Can I Climb a Mountain in $4 Shoes?

I'm currently standing at the bottom of Mount Superior. It's one of the tallest mountains in America, reaching over 11,000 feet. Today, I'm gonna try to climb all the way to the top using these $4 shoes I found on TikTok. So $4. Actually, I lied, they were not $4, $3.99. Are they meant for hiking? No, not at all, no. These are meant for one thing, to be cheap. More comfortable than I thought. There's zero traction. No traction, and it's raining right now, so we're gonna slip and probably fall off the side of the mountain. All right, so we are just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. We're in a ski town named Alta. This is my plan. So right now, we're at 7,000 feet of elevation. We're going all the way up to 11,000 feet. So we need to be prepared, especially considering the shoes we have are the worst possible. So we got water in our backpacks. We got a ton of water. I got sunglasses, we got long sleeve shirts, food. We even have, what do I have? Hats. Oh, the hats, how could I forget? Yeah, so these hats. It was supposed to be sunny today and now it's raining, but they'll prepare us for the rain, I guess. You look cool. Thanks. I feel like the bug catcher from Pokemon. Yeah. 11,000 feet is super high. I'm already winded. There's a lot less oxygen as we get higher, so we could get obviously out of breath, fatigued, dizzy, nauseous. Death? Probably. Yeah. All right, let's keep going. Couple of things I've noticed. Okay. One, lightweight shoes. Very lightweight, breathable. I like that. You really feel everything you step on. I stepped on a pebble and I felt it, like a tiny pebble. The other thing I noticed. It's raining? Not waterproof. No. They're very not waterproof. You know, the rain is uncomfortable. What scares me is I looked at my phone and it's calling for thunderstorms in about 30 minutes. Being on the side of a mountain during a thunderstorm is one of the worst places you could be. Or most fun. Yeah, it's fun until you get struck. All right, so we just passed 8,000 feet. When you're at sea level, careful, careful. When you're at sea level, oxygen is at 100%. Right now we're down to 90%. So we are missing 10% of the oxygen that we're used to. By the time we get to the top, we'll be at 70% oxygen. Also starting to see a lot more snow. I mean, it is almost August right now. It probably is August when you guys are watching this video. It's 101 degrees in Salt Lake City. But where we are right now, all of the mountains have snow at the top. Have you ever seen snow in August? No. See, look at that. My ankles are getting sore. Man, mine too. My Achilles too. Are you feeling a little bit of fatigue in the Achilles? Arches, the arches. Yeah, not much arch support with these shoes. Getting these scenic shots is really getting annoying. Oh. Unfortunately, Steve and I realized pretty early on that we were definitely not the world's best hikers. We really struggled to navigate the trail. Of course, that was not the only problem we ran into. We're at 8,500 feet and we just found this. We're not exactly sure why, but this part of the trail is closed. So obviously, it would be irresponsible and dangerous to continue this climb. Ready? Yeah, let's keep going. That's where we parked, by the way. You can see our car. Oh, yeah. Oh, we made it kind of far. A lot of pine trees up here. Yeah. You think we could chop one down and use it as a Christmas tree? I don't know if that's legal. Yeah. Also, how would we fit it on the plane home? Oh, that'd be silly. You know, this hat's kind of annoying me. I might take this off unless the sun comes out. How are your feet feeling? They're very, I would say, damp and not great. Damp and sore. Yeah. Damp and sore would be my description. These are not good hiking shoes. No, I don't think these were made for hiking. I think if you're just walking on the road, though, they're not that bad. No. For $4, I would recommend these. Good value. Just not for climbing the side of a super tall mountain. Mount Superior versus Shoes Inferior. Do I look like I'm on the poster of like a outdoors store? Not really. So we were taking a quick break for lunch. There's a helicopter. It's not exactly circling us, but it looks like it's monitoring the mountain. And the fact that this path is closed makes me a little scared that they're gonna like be mad at us. We'll keep you updated. But a helicopter might be tracking us right now. Let's keep going. In addition to the looming aerial threat, the terrain began to get more and more difficult. Aren't you afraid of heights? Yeah. Just don't look to the left. Okay, I won't. Even if we had $400 shoes, it wouldn't change the fact that we were pretty lousy at staying on the trail and kept getting lost. Is there any more difficult hikes we could do? This was supposed to be a medium. Medium chance at survival, maybe? Maybe. That would be us if we fall. That's not, it's still going. All right. So we've officially passed 10,000 feet. We are at 10,141 feet. We also found this like wire or hose. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I'm pretty sure it leads all the way to the top of Mount Superior. So we're less than a thousand feet from the top. The views are starting to become beautiful. How are you feeling, Steve? Good. With sore feet, we made our final push to the top of the mountain. That's when all of our hard work finally paid off. All right, so here's the thing. No, this is not the top of Mount Superior. That is the top of Mount Superior, but the trail is closed and they're actually construction workers working on the trail. They're not gonna let us go. Here's the good news. This mountain is almost as high as Mount Superior, but does not have a name. Mount Steve. Well, I was gonna say Mount TFG. Now I feel selfish for taking the name from you. I like Mount TFG. What'd you think of the shoes? Honestly, very impressed. For $4, they worked great. I don't know how much they have left in them, but they got us here. They did get us to the top. Problem is, they also have to get us back to the bottom.