Cruz won a contest sponsored by game maker Ubisoft to play the company’s new game Far Cry 4 on the side of Mount Everest. (Because the game takes place in the Himalayas, Ubisoft thought the locale was fitting).
Cruz, 23, is an avid hiker in his native state of Utah, but he’d never been out of the country before. The altitude was a challenge, too: While Cruz wasn’t about to go all the way to the top of Everest, Ubisoft set up its base camp/gaming station at 18,569 feet. It took 15 men and five yaks to get Cruz and all the needed gear to the site.
“As we gained altitude, walking became harder and harder, sleeping became harder, and you had to drink a lot more water,” Cruz said. “You almost always feel like you just finished running 3 miles, all the time.”
Once they got to the base camp, Cruz had to wait another eight hours for the sun to go down so he could see the screen. After about 90 minutes of playing time, he was done. “It was cold enough that I had frost on my jacket after we finished playing,” he said. (Fox News)
Paul Asay has written for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for PluggedIn and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He recently collaborated with Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, on his book The Good Dad. He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and his two children. Check out his entertainment blog at or follow him on Twitter.