With 12 stories, Larson Hall is the tallest residential building at St. Olaf College. Climbing up the stairs 255 times would be equivalent to climbing Mount Everest. That is what Jack Aldrich ’29, Paavo Rova ’28, and Liesl Cope-Schaeffer ’28 discovered on April 18.

There was no rhyme or reason as to why the three St. Olaf nordic skiers chose to take on this venture. It was simply a no-brainer — a “why not?” — after a nordic ski team dinner conversation where they discovered that one of their teammates climbed up Larson’s stairs 30 times before.

“We were like, ‘Well, what if we did it more times?’” Rova said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger.

“Someone brought up Everest, and we thought, ‘Well, now we have to,’” Cope-Schaeffer said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “So we did.”

Leading up to the climb, the trio prepared by gathering the snacks and electrolytes necessary, mapped out how many times they would need to keep going in order to climb the equivalent of Mount Everest, and spent an hour on the StairMaster in Skoglund Gym. They concluded that they would climb up the 12 flights of stairs, take the elevator down, and repeat the ascent.

Their venture began at 7:30 a.m. and went on for 17 hours. During this time, fellow teammates would join for about 30 rounds, and friends would greet them at the top with snacks. According to Cope-Schaeffer, Larson residents and visitors began to recognize them after a few times of seeing them in the elevator.

Going into this, the three knew that climbing Mount Everest would be no easy feat. So, to keep themselves occupied, they sang songs, played word games, and took turns leading each ascent.

Motivation throughout the day varied amongst the climbers: caffeine was what drove Cope-Schaeffer, food aided Aldrich, and the knowledge that he had nothing planned for the day helped push Rova to the end. However, in the last six hours, they all shared one common goal: ice cream.

“We were looking forward to getting ice cream for the entire last 50 ascents,” Rova said. “So, we went to the [Lion’s] Pause after, but it was closed. So, we had a mental breakdown on the floor and then went to bed.”

While the climb finished on a rough note, their efforts were rewarded the following day at a meet and greet with recently retired Olympic cross-country skier Jessie Diggins, who was shocked and impressed by their venture.

“If one of the world’s best skiers thinks it’s cool, that’s cool with us,” Cope-Schaeffer said.

This story was originally published on The Olaf Messenger on April 29, 2026.