Shane Schieffer is an endurance swimmer who spent more than 15 years dreaming of a full length swim of Lake Powell, the desert reservoir stretching from Utah into Arizona. In September 2025, he became the first person to complete it, covering 140 miles in 11 days while towing 215 pounds of gear. The route carried him through a remote landscape of sand colored canyons, rock formations, and isolated shorelines.
Shane Schieffer is an endurance swimmer who spent more than 15 years dreaming of a full length swim of Lake Powell, the desert reservoir stretching from Utah into Arizona. In September 2025, he became the first person to complete it, covering 140 miles in 11 days while towing 215 pounds of gear. The route carried him through a remote landscape of sand colored canyons, rock formations, and isolated shorelines.
Connect with Shane:
Explore the REI and Intrepid Travel collections
Shop The North Face Universal Collection
Thank you to our sponsors:
Shane Schieffer:
I think there's life-affirming adventure that takes everything you love, tests your capabilities, sticks you into it deep where you're going to have to find out what happens to your mind and your body when you're really up against a large task. And I just think it's a glorious way to spend part of our lives and to find out something about ourselves and develop new things within ourselves.
Shelby Stanger:
In September of 2025, Shane Schieffer became the first person to swim the entire length of Lake Powell. That's 140 miles in 11 days towing 215 pounds of gear. Lake Powell is a reservoir that cuts through the desert from Utah down to Arizona. On both sides of the lake, sand-colored canyons rise above the water, which is dotted with rock formations and sandbars. It's a remote, beautiful place that Shane dreamed of swimming across for more than 15 years. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op Mastercard.
Shane is a chronically curious outdoorsman with a background in business, film, and endurance sports. He lives in Boulder, Colorado, which is the perfect home base for an active lifestyle. Although he had plenty of experience river guiding, camping, and climbing, Shane had always wanted to go on one definitive wild adventure.
Shane Schieffer, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Shane Schieffer:
I'm glad to be here.
Shelby Stanger:
You've been tinkering with adventure since you were a kid and you swam as a kid. Is that correct?
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah. It was really when I ca me out to CU for college that I started testing myself. I loved mountain biking. Before that, I was BMXing. I loved rock climbing at that time.
Shelby Stanger:
Did you swim or do anything in high school?
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah, so I did soccer and I did swimming in high school. I was a good high school goalkeeper in soccer.
Shelby Stanger:
Oh, I was a goalkeeper too. So you like the pressure, you like to be the hero or you're okay being the villain.
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah, exactly.
Shelby Stanger:
Yep. Okay. Totally get you. Okay. So you've always had this weird adventurous gene inside of you. How did you come up with a wild idea to swim the length of Lake Powell?
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah. The short version is I was out with friends on the lake for the first time. And one of the guys headed up and climbed up a overlooked to hang out and just check out the scenery. So I chased after him up that because that's my speed. And while we were up there, he said he wondered if anyone had ever paddled the whole thing. And at that time I had been swimming regular until just a couple years before, this is 18, 19 years ago. And my off the cuff response was, "I wonder if anyone's ever swam this whole thing."
I just have always enjoyed the idea of big adventure. My parents had rafted the Grand. I've been down in the Grand Canyon. I was a river guide. My interview trip was on the Colorado River. When I was doing adventure racing we were paddling on the Colorado River. So I had thought and spent a lot of time on the Colorado. I love hearing about friends or people who are off doing some odd big task. I just think it's a glorious way to spend part of our lives and to find out something about ourselves and develop new things within ourselves.
Shelby Stanger:
Shane was 33 years old when he first wondered if anyone had ever swam the entire length of Lake Powell. The idea percolated in the back of his mind for 16 years before he took it seriously. During that time, Shane lost his dad and had his own serious health scare. Those experiences taught him that life can be short and he should prioritize the things that make him feel most alive, nature and movement.
How old are you when you actually decide I'm going to go make this wild idea that I had at 33 years old happen?
