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Fighting For SURVIVAL In Everest's DEATH ZONE | Chris Thrall & Sheep Farm Studios · Chris Thrall's Bought the T-Shirt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello, friends.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, Chris Thrull. I'm a former Royal Marines commando.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I've adventured for better and sometimes worse across 80 countries
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: on all seven continents. Welcome to the Port Latisha podcast. Hello, boys.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Is it the sheep farm or sheep farm? I probably
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: asked you this last time.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: We've been called worse, Chris. We don't care.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it says sheep farm behind you, so I
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: got it right.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Didn't you climb up a small hill this year, Chris?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, are you referring to the fact that I climbed
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Mount Everest on?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: And that I subsequently... won an English Veteran of the
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Year Award.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: That's the one.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Yes. How random for you just to come out with that.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Well done, Chris. Well done. I bet it took some doing.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I was following you while you were doing it, to
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: be fair, and it looked fucking terrifying being blunt. Yes.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a bit of a random one.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, Everest, funny old beast, mate. Yeah. quite extremely strange, extreme.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: And the, um, the Everest itself is fairly straightforward. You
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: just got to make sure you get up it despite,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: you know, as you probably know, I got really, really
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: ill at one point. I lost, um, my total, my
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: total weight loss was three stone, but a stone of
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: that I purposely lost before I went. So I didn't
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: have to carry it up the world's biggest mountain. Um,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: But no, it's just like any Royal Marine will tell you,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: we don't go there for the popcorn, do you know
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: what I mean? You go there to summit this thing
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and then come home. That's not the issue. The issue
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: is there's like a cult that follows all the Everest
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: shenanigans every season from the comfort of their armchairs. Do
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: you see where I'm going with this? And oh my God,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I'd never... I didn't realize the internet was that evil.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize how climbing a mountain to raise awareness
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: of the suicide epidemic we have in the veterans community,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: or certainly it's a huge problem and no one talks
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: about it except, you know, yours truly really, when it
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: comes to the, like the social media sort of field. Um, uh,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: and then, Being abandoned in the death zone where I
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: then had to rescue another climber and bring him down
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: from the death zone all the way to the bottom
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: of the mountain camp too. Just little fucking me. Excuse
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: my language, but me.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: And in the eyes of the Everest cult, you're the
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: bad person. because it wasn't the Sherpas that abandoned you.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: It was you abandoned your Sherpas. It's insane, guys. Absolutely insane.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Hence why I'm making a documentary about it at the moment.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: But anyway, we didn't come here to talk about me
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: and Everest. We came here to talk about you. What
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: do you think is the craziest shit that's been going
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: on in the media this week?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Sorry, Chris, just before, I just wanted to say it.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: I've watched some videos about Everest and some weird ones
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: about some weird deaths up there where the people go
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: in there and they're like CEOs of big companies and
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: they start bossing the Sherpas around, long story short, and
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: they end up dead because they're saying, well, I'm entitled
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: to this and that and this and that. One of
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: them I saw, it was a woman, and she said,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: they said her oxygen tank wasn't working. She said, well,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: I'm a doctor or whatever.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: It is, it's fine. I'm fine. And went up and perished.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Some of them are horrible.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of weird stuff. There's a kind of,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: uh stereotype that people have that haven't been there that
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: they kind of think everyone that climbs everest is like
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: this sort of tech billionaire that only goes there to
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: abuse the sherpas and leave as much rubbish as you
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: can on the mountain and the the truth is so
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: far from it most people that Most people have struggled,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: like me, to scrabble that money together. I'm still £ 20, 000
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: in debt, and I never had the other £ 25, 000 in
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: the first place. I had to just, you know, typical beg, borrow,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: and steal it. And what am I saying?
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: They're part of.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: The haters, then, the ones that make those videos about
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: the tech-rich people going up there.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not saying there's not rich people going up there.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: There's probably some really rich people that can afford it.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: But it's this thing, Chris, you know? Who's to say
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: who's allowed to walk up a hill?
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Who?
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Why can you dictate that maybe I can do it
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: or I can't do it because I've had this much
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: experience or I haven't had that much? Like when I
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: go up on Dartmoor, which is like 10 miles that way,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I can go up any hill I want and literally–
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Nobody on the internet says absolutely nothing. But when it
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: happens to be a certain hill in the Himalayas, which is,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: you know, it's a big hill, but it's just another
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: hill and suddenly everybody loses their shit.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Is it the climate change contingent or the environmentalists?
