Bear Grylls - Bear Grylls: Facing Up and Facing the Frozen Ocean: All-Action Adventures on Everest and the Atlantic Ocean

A REMARKABLE JOURNEY TO THE

SUMMIT OF MOUNT EVEREST

To Pasang and Nima

for saving my life that day in the Icefall.

Ill always be indebted to you.

&

To Shara, now my wife,

you were the reason for

coming home.

Plate section

All photographs by the author unless otherwise indicated

Foothills leading up to the Upper Himalaya

Summit 29,035 ft

Camp 4 26,000 ft

Camp 3 24,500 ft

Camp 2 21,200 ft

Camp 1 19,750 ft

Base Camp 17,450 ft

Rev. Colonel David Cooper

How does it feel to have conquered Everest?

I was at a lecture that Bear was giving to Eton College not very long after his return to the UK, after his ascent of Everest. He was with Mick Crosthwaite, who accompanied him on the expedition, and at the end of what was without doubt the best lecture on any subject that I had heard in my time at the school, he was asked this question by a member of the audience.

His answer was illuminating in more ways than one.

I didnt conquer Everest Everest allowed me to crawl up one side and stay on the peak for a few minutes.

In that one sentence Bear showed an insight that he had gained on the mountain that all his years of schooling and time in the Army had not given him, though they may have prepared him for it.

In his book Captain Smith and Company, Robert Henriques uses climbing a mountain as a simile for the war he had recently fought. He was a member of a special unit during the Second World War and his simile has more truth to it than might be recognized by the casual reader who has no experience of war or mountains. It is no coincidence that so many soldiers have also spent a great deal of their time on mountains, and it is too facile to suggest that it is just for the training value.

Both war and mountains have the capacity to radically change ones perspective on the world and on ones place in it.

Without doubt it is the intimate involvement of life or death as an inevitable outcome that invests an event with such great value. When the chances are about even for each of these, it also invests it with a great capacity to change a person. Such an event is mountaineering.

For most of us our everyday life never presents us with this situation, and for those who it does, it is usually not sought for, but comes as a result of some disaster, man-made or natural.

This book is concerned with a person who has undergone a profound experience, at his own seeking, and we are privileged to be allowed an insight into the mind of the person who sought it. As a book it is difficult to parallel. Albeit the youngest Briton to ever climb Everest, his understanding and honesty, together with his self-awareness, is of a level that many never reach in a long life. What we his readers are privileged to share is a very personal account of his ascent, not just of the mountain, but of his humanity.

D.C.

To those great men and women of the mountain: You are a credit to Nepal and I am lucky to call you friends. Sherpa Nima, Sherpa Pasang, Kami, Thengba, Ang, Pasang Dowa, Babu Chiri, Ang-Sering and Nima Lamu.

To the team: To Henry Todd and Neil Laughton for your trust and faith in me when it really mattered. Michael Crosthwaite, my friend and brother. I hold more respect for you than I could ever say. Captain Geoffrey Stanford, Grenadier Guards. Jokey Longworth. Edward Brandt. Andy Lapkas. Allen Silva. Michael Downs. Carla Wheelock. Graham Ratcliffe MBE. Ilgvar Pauls. Ali Nasu Mahruki. Scott Markey. I could not have been with better people.

To those we were alongside on the mountain: Tomas and Tina Sjogren for saving Micks life. Bernardo Guarachi. Iaki Ochoa. Bruce Niven. David Lim. The Singaporean Everest Expedition. Pascuale Scaturro. Captain Sundeep Dhillon RAMC. Tomi Heinrich. The Iranian 1998 Everest Team. You all epitomize the qualities that bring a mountain to life strength, dignity and humour.

To those who loved and supported us: Mum and Dad and Lara for loving when it hurt. Youre my best friends. Thank you. Grandpa Neville for your love and smiles. You are the best example of a man I could ever have. James and Mungo. Shara, my angel, for your love, patience and kindness. You were with me all the way. Patrick and Sally Crosthwaite, Mrs Ronnie Laughton. This is your book as well.

To those who believed in us: To all at Davis, Langdon and Everest for putting your faith in me. Your willingness to reach out is why you have made DLE such a success. You are pioneers. Eve Theron. SSAFA Forces Help for all your support towards a messy-haired lout. You have made it all such fun and your work for the British Services is remarkable. Rev. Colonel D. Cooper, Richard and Sue Quibell for untold inspiration. Jay Martin and NSA, for your Juice Plus support. Lewis McNaught. Stephen Day. Ginnie Bond and Becky Lindsay for your great patience and help.

For help in my research: Elizabeth Hawley. Paul Deegan. Royal Geographical Society.

To the best: Brunel Team for always being there. Rev. Hugh Maddox, Ethel Bell and Nan for your prayers. Charlie Mack for your friendship. Sam Sykes for your time and energy in this entire project. Emma McK. Green Island. Tash. The Brigadier. Fozza. Ant... brrr. Annabel. Tom. Walter Scott, for all your editorial help. The late Colonel Anthony Witheridge. Judy Sutherland. Hugo M-S. Woggie. Brian and Vinnie. Dom S-B. Mike Town for showing me the hills when I was younger. The Big E Squadron for your encouragement and humour. Ill always remember my time with you. Corporal Bob W. for your faith in me.

Bear

1999

CHAPTER ONE

The sky was beginning to fade, and the brilliance of the African sun was being replaced by the warm glow of dusk. We huddled together in the small plane and my feet began to get cramp; I tried to tense them and get the blood flowing again. The parachute made a comfortable backrest, but you always felt nervous leaning on it in case you damaged anything or accidentally deployed it. I shuffled again. As often is the case, there was no eye contact with the others in the little plane as we climbed up to now nearly 16,000 feet. People were engaged in their own little worlds the air felt electric with silent tension.

As the plane banked to make another steep ascent, I glanced out of the little window down to the African basin far below; at that height you begin to see the curvature of the earth at the edges of the horizon. I felt a warm peace come over me.

Squatting there, cramped and nervous, I sensed a part of the magic that is found in edgy situations a certain calm, a sharpening of ones senses.

The plane levelled out, people began to shuffle and become alert again, checking and rechecking equipment. We were all now crouching and someone reached for the door. As it slid back on its rails, the ferocious noise of the engine and 70 m.p.h. slipstream broke the silence.