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah, I'm 49 years old. It's four years after I've lost my dad to cancer. I'm sitting at this desk early in the morning. Sometimes I like to get up and look up adventures. Sometimes I like to get up and meditate. Sometimes I just like to think. I was like, "I wonder if anyone swam Lake Powell yet." So I took a look at it and I could not find anyone that's done it yet. And it's like, "Oh man, no one's done that." And as soon as I found out no one had done that, it was game on. That infects a part of your brain and spirit that doesn't let go.
Shelby Stanger:
After a lifetime of fascination with exploring uncharted territory, it's no wonder Shane finally decided to chase this wild idea, but even more than wanting to be the first to swim Lake Powell, he was also excited to spend time outside, feeling present in his body and pushing himself in a totally new way. He immediately dove into researching how to prepare for this challenge. It had been almost 20 years since Shane swam regularly, so he wanted to set a goal that was challenging, but also achievable.
Shane Schieffer:
I go on Google Earth and I see it's 140 miles from Hite Crossing Bridge to the dam. So I knew that I'm not going to swim 20 miles a day. I haven't been in the pool in 18 years. So I had kind of said 10 days, 14 miles, that sounds like something I can do.
Shelby Stanger:
Once Shane realized that it was possible to swim the entire length of Lake Powell, he started breaking down his lofty goal into smaller steps. This wasn't going to be like trading for a through hike. Unlike walking, swimming uses back, chest and shoulder muscles that we just don't use much in our day-to-day lives. Shane didn't have the time to spend hours training in a pool every day, so he decided to use what was in front of him. Luckily, Shane works for VersaClimber, a company that makes an exercise machine that simulates an upward climbing motion, like you're going up a ladder. Shane adjusted the machine to isolate the upper body, mimicking the extension and pull down movement of a freestyle swimming stroke. After three weeks of training on the VersaClimber, Shane decided to test if his training was working. So he got in the pool and swam for two hours straight.
Shane Schieffer:
I swam a little under four miles. I had never swam more than a mile straight before. I am thrilled because what I'm finding is I have some power there and I had never done anything before that made swimming easier.
Shelby Stanger:
Then what do you do? Do you keep going back to the pool or do you make a training plan?
Shane Schieffer:
No, I just keep doing the same protocol, for the most part. I'm working towards about 20, 25 minutes a day. Go back to the pool. I'm like, if I'm doing 10 hours a day for 10 days to do this swim, I got to see what a 10 hour. Can I even do that? What happens to the skin? Does your skin just rub off after 10 hours of swimming?
Shelby Stanger:
Good question.
Shane Schieffer:
I don't really know the answer to these things. So I went to the pool and I'm sitting there that morning like, "I'm going to do the 10 hours today." But I don't want to get in because I know once I get in, I don't get to stop. But I also knew I wanted to be self-sufficient out there, everything from solar charging to water purification, all of my gear, even my waste. So I did that swim 10 hours and I tested things like fins, no fins, that sort of things. I would swim for two hours, take some nutrition, swim for two hours, take some nutrition. And I go through the day. I end up doing 1,250 flip turns that day. I'm in a 25 yard pool. I forget what that is in miles. It was a lot of miles inside of a 25 yard pool. Shifts of lifeguards start and leave and I'm still in the water and start and leave.
Shelby Stanger:
I'm surprised there's a pool that's open for 10 hours.
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah. So I was okay. The real test was two things. One, can I do it? And second, what does it feel like three days later? Because that's when you get sore. So that'll tell me how my conditioning's going. So I do that test and what I find a couple of days later is I'm not really all that sore. So this training is really working. And I'm keeping all of this secret. Nobody knows I'm even thinking about this, not even my wife. Nobody.
Shelby Stanger:
You haven't told anybody this wild idea. And how many months into this is? Is it?
Shane Schieffer:
I am now-
Shelby Stanger:
Three months?
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah, almost three months into it. And I haven't told anybody because I worked with a writer who did Hollywood and TV scripts. And one of the things he said is that when you're doing something big and hard, if you talk about it, you won't do it because you get some of the recognition from people, "Oh, that's a cool idea." Little light in their eyes. You're getting this reward. You're spending what you need to earn before you've done the work. And so if you really want something and it's hard, you need to keep it quiet in that first phase. You need to just work on it. And so that's what I was doing.