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: It's... If I was honest, mate, I think an awful
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: lot of it. I'm sure some people are well-meaning. Nobody
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: wants to abuse the Sherpas, right? But things happen because
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: you've got to remember, they're human just like you. They
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: make mistakes, and they can make quite catastrophic mistakes. They're
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: not all the kind of perfect pizza they're made out
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: to be, which is fine because nobody's supposed.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: To be perfect, right?
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: We're all human.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: But.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: you can get situation where your Sherpa has made a decision, uh,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: for you. And it, it, it's not necessarily the brightest
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: decision to, to make. And when you've paid, you know, uh,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: anywhere between 50,000 pounds and a hundred thousand pounds, and
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: you're never going to be able to raise that money
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: ever again, unless you commit to taking another year off work, uh,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: you know, literally like having blood coming from your fingernails
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: where you're trying to just get any kind of sponsorship in.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Like you're never going back there. This is your chance.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: And so when you get someone that makes a decision
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: and they think they're doing it in your best interest,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: but really there's no basis in it. And this happened
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: to us. Cut a long story short, we had the
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: best summit window of the season. I know because I
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: researched it. So when we climbed, what's the name of
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: the wind up there? There's a name for it. The
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: jet stream, sorry. When I climbed, we had the best
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: weather window of the season. And there was only eight
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: climbers the day that I went. Four of us and
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: two lots of two that were climbing in front of us.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: We had the best weather window because the jet stream
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: had finally lifted off Everest and moved away, which gives
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: you a different set of, you know, like stratospherics is
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: not the right, atmospherics, right? It's easier to breathe, for example,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: and all this sort of stuff. In addition, we're up
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: there and unbeknown to me, our Sherpas hadn't got all
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: our oxygen up there, but they didn't tell us. So
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: we're up there and they're saying, oh, you've got all
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: your oxygen. And I'm like, right, we've got all our oxygen.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: We've got the best weather window of the season, literally.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I'm good to go. Do you know what I mean?
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: And I've waited for this my whole life. I'm fit.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I'm strong.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm not the fastest climber, but I'm going
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: to get up there. You just watch, right? Nesherpa just
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: comes to a tent and goes, okay, we go down now.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what? We're at camp four, the top camp
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: on Everest. The summit is like literally, why? Oh, we
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: just go down. I'm like, listen, my lovely friend, this
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: is not how it doesn't work like that in our culture.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: You need to tell us why. So for example, if
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: this guy had altitude sickness, yes, let's get down to
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Let's get the boy down straight away. Summits, we'll write
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: our summit off. No one's got an issue with that, right?
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Or if you're telling us one of our oxygen masks
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: is broken, absolutely fine. But to just say go down
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: without any reason, that's not going to happen. I'm sorry.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: It's a red rag to a bull. Yeah.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Between me and this other climber, we paid £ 100, 000. We're
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: not just going down because.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: So it turns out that the oxygen, we're cutting it fine.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: But what they haven't told us, this that they left
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: five cans down at the bottom camp and me and
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: the other climber we know we've paid for extra oxygen
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: to err on the side of safety so we're like
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: what are you on about we've actually got like too
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: much compared to you know other expeditions or what this
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: expedition recommended and Long story short, it just became evident
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: they had been told to sabotage our summit by the
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: expedition company. And I'm up there and I can tell
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: there's no reason not to go. There's just no reason.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: We've got air. We're fit. We've got the best summit window. Um,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: and so explain this to Sherpa and I was getting
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: a bit heated myself. Um, and I said, look, I've
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: come from the gutter in Hong Kong, mentally unwell to
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: summit the highest place on the planet. to put a
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: message out there for anyone struggling with their mental health,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: you can do this. It doesn't work if I come
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: from the gutter in Hong Kong to Camp 4 on every,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: you know, well, I take a selfie and, hey, I'm
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: at Camp 4. Fuck off.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Why do you think they wanted to sabotage it, Christopher?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: I think because one of the Sherpas was the camp chef. Yes,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: you heard me right. And they had... They had.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: They had embezzled, I'm trying to, I can't think of it,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: extorted $ 4, 000 from me because one of the Sherpas, they're
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Sherpas they'd sent home. Nothing to do with me, right?
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: I've paid my ticket. I get a Sherpa who summited
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Everest at least twice, plus... plus likely more times, this
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: is what it says in their bump, plus other mountains too, right?
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: So I went back to Kathmandu for a few days
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: because I had this awful cough. And the only way
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: to get rid of it is you've got to go
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: down and then come back up, which I did. And,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: you know, I was pretty much fine. When I went down,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: they'd sent this Sherpa home. So when I got back,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: we were down a Sherpa because you have one Sherpa each, right?
