{"id":293646,"date":"2025-11-19T16:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T16:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/293646\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T16:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T16:49:07","slug":"how-one-mines-alum-used-cycling-to-explore-the-world-and-redefine-his-purpose-colorado-school-of-mines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/293646\/","title":{"rendered":"How one Mines alum used cycling to explore the world and redefine his purpose | Colorado School of Mines"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a>
\n This story first appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of Mines Magazine.<\/p>\n

By Sarah Kuta, Special to Mines Magazine<\/p>\n

Peter Consalvi \u201917 has always wanted to live an unconventional life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That desire has taken him on adventures across the globe, from serving on U.S. Navy warships to cycling thousands of miles across multiple continents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to do the same things that everybody else does,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to branch out and learn about myself, learn about the world and just see what\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It all started after high school, when Consalvi left his home in Maryland and moved across the country to study physics at Mines. As a student, Consalvi got his first bike\u2014which he named \u201cOredigger\u201d\u2014and developed a passion for long-distance cycling. He also discovered his love of travel, visiting far-flung destinations like Costa Rica, Cuba, Nepal, Iceland and Greenland during summers and school breaks. \u201cI was super fortunate to have amazing friends who were interested in exploring and going places and trying new things and spending time outdoors,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a Mines sophomore, Consalvi enlisted in the U.S. Navy\u2019s Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NUPOC) Program<\/a>. The Navy paid him while he was in school, and in return, he agreed to spend at least five years working on ships and submarines after graduation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While on active duty, Consalvi worked as a nuclear surface warfare officer in Spain, Japan and South Carolina, supervising the sailors who operate the nuclear reactors on naval vessels. He also got into ultrarunning, testing his mettle by completing three separate 100-mile runs.<\/p>\n

When he got out of the Navy, Consalvi wanted to keep exploring the world. With savings he\u2019d accrued while he was in the military, Consalvi decided to embark on an 18-month, self-supported bike journey. \u201cI wanted to take a big chunk of time off after getting out, and I wanted to do something different,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

In the end, he pedaled 15,000 miles across four continents, riding from Mongolia to Spain\u2014with a brief jaunt through Egypt\u2014followed by Miami to Maryland. He carried everything he needed with him, from a tent and sleeping bag to food, water and cooking gear, a style of travel known as \u201cbikepacking.\u201d Consalvi, who was sponsored by the outdoor gear company Big Agnes<\/a> for the trip, also raised more than $7,000 for Juniper Fund<\/a>, an organization supporting the families of Sherpas who die while working in the Himalayas.<\/p>\n

Though he was alone on his bike most of the time, the endeavor also opened his eyes to the power of human connection. \u201cI met so many people on the road,\u201d he said. \u201cYou might not speak the same language as someone, you might come from a completely different walk of life, but you can still relate. I spent a night with camel herders in Saudi Arabia, and in the morning when I left, these guys had tears in their eyes. And I felt it, too. We had shared this really special experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Near the end of his bicycle trek, Consalvi heard about a group of military veterans who were attempting to run across the country while carrying an American flag, an initiative called the Old Glory Ultra Relay<\/a>. It seemed like the perfect challenge to try next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Consalvi was selected to join the 12-person team but was later sidelined by an injury. So, instead of running, he became the team\u2019s crew chief.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds like a simple thing, but it was actually quite complex because the flag never stopped moving,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt was 24\/7, all through the night, coordinating the locations where the teams would meet and exchange the flag, where people were sleeping at night, where we were going to get food and water.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group successfully completed the 3,000-mile, coast-to-coast relay in 16 days in May 2025. They also raised more than $1 million for Team Red, White & Blue<\/a>, a nonprofit dedicated to helping veterans lead healthier lives. For Consalvi, those fundraising results were just as important\u2014if not more so\u2014as the team finishing the relay. \u201cSomething both trips really reaffirmed about myself is that I want to give back\u2014I want to live a life of service,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Consalvi isn\u2019t quite sure what the future holds. For now, he\u2019s focused on recovering from major hip surgery and writing his first book, a biography of a Sherpa who summited Mount Everest 16 times. He\u2019s also using this time to reflect on his journey so far\u2014an unorthodox path he hopes might serve as a source of inspiration to others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story first appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of Mines Magazine. By Sarah Kuta, Special to Mines…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-293646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}