So for the first three months, I don't talk about it. I go do this test. Now I realize I have to start to tell people about this. I'm going to have to take time off of work. This is inconvenient for my family. I have to start to organize logistics. There are people who need to know for me to be able to move forward with this plan. And so I kind of shift from that protecting the idea phase into, okay, now I have to actually lay it on the line and say, "This is what I'm going to go do."
Shelby Stanger:
As Shane dove further into his training, he started swimming regularly at a large reservoir near his home. He loaded his inflatable standup paddleboard with weight and experimented with different ways to tow the board. Ultimately, he ended up attaching it to his waist with a 10-foot bungee cord and a harness. Shane's friend, Jerry, was planning to boat alongside him for safety, but Shane was determined to do this swim self-supported. Jerry didn't give him any navigation help or supplies. Jerry was there just to enjoy the ride and provide support only if something went wrong.
Finally, after about five months of training, Shane decided he was ready. He and Jerry packed up the boat and standup paddleboard and drove to the Hite Crossing Bridge, the official north end of Lake Powell. On September 2nd, 2025, Shane started swimming.
Take me to day one. You're at the starting line. Who's there? What's going through your head?
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah, we get up. Jerry and I have done tons of things together, so we're just quiet. We're both just getting our gear in order, trying to be expedient about it, get on the water. It's a sense of calm. I think all of that anxiety that starts to build as you get closer to something had dropped away. First, when I got in the car to drive out to Utah, second, as I was rigging gear, and then third as I was right there by the water.
Overall, day one is just incredible. It's just to be in the river, to start, to start under the bridge. When you're in that water, four inches, five inches below the surface, everything's black. Pitch black, I'm seeing no light at all. So my experience of swimming is absolute black, and then I take a breath and a burst of light and then absolute black again. And I liked that. I thought it was fascinating. It was experiencing the environment.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. Tell me what it's like from sun up to sun down. What's a typical day? You get up and you just started going.
Shane Schieffer:
The days are going to look like get up, get on the water as fast as possible. Swim as long as you can. Go very slow. Don't hurt your shoulders and relax, enjoy it. And do that until basically either you hit 14 miles for that day or the sun goes down. And then repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat.
Shelby Stanger:
On an average day, Shane swam for about 10 hours. He packed enough food so that he could eat 8,000 calories a day, but he was only able to stomach about 3,500 calories. When he was hungry, he would tread water and pull food from the cooler on his standup paddleboard. That board carried everything Shane needed, a water filter, food, first aid, and his sleeping setup. Every evening, Shane swam to shore and set up camp. He didn't bring a tent. Instead, he chose to sleep under the stars in a sleeping bag.
Shane Schieffer:
It's just really difficult when you're working that hard to eat that much food and get it down. I think I got through about a quarter of the amount of peanut butter I brought up there.
Shelby Stanger:
What are you wearing? Are you wearing wetsuit? Are you wearing a triathlon wetsuit?
Shane Schieffer:
No, I'm just wearing board shorts and there's a few reasons.
Shelby Stanger:
Are you chasing? Oof.
Shane Schieffer:
Well, that's the reason I'm wearing board shorts. So a wetsuit I'm almost certainly going to chafe. And it's also this very, I don't want this elitist, I'm in a race vibe out there. What I want is back country exploration. And so-
Shelby Stanger:
But you're cold.
Shane Schieffer:
I was getting cold, not at first. So I was just in the board shorts and I was great in those, but I'm losing two pounds a day. And so through the course of it, I lose 20 pounds. So I am getting very cold towards the end because I have no body fat on me. But in general, I'm not cold and I can feel the water, which is such a great feeling of connection. I feel the place I'm in. I really loved that. And I'm not chafing because I'm really hardly wearing anything and I liked that a lot better.
Shelby Stanger:
Are you doing just freestyle? Are you going on your back and side?
Shane Schieffer:
I thought that I might do some backstroke for recovery, but backstroke is tricky. So I did almost exclusively freestyle. I did learn towards the end in some big wind battles that I needed to use some breaststroke to recover because I could prevent the rig from pulling me backwards against the wind, but I could just bring down the intensity for a few minutes while I held position using breaststroke and then I would go back into freestyle to make forward progress.