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: So they said, OK, this is your new Sherpa guys.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: And they presented us with the camp chef who'd never
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: summited in his life. But they swore to us he'd
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: summited twice. So they lied, basically. And in addition, they said, oh, Chris,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: we haven't got any of your oxygen up on the mountain.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: And I'm summiting the next day. My summit attempt begins
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: the next day. And I'm like, they said, unless you
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: give us $ 4, 000, you ain't going. What could I do, boys? Ordinarily,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: I'm not a violent person anymore, but I would have metaphorically... Chris.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Keeps saying that.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I would have virtually punched the guy in the face,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: but this is my summit. I am going... I've told
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: everyone I'm going to... Literally, you won't ever find me going... Oh,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: if I get a bit of luck, hopefully. No, I've
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: told everyone I'm summit in Everest in May. And so
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: I had to pay the guy. Otherwise, I was lying
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: to all my fundraisers and all the people looking up
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: to me for their mental health. So basically, that's why
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: they wanted us to come down is they knew this
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: guy just wasn't qualified to take people to the summit
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: in Mount Everest. He was a chef from Camp 2
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: at the bottom of the mountain. And so we said,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: I preempted this. And I said, listen, brother, you don't
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: have to come up. We can have one Sherpa between
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: two of us. I mean, as complicated as people want
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: to make it, it is still just walking up a
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: hill at the end of the day. Yes, you got
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: to be a bit savvy and, you know, with your
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: health and your equipment, but it's still, so we came
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: up with this plan and he just didn't under, because
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: he couldn't speak English well enough. He didn't understand. We
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: were saying, brother, take a little bit of oxygen up
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: as far as you can. You know, this is for
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: the other climber or some such thing. And then you
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: can come down. Don't worry, we'll sum it. Anyway, he
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: didn't do that. He set off with so much gear
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: that he was just slow. And I climbed fairly slow
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: and he was just falling away from us with the
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: other climber. And it got to the point where we
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: just had to split up. Otherwise, like we weren't, you know,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: we was holding ourselves up. We've been, you know, we
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: was like hours behind now. And in the meantime, the
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: other climber gets advanced frostbite. We summit, me and my Sherpa,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: a guy called PK, we're laughing our asses off.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: It's great.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: I'm on Everest. I summited on my own, you know.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I'd already decided to give up my summit twice because
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I came across fallen climbers and I thought, oh, fucking hell,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: I didn't know they was up here. Oh, well, you know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: my summit's over. I've got to rescue them or, or,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: you know, if they've died, I've got to take photo
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: for their family and check, you know, who, who they, and,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: and as it happened, the first guy approach, I realized,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: I know he's dead already. He's been dead quite, quite
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: a while. So I just literally, I said a prayer
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: for his family. thinking, fuck me, I wouldn't wish that
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: was me. Do you know what I mean? What would
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: my family be thinking if I was stuck up here forever?
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I climbed a bit further up the hill. Fucking hell,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: there's another climber lying there.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: How long have they been there, Chris, these bodies?
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: This first one had been there for about eight years.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Fucking hell.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: But because the sun was shining off his ski goggles...
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: It looked like he had a head torch on and
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: the batteries were still alive. So I thought, oh, he
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: must have just fallen. And I'm telling you this because
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: of what happened next. So I said a prayer for him.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: I climbed up, found the next chap lying face down,
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: still clipped to the rope in front of us. I thought,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: bloody hell, if he had fallen like the day before,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: someone would have unclipped him from the rope. Because this
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: is the rope we got to climb up, right? But no,
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: he's hanging on the ropes. Oh, fucking, here we go again.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: So I went over to check if he was dead,
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: grabbed his leg. And I knew immediately, no, he's been
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: here 24 hours at least, right? Solid, obviously. So I
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: said a prayer for him. And then I continued. And,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: you know, it's the most amazing experience in your life.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: to be traversing the balcony of Mount Everest with the
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: summit literally just there and you're on your own, right?
