefully this summer I’ll actually be able to tell the world that I am an aerial firefighter,” she shared.
Watch the full interview above.
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