Kindred Roads Podcast30 Okt 2025

The Man Who Climbed the Highest Volcano on Every Continent…

Ricardo Kaljouw is a Dutch mountaineer, author, and Royal Dutch Navy veteran whose life has been built around pushing beyond limits. He has visited 117 countries, climbed 75 high-altitude peaks, and stood on 45 volcanoes around the world. He’s one of only about fifty people on earth to complete the Volcanic Seven Summits, a rare challenge that involves climbing the highest volcano on each of the seven continents. In addition, he was the first Dutch climber to reach the top of Mount Sidley, Antarctica’s most remote volcano.

His journey has taken him from the icy ridges of Mount Giluwe in Papua New Guinea to the lava slopes of Ojos del Salado in Chile, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and Mount Elbrus in Russia. Each climb tested his endurance, his focus, and his faith in himself.

In this episode, Ricardo takes us inside the decade of storms, setbacks, and silent triumphs that defined his pursuit. We talk about surviving avalanches, snow blindness, and isolation in some of the harshest environments on Earth. He shares how his military training shaped his resilience, the love story behind a summit proposal in Mexico, and his next mission, the Volcanic Grand Slam, a world-first expedition to climb the highest volcano in twenty-five volcanic countries across all seven continents.

Ricardo also opens up about his book A Million Steps on Lava, what standing on the edge of an active crater does to your sense of fear, and why adventure, to him, is as much about stillness as it is about summits. Let's dive in!

Connect with Ricardo:

Join My Costa Rica Trip Feb 2026 With Worldpackers!

We’ll surf, explore the rainforest, do salsa dancing, and have beach bonfires together!

Accommodation, meals, activities, and transport within the trip are all included and organized for you, so you just show up and get ready for the best week ever!

Join the WhatsApp Group Here To Find Out More Details: https://chat.whatsapp.com/DwPFDBmTU526n5zvEYVKnk?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaebo8Fv82ChKcXgtFErcNPtY-4Zf4w0eLIZAK4hWO_suxUK8Iyweod2dt47pA_aem_V3IWwrcbgnXjuA_jHJq9oQ

Follow along on other platforms:

KEYWORDS

mountaineering, volcano climbing, volcanic seven summits, adventure travel, antarctica expedition, climbing stories, extreme sports, explorers podcast, travel podcast, dutch climber, mount sidley, survival stories, volcanic grand slam, adventure inspiration, world travel

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(44)

How to Survive 90 Days Completely Alone in the Ocean

Cyril Derreumaux holds three Guinness World Records, and each one is its own kind of insane. In 2016, he and a crew of three other men set a record for the fastest ocean rowing crossing from Californi...

19 Aug 54min

Inside the High-Stakes Job of Being the First to Spot a Wildfire...

What happens when the person responsible for spotting the next wildfire is 100 feet in the air, completely alone, and just got struck by lightning for the fourth time? If you're Trina Moyles, you clim...

10 Aug 1h 25min

He Spent 21 Days at Sea, Worked in the Amazon for 30p an Hour, and Slept in the Same Room as the Taliban… | Part 2

Matt was riding a horse over a mountain pass above 3,000 meters when the weather turned and he ended up stuck in a snowstorm. What do you do when there's nowhere to turn back to? This is Part 2 of Mat...

27 Jul 57min

He Spent 21 Days at Sea, Worked in the Amazon for 30p an Hour, and Slept in the Same Room as the Taliban... | Part 1.

What do you do when the only way out of the country during a pandemic is to advertise yourself on a Facebook sailing group and hope someone takes you? If you're Matt Whitley, you pack your bags, fly t...

11 Jul 57min

How He Started a Successful Surf Camp at 23 With No Money or Experience… (& How You Can Too)

What happens when a 23-year-old, unemployed and fresh out of university during Portugal's worst financial crisis, decides to start his own surf camp anyway? In this episode, David Moore shares the sto...

26 Apr 1h 3min

They Invited a Homeless Man to Live With Them. Here's What Happened…

What happens when two friends invite a man they met outside a Little Caesars to come live with them, and all three of their lives change forever? This one is a little different from our usual episodes...

6 Apr 1h 2min

What Happens When a Solo Woman Cycles Across the World...

What happens when a solo woman decides to cross continents by bicycle, trusting the kindness of strangers along the way? In this episode, Claire Wyatt shares the story of cycling across some of the mo...

15 Mar 1h 26min

From Quitting Her 9 to 5 to Photographing Wimbledon’s Fashion Icon…

What happens when you leave a stable 9 to 5 and decide to build a career around your passions instead? In this episode, Olivia Chenery, a London based events, hotel, fashion, and brand photographer, s...

17 Feb 51min