Park City endurance athlete Rob Lea is one swim away from a world-first feat

Rob Lea swims the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland on Aug. 29, 2024. Photo: Tommy Joyce // @tjtriage

After climbing seven continental summits and completing six iconic open-water crossings, Lea will head to Japan for the final leg of his yearslong 7 x 7 challenge

PARK CITY, Utah — For more than seven years, Park City endurance athlete Rob Lea has trained his body to withstand hours in cold, unpredictable open water with little more than a swim cap, goggles, and a Speedo.

He has crossed the English Channel between England and France, swum from Catalina Island to the California mainland, and navigated the waters separating Spain and Morocco. He has completed marathon swims between the North and South islands of New Zealand, between Northern Ireland and Scotland, and between the Hawaiian islands of Molokai and Oahu.

Now, one final swim stands between Lea and the completion of a challenge that has carried him across oceans and to the highest points on seven continents.

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Lea will travel to Japan this month to attempt the 12.1-mile crossing of the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu and Hokkaido. He has a weather window from June 26 to June 30, with the swim expected to take between 10 and 14 hours, depending on the conditions and currents.

If he completes the crossing, Lea says he will become the first person to pair the Seven Summits with the Oceans Seven, two endurance challenges that together require 14 expeditions around the world.

“I think having a checklist and a goal is always an important thing to do, and this was a big, lofty goal,” Lea said. “It gave me an athletic goal to train for, and also an outlet to see all the amazing places in the world, all the cultures and different places that I’ve gotten to visit through this project.”

The upcoming swim will be both a finish line and a second chance.

Lea previously attempted the Tsugaru Strait crossing in 2023 but was unable to complete it under the rules and conditions in place at the time. Returning to Japan for the final leg of the project feels fitting, he said.

“I’ve got to go back and get redemption,” Lea said. “It’s also kind of fortuitous that it’s my last one.”

A challenge years in the making

Lea’s path to the 7 x 7 project began long before he knew it would become a unified goal.

He climbed Aconcagua in South America in January 2009 and Denali in Alaska in June 2010. At the time, he was not working from a carefully designed summit checklist.

“I didn’t have any real vision of doing the Seven Summits,” Lea said. “I had no idea I’d be able to climb Everest or anything like that.”

The project began to take shape years later, after a doctor told Lea that he should stop running because of an ankle injury that required major reconstruction surgery.

Lea had spent much of his life as an athlete. He swam competitively in college at the University of California, Davis, and won his age group at the 2012 half-Ironman world championships. Sitting in the doctor’s office in 2017, he knew he would need a goal to help carry him through rehabilitation.

He decided to swim the English Channel.

As he began researching the crossing, Lea found online debates about whether it was more difficult to swim the English Channel or climb Mount Everest. Rather than choose a side, he decided to try both.

That idea expanded into what he called the Ultimate World Triathlon. In a six-month period in 2019, Lea climbed Everest, swam the English Channel, and rode his bike more than 3,500 miles across the United States.

The feat became the foundation for an even larger challenge.

Lea completed the Catalina Channel in 2021, the Cook Strait and the North Channel in 2024, and the Strait of Gibraltar and the Molokai Channel in 2025. In the mountains, he continued working through his remaining continental summits: Vinson Massif in Antarctica, Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Puncak Jaya, also known as Carstensz Pyramid, in Indonesia.

On May 20, Lea climbed and skied Mont Blanc in France, completing the mountaineering portion of his 7 x 7 project.

A partnership behind the scenes

Lea has not taken on the challenge alone.

His wife, professional ski mountaineer and endurance athlete Caroline Gleich, has climbed five of the seven summits with him and served as a crew member on most of his channel swims.

During an open-water crossing, Gleich helps monitor Lea’s safety, manages his nutrition, and throws bottles to him from a support boat. Under the rules governing the swims, Lea cannot wear a wetsuit. He also cannot climb onto the boat or accept physical assistance during a crossing.

Gleich said crewing a marathon swim requires nearly constant focus.

“When we crew, it’s almost as much energy as doing the thing yourself, because I’m up all night,” Gleich said. “Every stroke, every second he’s in the water, I’m trying to watch as much as possible for safety. It takes a really strong partnership and strong teamwork, knowing what the other person needs and knowing how to talk to each other.”

Lea said Gleich has pushed him to think beyond what once seemed reasonable.

“What she has taught me is to dream really big and set really big, ambitious goals,” he said.

The physical demands have also required Lea to reconsider conventional ideas about what an athlete’s body should look like.

Many of the Oceans Seven crossings take place in cold water, where added body fat can provide essential insulation. Lea said he has deliberately carried additional weight to prepare for the swims.

Gleich said the process has taught both of them something about body acceptance.

“Having a different kind of body composition is actually lifesaving and insulating and vital to your success,” she said.

Pushed to the edge in Hawaii

The sixth Oceans Seven swim tested the limits of Lea’s endurance.

On Nov. 25, 2025, he spent 14 hours and 36 minutes crossing the Molokai Channel, also known as the Kaiwi Channel, between Molokai and Oahu. The 27-mile swim was his longest completed crossing.

During the swim, Lea developed swimming-induced pulmonary edema, a condition involving fluid in the lungs. He finished the crossing but was hospitalized two days later in Hawaii. His recovery took several months.

“That one really took everything for me to get to the finish line,” Lea said.

He said messages from the Park City community helped carry him through the recovery process.

“I felt so much love and inspiration from our community here, people reaching out and just wishing me well,” Lea said. “It really helped me get not only to the end of the swim, but through the recovery process.”

Training close to home

Lea has prepared for his final crossing largely in Park City.

During the winter, much of his training takes place in local pools, including at Ecker Hill and the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse. When the water warms, he moves outside to the Jordanelle Reservoir.

“I’ve swum many miles and put in many hours at Jordanelle over the years,” Lea said.

He also seeks out open-water opportunities when traveling, including swims in the San Francisco Bay. In the weeks before Japan, he has increased his pool mileage to build the shoulder endurance needed to sustain hours of continuous swimming.

Lea works full-time in residential real estate in Park City with his father, Jim Lea. He is not a professional or sponsored athlete, a part of the story that Gleich hopes will resonate with others who have large ambitions alongside the demands of everyday life.

For Lea, the goal has never been only about completing a checklist.

“I think we are all capable of a lot more than we know we are,” he said. “You just have to set a goal and go for it.”

The couple plans to leave for Japan on June 23. After years of training, travel, and carefully timed expeditions, Gleich said they hope Park City residents will follow along and cheer Lea through the last stretch.

“Our community has been a huge part of the support system that has allowed us to do these things and to set these big goals,” Gleich said. “When we’re there, we’re thinking of our community, and it gives us a lot of energy and happiness to keep going.”