Shelby Stanger:
So interesting. Yeah. I'm curious about directions. When you think of swimming a reservoir river, you're like, "Oh, it's just a straight line. I just follow the curves," but that is not how Lake Powell is.
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you know where to go every day?
Shane Schieffer:
In the first parts, it's the canyon. I see the canyon walls. So I'm just reading those on my glimpses. I'm navigating primarily by figuring out, okay, I think it's going to turn left up there, so I probably need to cross slowly over to the left bank from the right. What I'm really doing though is I'm learning to just look at where the sun is in the sky and use that as a bearing. And then it got to the point that I stopped even, I was swimming with my eyes closed. I found that I could see where the sun was with my eyes closed and the tinted goggles on my breaths enough that I was able to swim hundreds of yards at a time without ever opening my eyes. And the only way I can explain why I'm doing this is delirium.
But maybe you know when you're driving in a neighborhood and you're looking for an address and you turn down the radio, like subconsciously your body doesn't want the extra sensory information. I think that's what's going on with me. My body just doesn't need the visual. I'm only getting glimpses and the only purpose is to really take a bearing and go that direction. And so I'm going hundreds of yards at a time where I'm just on my breath referencing that bright spot over my eyelids and I keep it there for a long period of time. And every few hundred yards I check, the sun moves, of course.
I need to make sure that I haven't lost my mind. There's times that I ended up swimming a little off course in that process. I ran into Jerry's boat a couple of times because he was near me and I didn't realize it and I have my eyes closed. I could often taste if I was getting close to the canyon wall. There's mud and muscles that cling to the sides of the sandstone and I can taste it in the water when I'm within 10 feet of it.
Incredibly, one time towards the end, I'm in a wide open bay and I hit a buoy. And when you hit something steel in the middle of the lake, the brain ... When something happens, you crash on a mountain bike, you fall, rock climbing, whatever it is, a lot happens in about a 10th of a second in the brain. And so it's scanning. That wasn't Jerry's boat. It's not a cliff wall. I'm in a huge bay. I'm nowhere near anything. That felt like metal. What in the world is around me? All that's coming is I'm just getting my eyes above the water and realize that I've just hit ... I don't think I could try 100 times and hit a buoy, but that time just speared right into the buoy.
Shelby Stanger:
In September of 2025, Shane Schieffer spent 11 days swimming the entire length of Lake Powell. He'd been dreaming of taking on this challenge for more than 15 years, and finally getting out in the water was the culmination of months of training and preparation. A few days before he started swimming, Shane posted a video about his adventure on social media that went viral. The feedback he received was pretty exciting, but all of a sudden there was this whole other element to his swim, a ton of strangers on the internet who are invested in his success. Shane's buddy, Jerry, who was boating alongside him, began making daily videos of the swim so that people could follow along. They were happy to share the highs, the lows, and some pretty funny moments with Shane's new fans.
Tell me about some of the more funny moments. I mean, everything just becomes humorous out there.
Shane Schieffer:
It does. Yeah. We laughed and joked the whole way out. The funniest moments would be little things. Jerry found this fish trap that had a hot dog that must have been three years old in it, and the water was so gross and rancid, and I'm getting in the water to start my swim that day. And of course he's on a boat and he's not thinking, so he throws it in, but he throws it in where I am. And so I can taste that hot dog in the water. Totally unintentional on his part. He doesn't know you're even tasting water while you're in there. But, really gross.
Shelby Stanger:
Oh, that's so awful. That's pretty funny though.
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
What were some of the most memorable days and the memorable stories that happened during the trip?
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah. Days two through four kind of globed together as really hard work. And then we get to the lower bays and there's these huge gigantic bays, the canyon falls away. It's not easy to navigate anymore and it's down there that I got a little lost. Then the wind comes up down there and I had some major battles. The first one, I had started to learn to swim very straight and I wake up in the morning and I do 5,000 yards in almost a perfect straight line and I come around the corner. Well, the wind starts kicking up. And when the wind kicks up, it doesn't affect me that much. The swimmer is affected by breathing. The waves come in syncopated patterns, or lack of patterns, and so it's hard to time when there's wind. You're doing your best to feel a wave and guess where the best spot to breathe is, but sometimes you come up and you just get a mouthful of water.
