Ed Viesturs, who has summited all 14 of the world’s tallest peaks, is widely regarded as America’s foremost authority on mountaineering. He’s also a best-selling author and star of IMAX’s Everest Expedition documentary. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump, who wants to build a 30-foot tall, $10 billion wall between the United States and Mexico, visited prototypes of the border wall in San Diego, California. He said, “Who would think? Who would think? But getting over the top is easy. These are like professional mountain climbers—they’re incredible climbers. They can’t climb some of these walls. Some of them, they can. Those are the walls we’re not using.” Esquire called Viesturs to see how he felt about these comments. Does he think the 30-feet tall walls made of concrete would stop a professional? No. Viesturs said that a “good professional mountain climber can probably do it in a few hours, easy.” He also thinks that “if there’s a mountain or wall, somebody will climb it, eventually. Might take a while.”
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