On the windswept summit of Cho Oyu, the sixth-highest mountain in the world, Caroline Gleich dropped to one knee. At nearly 27,000 feet, with Everest looming on the horizon, she proposed to her partner, Rob Lea. Eight months later, the Park City couple stood together on the summit of Everest, cementing a chapter in their story that blends love, endurance and shared ambition at the very highest levels.
A Park City Foundation
For Rob, the mountains are home in the most literal sense. Born and raised in Park City, he grew up in the shadow of the Wasatch Range. His parents moved here in the mid-1970s, long before the ski town was a global destination. Rob spent his youth swimming competitively, running and pushing himself outdoors, trying to keep up with his older brother. “If you weren’t into the outdoors here, you’d probably be pretty bored,” he says with a laugh. His competitive streak came early — he was named “Most Athletic” in his high school yearbook — and it carried him to UC Davis in California, where he swam at the collegiate level.
After college and travels, Rob returned to Park City, where he joined his father, Jim Lea, in the family real estate business. Two decades later, Rob is still a realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Utah Properties, continuing the legacy his father began in the late 1970s.
From Minnesota to the Wasatch
Caroline’s story begins in Minnesota, where she grew up one of seven siblings. Her family would travel west to Utah each year, skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer. Tragedy struck when she was 15: her half-brother was killed in an avalanche. That loss deepened her relationship with the mountains. By 2001, the Gleich family relocated to Utah, where Caroline finished high school and attended University of Utah.
Those early trips and the eventual move west were pivotal. “Traveling out to the mountains just captured my imagination,” she recalls. “I loved the snow, I loved the time together as a family, and I knew I wanted to make skiing my life.”
Her parents, both healthcare professionals — her father an immunologist, her mother a dermatologist — eventually settled in Salt Lake City, while Caroline carved her own path in professional ski mountaineering.
The High Peaks
Today, Caroline is one of the most recognized ski mountaineers in the world. She has been a Patagonia ambassador since 2011 and has built a career not only on technical climbs and ski descents but also on advocacy. Among her proudest achievements was becoming the first woman (and fourth person) to ski all 90 steep lines described in The Chuting Gallery, a Wasatch classic written by Parkite Andrew McClean. She also skied Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica, and Cho Oyu, which she skied from top to bottom with one short rappel on the Yellow Band, a steep section of metamorphic rock and mixed terrain that isn’t skiable.
In 2021, Gleich raised $15,000 for Utah Clean Energy by “Everesting” on skis, logging 30,000 vertical feet in a single day. It makes the suffering meaningful. “For me, the most rewarding accomplishments are the ones where I can merge advocacy and athletics,” she says.
Her tenacity is perhaps best embodied on Everest. Just seven weeks before departing, she tore her ACL. Instead of canceling, she climbed the mountain wearing a brace, summiting without the stabilizing ligament. “It was a calculated, mitigated risk, and we had a good team with our expedition leadership and high altitude doctor to help us make good decisions,” Rob explains. Plus, Gleich was determined.
World Records
Rob’s endurance feats parallel Caroline’s alpine accomplishments. After years competing in Ironman triathlons, he pursued long-distance, open-water swimming, completing iconic crossings of the English Channel between England and France, Catalina Channel in California, New Zealand’s Cook Strait and the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland. In 2019, he linked his passions in what he dubbed the “Ultimate World Triathlon” by climbing Everest, swimming the English Channel and biking across the United States — all within six months, with the couple’s wedding in the middle.
Now, Rob has set his sights on a world first: to complete both the Seven Summits and the Oceans Seven, the mountaineering and extreme swimming equivalents of the planet’s most challenging endurance lists. He is well on his way, with six summits and four channels behind him. The genesis came from the doctor’s table after ankle surgery in 2017. Rob knew he needed a goal to train for during rehab. “I had found blogs comparing what’s harder, the English Channel or climbing Everest? I also wanted to bike across the country, so as a triathlete, I decided to make a triathlon out of it.”
Shared Mountain Time
Together, Caroline and Rob have summited hundreds of peaks worldwide, visiting nearly 40 countries along the way. Locally, they return to favorites like Mount Superior’s south ridge, Wasatch Crest and Heber Valley’s Timpanogos, which they’ve hiked and skied many different lines. They love the backyard ridgelines of Park City and training days at Jordanelle Reservoir, where Rob swims and water-skis.
They share their adventures with their dog, Lila, whom they adopted several years ago. “She’s 5 years old and has been to 55 summits,” Caroline says. “We’re working on getting Lila to the summit of 100 unique peaks.”
Caroline and Rob’s partnership extends well beyond the mountains. During her 2024 U.S. Senate campaign, Rob took on the role of support crew at home. “He would steam my clothes and pack my lunch every day. All those little things are the most important — they’re the big things,” she says. “He’s a really good ally for women’s leadership. He understands how to support and lift up people and me.”
For Rob’s channel swims, Caroline has crewed for hours on end, ensuring he has food, hydration and moral support. “We’re each other’s biggest cheerleaders,” Rob says.
They also work on the everyday rhythms of life. Each Sunday, they sit down to map out the week ahead, aligning training, work and shared time. “Sometimes it’s about the big objectives, when you have to go 110% on that thing and not worry about balance,” Caroline explains. “If we don’t have time to climb a mountain together, we schedule fun ‘little snacks’ — like playing a game of badminton at sunset, a hot tub night or walking the dog to the pond. It doesn’t always have to be epic and all encompassing.”
Local Life
Whether on an 8,000-meter peak (26,247 feet) or walking the trails near their home, Caroline and Rob see synergy between adventures and marriage. In the mountains, they’ve learned to be adaptable, communicate clearly and find moments of levity, even in suffering. Those same practices guide their life together in Park City.
“The mountain will always be there, and these things we do are risky,” Caroline says. “You need to listen to your intuition, communicate with your team and be willing to turn around, no matter how much you’ve invested. I’m still learning that in my regular life, but that applies to so many things.”
In Park City and the surrounding Heber Valley, they’ve found the perfect place to build a life together: a community that shares their love of adventure, the outdoors and the mix of work and play. For Caroline and Rob, this landscape isn’t just where they test themselves. These mountains are home.
