A near-fatal motorbike crash inspired him to lead amputees on life-changing expeditions.
In September of 2001, Tim Medvetz woke up in a Los Angeles ICU. The New Jersey native and Hells Angels member had been hit by a truck while racing his motorbike. He was left partially paralyzed and expected never to walk again. “Before that, I was traveling the world, being an extreme athlete, living life outdoors, and running a motorcycle club," the 47-year-old says. "Then in one quick moment, it was all taken away from me and I spent six months in a hospital bed."
Medvetz required multiple surgeries. “I had pretty much broken every bone in my body and was put back [together] with pins, plates, and fusions,” he recalls. After leaving the hospital, he found himself in what he calls "a really self-destructive phase," drinking and medicating heavily with Vicodin to numb the pain. Luckily, Medvetz avoided hitting rock bottom thanks to a chance encounter with literature in January 2002. “All of a sudden, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer was staring me in the eye from my bookshelf. I probably hadn’t read a book since high school, but I picked it up and couldn’t put it down,” he says. “Once I finished, I flushed the pills down the toilet, got off the couch, and told my neighbor I was subletting my apartment because I was taking off for a year to climb Mount Everest."
Thirty days later, Medvetz got a one-way ticket to Nepal. Once he arrived, he purchased climbing gear and headed straight to the foothills of the Himalayas. "I befriended a sherpa, lived at his home for about a year, climbed with him, and immersed myself in the community.” On May 21, 2007, he summited Everest for the first time. In the fall of 2009, he founded The Heroes Project. The non-profit organization (of which Equinox is a founding partner) gives wounded veterans the chance to go on life-changing expeditions.
Furthermore talked with Medvetz ahead of the ninth annual Cycle for Heroes event, an outdoor stationary cycling fundraiser, which takes over the Santa Monica Pier on November 9.