You're also working hard because that paddleboard is taking a lot of wind. And the mistake I've made here is I didn't stop for a proper feeding after that long swim. So I'm coming in exhausted and cold. I mean, I didn't feel that in the moment, but as soon as the intensity ramps up and I'm in the waves, I'm not really prepared for this level of intensity. And I just kind of enter this fight. And the way the fight feels to me is the mix of hypoxia where you're not getting enough oxygen. It feels like someone's squeezing your neck right at the base at your collarbones. And it can induce a feeling of panic a little bit and you have to relax through that panic because when you panic swimming, you tighten your stroke, you lift up, you become less efficient, you actually compound the problem.
Then I'm getting a lensing effect and distances are getting distorted. It turns out I swim right past a point that's only 300 yards from me and go a mile directly ahead towards this little white dot that's a houseboat that I think is the closest thing to me. I'm just trying to make land so I can get some food and I can power up and take the intensity down. So now I'm just battling, and after an hour of fighting this way, having started without a proper fueling, I finally make land and I just turn and I just give this like yell at the lake. I'm not mad. It was really hard. And it was, I don't want to say scary, but the word that came to me when I was done is I called those the drowning waters. Good swimmers tied to a craft in the wind, in that situation. It feels like the water that good people can end up in a bad way.
Shelby Stanger:
What was that last day like, knowing you only had ideally one more day to go?
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah. I'd been facing wind for several days and I was having to stop long periods of time because I didn't have the energy to fight against the wind nonstop. And that's frustrating because I know every hour I'm sitting, I'm not swimming and I'm adding on to how long this is going to be. But this whole time, even in this wind battle, I'm reminding myself, don't start humming a song in your head, feel the water, be present. You're going to miss this. It's interesting to realize how much it affects your heart to be out doing something like this.
And I can't really put words to why. It's just that I'm getting this generous pouring of space in life. Everybody out there, I've turned into the Forrest Gump of Lake Powell. People are jumping and swimming in with me. They're so positive. You know you're having this and you know it's going away and I'm just saying, "Be present, be present, feel the water." That's what I'm doing as I'm going into the last couple of days. It's clear I'm going to finish one way or the other. It's not about the goal. It's about getting to feel the rest of it and not have it disappear on me.
I wake up in the morning, I know that my wife is in Page, Arizona, my mom, my mother-in-law, who had been running the social media, and her husband, are in there so that they can come join us. Lake Powell Burner, this great adventure out there that posts great content, hooks us up and gets a houseboat for all of my family and friends to get on to come be able to follow me because this isn't a normal lake, you don't just drive to where the buoys are at the dam. It's a canyon. It's 400 feet of sandstone and I don't know how wide, half a mile wide there. So it allows them to come troll along next to me without all having to try and pile onto Jerry's 12-foot boat.
And I feel really good in the morning. I'm just gliding in and I'm just swimming smooth and it feels good and I know it's coming to the end and I stop and I take off the wetsuit because I want to feel the water as I finish and I have what I think is two or two and a half miles left and it turns out to be five.
Shelby Stanger:
Sorry, that's always the case.
Shane Schieffer:
It's always the case.
Shelby Stanger:
That sucks. That sucks.
Shane Schieffer:
I know.
Shelby Stanger:
Sorry.
