Dallas businessman, Victor Vescovo, has climbed the highest peak on every continent, skied to both poles, and has now traveled to the deepest points of four – soon to be, all five – of the world's oceans.
Vescovo became the deepest diving human in history when his Five Deeps Expedition reached the bottom of the Pacific Ocean's Challenger Deep on April 28.
Vescovo spent four hours there at the bottom in his first solo dive, in the state-of-the-art titanium submersible named "Limiting Factor." He made sure to take time to fully appreciate the moment and the achievement.
"Not to completely focus on the mission of trying to find new species or map it, but literally just to turn off the thrusters, kick back and just appreciate where I was and how extraordinary the effort to get there," Vescovo said. "I ate a tuna fish sandwich while I slowly drifted across the bottom of the ocean and looked out the portal. It was great. That was the best part."
And as with all of his adventures, Vescovo took along his Texas flag.
"Of course I had my Texas flag with me," he said. "I was born and raised right here in Dallas; I'm a proud Texan. I've carried a Texas flag up every mountain I've climbed, and it's now been down every ocean as well."
Vescovo is now the only person to both summit Mount Everest and travel to the lowest point on Earth.
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Before the Five Deeps Expedition, no manned submersible had ever been to Challenger deep more than once. Vescovo's team went to the bottom of the Mariana Trench five times in 10 days.
No one has even been to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean's Molloy Deep, either, which is where the team is headed next.
The team's exploits are being documented by the Discovery Channel, to be aired later this year.
Vescovo expects to reach the lowest point in the Arctic Ocean by sometime in August.
You can follow the Five Deeps Expedition as they travel to the Arctic Ocean by using the expedition's live tracker here: https://fivedeeps.com/home/live/
