Published September 5, 2026, at 6:30 AM
Had JJ Yosh, an adventure content creator based in Boulder, Colorado, simply taken his cat, Simon, on a handful of local hikes and posted the videos online, it could easily have been dismissed as a transient social media stunt. Yet, a decade after adopting the black Bombay cat, the duo—better known to millions of digital followers as Backpacking Kitty across Instagram and TikTok—has built a partnership far more remarkable than typical viral pet accounts. Together, they have hiked the Austrian Alps, whitewater rafted down California’s Sacramento River, climbed a volatile volcano in Guatemala, and traveled to more than 15 countries spanning four continents.
Their resume includes flying on over 100 flights, including a journey on a seaplane, and kayaking some of the most remote waterways on the globe. By taking an audience of 11 million followers along for the ride, Simon has evolved from a simple novelty into a bona fide field companion. Now, Yosh has formulated an even more ambitious vision, preparing to embark on a multi-year endeavor to tackle the world-famous Seven Summits alongside his feline friend.
"I’m positive he’s the only cat who has summited a dozen of Colorado’s 14ers," Yosh says of Simon, whom he rescued from euthanasia back in 2016. Yet even those notable high-altitude accomplishments, which have earned Simon the title of one of the most famous cats in the world, pale in comparison to this upcoming odyssey. Over the next three years, Yosh and Simon plan to tackle the tallest mountain on every major continent: Denali, Mount Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Mount Elbrus, Vinson Massif, Puncak Jaya, and the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest.
A Push for the Seven Summits with a Cat in Tow
Before anyone pictures a domestic cat being hauled into Everest’s notorious Death Zone—an extreme elevation environment so hostile to human and animal life that it contains only about a third of the oxygen available at sea level—Yosh wants the public to rest easy.
"I’m definitely not taking Simon to the summit. I’m not risking his life," Yosh emphasizes. While Yosh makes his physical push for the top of the world’s highest peak, Simon will be living a considerably cushier life at Everest Base Camp, tended to by a dedicated pet sitter consisting of individuals he already knows and trusts. Yosh remains emphatic that Simon’s health and safety will always come first, ahead of any mountaineering ambitions or media milestones.
"How high he goes depends entirely on the mountain," Yosh explains. That means, for a massive undertaking like Everest, Base Camp represents his absolute ceiling. "Nothing above it, no exceptions," he adds. For peaks like Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua, which are largely non-technical walk-ups, there is more physical room for maneuver. "He could go higher than base camp on those, and how much higher gets decided on the ground rather than promised in advance." As for every other destination on the itinerary, Yosh intends to assess each peak one at a time, allowing professional veterinary opinions to guide every final decision.
Yosh maintains a strict boundary regarding these choices: "If the answer is that it is too high for a cat, that is the end of it. He does not go."
This cautious approach is all part of the careful balance Yosh has spent the past decade striking with his feline partner. While Simon was seemingly born for a life of adventure—trekking via leash, riding comfortably on Yosh’s shoulders through dense forests and across exposed alpine trails, and even participating in snowboarding—he remains a cat with very real biological limitations. For instance, while Yosh was recently undergoing rigorous Mount Baker crevasse rescue training ahead of his upcoming Seven Summits bid, Simon was certainly not practicing self-arrest techniques. This dynamic raises a fundamental question for observers: How does one properly prepare an ordinary house cat for extreme altitude, especially when Everest Base Camp itself sits at a breath-stealing 17,598 feet above sea level?
The answer to that logistical and physiological puzzle starts right at home.
A Cat Who’s Climbed Colorado’s 14ers
In Boulder, where the pair live at roughly 6,000 feet above sea level, natural acclimatization is quietly woven into everyday life. Yosh’s home—playfully referred to by design and architecture publications as "the house his cat built"—is tucked directly into a rocky cliffside and outfitted with a custom indoor climbing wall that is actively scaled by both owner and pet. Just outside the front door, Colorado’s rugged high country serves as Simon’s natural conditioning ground. Regular mountaineering outings have gradually exposed the cat to increasingly thinner air long before the towering peaks of the Himalayas ever come into view.
Yosh has even taken Simon along on technical rope climbs, securing him inside a specialized small-dog harness to ensure his security on steep rock faces. When it comes to gear, Simon is outfitted just as thoroughly as his owner. Yosh has assembled a specialized wardrobe for the cat designed to rival any serious human adventurer’s kit, featuring weather-appropriate gear tailored for seemingly every climate, condition, and expedition environment they might encounter.
Beyond the physical preparations lies the deep, emotional relationship these two have forged over the years. Even speaking hypothetically about the possibility of something happening to Simon visibly shakes Yosh, underscoring the stakes of their shared lifestyle.
The profound depth of that bond was established early in their partnership. Not long after Yosh officially adopted Simon, he had to leave the cat in the care of a friend while traveling to film a commercial in Bolivia. What Yosh did not learn until much later was that Simon had managed to slip away and go missing for three full days during his absence.
"Thankfully, they didn’t tell me at the time," Yosh recalls. "They’d put up missing posters everywhere, but I had no idea."
Even now, the memory visibly rattles him. "If that happened today and I found out while I was on a mountain, I’d turn around. I wouldn’t be able to finish the climb," he says. "You have to be in a good mental place to climb a mountain, and I wouldn’t be."
That anecdote highlights just how close their relationship truly is. For Yosh, adventuring together is just as much about having his loyal companion weigh down his pack during the most physically challenging stretches of a journey as it is about having a comforting presence once the expedition day finally draws to a close.
"This work can be so taxing and draining. You question why you’re doing it over and over again," Yosh explains. "That’s where having Simon is such a huge emotional pillow. The hardest moments usually aren’t the scary, high-adrenaline ones. They’re when the weight of the whole expedition catches up with you."
Whether he has just finished pushing through an exhausting ultrarun or completing a grueling high-altitude climb, Yosh knows there remains one constant: Simon, curled up peacefully inside the tent, ready for a quiet cuddle at the end of the day. In a lifestyle defined by relentless forward motion, that shared daily ritual has evolved into an essential mental reset that keeps Yosh moving forward. That comforting routine will undoubtedly be tested during their upcoming global challenge.
Before facing the mountains, however, the duo must navigate the complex logistics of hop-scotching across the planet with a domestic animal. Fortunately, this international travel is far from Simon’s first rodeo. He travels equipped with a U.S. ID card and an official European Union pet passport that allows him to cross borders with relative ease, and he routinely flies in the cabin rather than being stowed away in cargo. "But of course he has to get all of these health certificates for each country," Yosh notes.
That process inevitably involves managing the tricky reality of lengthy commercial flights and tight layovers. Naturally, observers often wonder how the globetrotting feline handles the physiological toll of travel.
"Simon gets so excited every time we reach a new hotel or destination," Yosh says. "He’s like ready to go." Apparently, when operating as an international adventuring cat of mystery, the only thing tougher than reaching the world’s highest peaks is waiting around for room service—and clawing a unique path straight into mountaineering history.