Shane Schieffer:
And then the wind kicks up. And for the first time, I feel that vignetting. A vignette is where you get the edges of a photograph darkened. That vignetting of fear is coming in where I don't know if I can make it through this section in this moment. I'm so tired that I'm not sure if I stop and I grab onto my own standup paddleboard that I have the strength to hold that and that I can stay up in these waves. I'm not sure I could keep my head above water if I stop swimming. That sounds dramatic, but I've lost 20 pounds. I've swam a hundred ... My total actual swim was 146 miles, so I've swam 143 miles at this point-
Shelby Stanger:
But more than that, because you're swimming against current, so you're like-
Shane Schieffer:
And I'm being tested. Yeah. And that was scary. And it was sad because I got my family watching me as this is happening. And I just had to push and I just had to turn the arms, even though I didn't have anything in me. And I did it, obviously. I did it and I fought to a point and I was shivering so hard that I couldn't put the wetsuit back on. And I come around the point and now I see the edge of the dam and I'm out of that canyon. I'm out of that washing machine, and so it's not as bad anymore. And that's the finish line.
And yeah, that's the end, 146 miles. And my wife does this hero leap off of the houseboat, fully clothed, swims over and wraps me in her arms. And it's just such a great moment because when I saw her early in the day, I would not hug her.
I said hi to her, but I wasn't going to hug her. I didn't get to touch her yet. I had to get to the end. So anyway
Shelby Stanger:
You're making me choke. This is an awesome story.
Shane Schieffer:
It's emotional. It's emotional. I've never done something so hard. I've done big races. I've done the kinds of things where people break down and sob at the end, but I've never personally gone through that experience. I celebrated. I swam boat to boat. I shook hands. It was really fun to talk to people. At one point I just sit down and I just become overwhelmed. The work of it just is flowing back out of me. It's as if I had inhaled all the work over 11 days and now it was exhaling back out of me. That's when I was first just totally overwhelmed. And now when I talk about it, I touch that again. And that's great because that's one of the gifts this journey gave me. It's one of the things you get if you say yes and you go out there, is something that touches you so deeply that it overwhelms you to talk through it.
Shelby Stanger:
Spending 11 days on the water marked a profound shift in Shane's life. He achieved an ambitious outdoor feet that he'd been dreaming of for more than 15 years. When he came back to Life on Land, he discovered that being underwater for that long can have a strange effect on the brain and the body.
It's been almost a year. Well ...
Shane Schieffer:
Six months.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah. It's been about a half a year since you finished.
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
Now looking back, how has it changed you?
Shane Schieffer:
A few ways. My brain wasn't right when I got back. I was sitting in traffic dead stop for a few minutes and rear ended a guy twice. I get out, I'm like, "I am so sorry. I can't tell you other than my brain just short circuited." What just happened? He was really cool about it. So it took a while for my brain to reintegrate to society and normal tasks like being able to be stopped at a stoplight. People often ask, "What have you learned?" And it comes slow. It starts as feelings, and I think I'm still in the feelings place of what I've learned. I feel different. I have new capabilities because I push myself to new levels, and that changes how I see the world.
Shelby Stanger:
I mean, I don't think there's a better feeling than to be deeply satisfied and at peace with knowing what you're capable of and having love around you and doing it for love. It doesn't sound like you did this adventure because you were escaping some dark trauma or you just needed to get your head right. You genuinely just sort of wanted to see if you could do it.
Shane Schieffer:
Yeah. Yeah. I wanted the chance to experience the mind and body under difficult circumstances and find out what happens and find out how I could respond to that. I think our spirits are huge. I think Lake Powell is the size of a human spirit. It's why it feels good out there. I think that our lives make our spirits small. And when we go out there and it gets to expand to its natural volume, not because we're important out there, I'm just one little thing in this vast space. It's not that this ... My spirit isn't dominating that space, it's just breathing in that space and I'm doing something that's hard and I've set aside this time in my life to actually do a thing and not wish a thing.
Shelby Stanger:
Originally, Shane wanted to set an official record for being the first person to complete the swim across Lake Powell. In the end, he was so fulfilled by his adventure that he didn't even feel the need to submit all of his evidence right away. When we spoke, he said, "I'll probably gather everything to send a Guinness soon." If you want to see videos of Shane Swim, check out his Instagram @ShaneSchieffer. That's S-H-A-N-E S-C-H-I-E-F-F-E-R.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Pierce-Knitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Motola and Joe Crosby. Thank you again to our sponsor, Capital One and the REI Co-op Mastercard. As always, we love when you follow the show. Take time to rate it and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.