Maxime Chaya

Maxime Chaya (مكسيم شعيا; born 16 December 1961) is a Lebanese mountaineer and explorer.

Maxime Edgard Chaya was born and raised in Beirut until the year 1975 when the civil war saw him and his family take refuge abroad.

He pursued his education overseas in Greece, France, Canada and the United Kingdom, graduating with a Bachelor of Science Honors degree from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Chaya then spent a year as a trainee at Republic National Bank of New York's head office on Fifth Avenue before foregoing post-graduate studies and returning home to take over the family's foreign exchange business.

In 1999, he founded his own company VO2max, and through it, organized races and competitions for Lebanese youth of all ages.

Cycling, both road and mountain biking, triathlon, road running, trail-running, rock climbing, ski touring, and freeride were all part of the VO2MAX challenge series of events from 1999 to 2003.

Besides organizing events for others, and the youth in particular, Chaya showed great interest in competing personally, and seemed to excel in every discipline he would adopt.

Despite the lack of professional training and advice (owing in part due to the Lebanese Civil War), his rigorous training, coupled with unfailing determination, perseverance and willpower won him several awards and trophies in a host of disciplines both at national and international level.

Chaya now resides in Lebanon with his two children: Edgard and Kelly.

Despite work and family life, he has kept his fitness level at the very top but has gradually put down his rackets, skates, and various balls to take up more open-air sports such as trail running, biking, backcountry skiing, and climbing.

In 2000, while on a visit to Kenya for an international mountain biking stage race that he won, Chaya went on to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in nearby Tanzania.

Little did he know that this was to be the first of his 'Seven Summits', and as he watched the sunrise from the roof of Africa, he pondered over his desire to challenge himself yet further on these new sports grounds in the great outdoors: the high mountain.

Over a three-year climbing odyssey, Chaya took on each of the 'Seven Summits' (the highest peak on each continent), raising the Lebanese flag – and national pride – on every occasion.

Still intent on thriving, Chaya subsequently went on to achieve the 'Three Poles'.

Since his partnership with Bank Audi on the "Seven Summits Project" in January 2003, it has been one successful expedition after another for Chaya, acquiring experience, knowledge and wisdom, while discovering new limits within him, and 'Growing Beyond His Potential' summit after summit.

On May 15, 2006, he was the first Lebanese to climb Mount Everest and the Seven Summits.

In 2006, Discovery Channel launched a reality television series entitled Everest: Beyond the Limit.

It is a multi-episode documentary that portrays the two-month expedition and the struggles, highs, lows, triumphs and despairs of 11 climbers aspiring to stand on the summit of the world's highest peak.

Chaya was one of those climbers.

The series turned-out to be a tremendous success to the point that it was repeated in subsequent years, with different climbers in what was known as Series II and Series III.

As Chaya said in many interviews about his Everest expedition, reaching the summit – and more importantly, coming back – should never be taken for granted.

This is a serious endeavor that could put even the finest climbers' lives at risk.

Everest may not be as technical as some other 8,000 meter peaks, yet its sheer height greatly magnifies any problem that is not dealt with immediately.

This – the altitude – is what makes Chomolungma (the Tibetan name for Everest) unique and worthy of all the respect it deserves.

On May 15, 2006, Chaya, exhausted after his successful summit bid, saw his triumph turn to tragedy as he encountered a dying climber on his way back from the summit of Everest.

The name of the distressed climber was David Sharp.

Chaya and his Tibetan Sherpa Dorjee, tried their best to help.

They spent more than an hour next to the stricken climber, whom they did not know, desperately trying to revive him.

Unfortunately, Sharp was unconscious and frozen from the knees down.

He did not respond to the oxygen administered.

Chaya later reported that although very sad of the man's fate, he was confident that nothing more could have been done for him at that stage.

"He was much closer to death than he was to life."

On December 28, 2007, Max also became the first from the Middle East to reach the South Pole on foot from the Antarctic coast, after an unsupported and unassisted journey that lasted 47 days.

Then, on April 25, 2009, he reached the North Pole also on foot, all the way from Canada.

On August 5, 2013, Chaya and his two crew-mates beat the world speed record in rowing the Indian Ocean.

The three adventurers, Chaya, the Faroese Livar Nysted and the British Stuart Kershaw crossed 5801 km from Geraldton in the Western Australia and rowed alternatively, during 57 days, 19 hours, 25 minutes and 52 seconds exactly.

They were also the first crew of three ever to cross any ocean.

In December 2016, Maxime and his British friend and teammate Steve Holyoak were the first ever to cross a sand desert on bicycles.

They chose the Empty Quarter and rode their fat bikes unassisted from Abu Dhabi UAE on the Arabian Gulf all the way south to Salalah Oman on the Indian Ocean some 1,500 km and 21 days later.

Numerous national representations at international events.