Pat O'Donnell

About Pat

• By the age of 27, he knew he wasn't meant for a 9-to-5 job; he took a climbing trip to Yosemite and realized he'd found his passion.
• Took a job in Yosemite as a bellman, which only paid ninety cents an hour, but allowed him to climb for six hours each day.
• He was so content that he feared he'd become "like Rip Van Winkle" and wake up in the same place thirty years later without having progressed.
• Forced himself to leave; took a job in Lake Tahoe, where he helped build the Kirkwood ski area.
• His exceptional work in Lake Tahoe got him a job as chief operating officer in charge of ski operations at Keystone resort in Colorado.
• The perk about his job was that it allowed him to pursue passion, which had graduated into Himalayan climbing.
• After an avalanche killed three of his best friends, Pat came home, quit his job, cashed out everything he had, bought a sailboat, and sailed away.
• He spent a year and a half unwinding and processing his grief, then came back to dry land, where he's now the CEO of Aspen Skiing Company.