'The World Triathalon': Charlie Wittmack, a Lawyer From Des Moines, Risks It All to Save Lives

July 16, 2011 — -- Last year, a seemingly impossible dream took Charlie Wittmack, a trial lawyer from Des Moines, Iowa, to the world's highest peaks, leaving his family and comfortable Iowa life behind in an effort to save the lives of women and children in Nepal.

"I guess this started 15 years ago, when I started thinking: What could be the world's toughest triathlon?" Wittmack said.

He conjured up what he calls "The World Triathlon" -- an odyssey that includes swimming across the English Channel, cycling from France to Nepal, and climbing to the top of Mount Everest.

Before even attempting The World Tri, Wittmack first tested out the toughest part of the journey, climbing Mount Everest in 2003. What he learned along the way changed the course of his dream.

A good friend from Nepal had helped to arrange the climb

"He almost lost his first child shortly after birth and that really opened my eyes," Wittmack told ABC News. "Unfortunately, in Nepal and many places in the world, so many families lose children and mothers to preventable causes -- often just for lack of very basic health care."

So he decided to use "The World Tri" to draw attention, and money, to saving the lives of women and children in Nepal.

To make the dream a reality, Wittmack and his wife, Cate, spent their life savings, sold their house and car, and took out a $100,000 loan. A Toyota dealer and a hospital in Des Moines kicked in several thousand dollars, but Wittmack lacked major sponsorship. To top it off, Wittmack purchased a $2.5 million life insurance plan in case the journey killed him.

Beginning the Journey

Last summer, Wittmack started at the source of the River Thames in England and swam his way across the English Channel. On the other side, in France, he boarded a bicycle and rode across 13 countries to Nepal, where he began the climb to the summit of Mount Everest.

Wittmack said the feat wasn't just about his personal dream. What he really wanted was to help reduce maternal and child mortality in Nepal. Each year, 37,000 newborns and young children die from preventable causes in Nepal, nearly seven times the 5,393 people who have ever made it to the top of Mount Everest.

Wittmack hopes that attention from the stunt will help raise at least $300,000, enough to support 1,000 community health workers in Nepal working with the international organization Save the Children. Those 1,000 community health workers reach hundreds of thousands of mothers, newborns and children with lifesaving care.

The journey was no cakewalk. Along the way he was diagnosed with amoebic dysentery, pulmonary anemia, cerebral anemia, hit by a car in Kazakhstan and lost vision in his right eye.

Reaching the Summit

However, upon arriving at the summit of Mount Everest, 29,035 feet in the air, this time with a mission, Wittmack was rewarded for the odyssey that had pushed his body to the limit.

"It was a crystal clear day, not very much wind ... not like the last time I made it to the summit," Wittmack told ABC News. "The conditions couldn't have been better."