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: My Sherpa was like way back. What they do is
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: they fix the empty oxygen cylinders to the line so
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: you don't have to carry them to the summit. So
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: while he was doing that, he's like, Chris, just you
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: keep going. I'll catch you up. So I climbed to
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: the summit of Mount Everest on my own. First thing
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I did was ditch the oxygen because I didn't need it.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Sherpa joined me. I took an iconic photo of him literally,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: you know, almost on the summit with me, you know,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: looking the other way sort of thing. And that was that.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: But because of all this nonsense that had gone on,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: instead of leaving at four in the afternoon, we hadn't
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: left until like nearly midnight. So now it's getting late
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: in the day. I didn't know this because it was
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: overcast all day. So I didn't know where the sun was,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: if indeed it was even sun there. And I decided
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: not to wear my watch because if you put a
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: watch on, you can't get your glove on over the
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: top of it, right? And I didn't want to risk
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: not being able to get my glove on for obvious reasons.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: So I had no clue at the time. It was
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: on my phone, which was inside a double sock inside
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: my pocket. And I'd need my glasses to see that
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: little bit of time on it anyway, right? And I
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: don't give a shit. I'm only saying this because, oh
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: my God. this pissed people off so much that we
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: summited in the perfect weather window with plenty of oxygen
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: that we didn't even use any oxygen on the summit.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: And then when my Sherpa who had summited eight times
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: and knew that we was fine and that I was fine,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: hence why we pushed for the summit went, all right, Chris,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: let's go down now. Um, that upsets so many people
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: why why do they get upset because there's a there's
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: this there's a rough guide that you turn around at
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: 2 p.m but this is goes back to the old
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: days where your equipment was a lot more shit right
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: you had people up there that probably didn't really deserve
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: to be in the adventure field because there's a bit
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: of a liability these are your kind of you know
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: You're rich. I can pay my way up every sort
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: of thing. Secondly, you had these massive old iron cylinders
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: that weighed a ton. Thirdly, you didn't have a personal
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Sherpa back then. You had like a climbing guide who'd
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: be a Westerner. He'd be in charge of like four
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: or five people and then he'd have a Sherpa. So
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: you didn't have somebody like escorting you every way. Fourthly,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: a lot of people collapse on the way back from
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: the summit. But that obviously wasn't me. I'm not even anywhere,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: you know, I could have gone on and run like
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: three marathons after summiting. I can tell you because I've
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: done that. I've done quadruple Ironmans.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: But does it really matter? You went up and came down.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Who gives a fuck? Yeah.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: And then, and then. like, oh, you come down in
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: the dark. No, you don't. You've got a head torch
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: on that's cost 200 quid. It's got a setting on
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: it that makes it daylight, literally makes everything daylight. I
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: didn't even have it on that chat. I had it
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: on the lowest setting possible. And it went on to
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: continue for three days after I sunk with it. That's
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: how much battery I had in. So all of these rules,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: they're trying to apply to you, which don't apply. There was,
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: you know, if my Sherpa had gone, Chris, this is
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: getting dark. But it never happened, chaps.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I still struggle to understand why anyone's angry with you
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: about it. But Chris, it's the same thing with podcasting
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. You're always going to get people.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: you achieve something. Yeah.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: It's a cult. That's why. And in cults, people behave
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: with mob mentality, don't they? And they don't like it.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: If you don't conform to these set rules that they've
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: got in their left brain, because it's left brain indoctrination,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: they don't understand people like me who are right brain,
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: left brain, hemisynct that I go up there. I've got
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: spirit on my side. I know I'm going to say,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: I just, I just know it. You can't explain that
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: to someone who's not a spiritually enlightened person. especially when
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: they're full of childhood trauma and they're angry on the
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: internet and taking it out on every other person, right?
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: So cut long through short, when I come back down,
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: and bear in mind, we've hardly eaten or drunk anything
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: for days because our Sherpas are so exhausted all the
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: time that they're sleeping all the time. So we're not
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: getting fed. We're not getting water. We're having to beg
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: them for like food and water. Or just give us
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: the cooker. And they don't like doing that because they've
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: been told they got to look after you.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: And anyway, on the way down, the chef decides he's
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: going to sit down because he's tired. He's on the
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: verge of exhaustion, but he's not going to tell anybody. Yeah,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: you heard me correctly. So when I turned to him, right,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: and I said, are you all right there, brother?
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: He's like, go, go.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Like almost angry with me, like how dare I check
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: on him? He's supposed to be like looking after me, right?
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, I'll go. So I turn around, my
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Sherpa has just left me and he's run down to
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: camp two, don't ask me why. And he's taken the
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: last oxygen cylinder with him. So I'm just about to
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: come down his abseil and I look down and the
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: other climber is collapsed in the snow. Or it certainly
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: looked like it. And I thought, oh, fucking hell. He's
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: died now. You know, now I've got a little fish.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: And I'm looking back for the chef. He's disappeared. I mean,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: he's totally disappeared off the mountain. No head torch nut.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, for fuck's sake. He's fallen off the mountain.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: He's collapsed on this abseil. So I abseiled down and
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: he went. Chris, I ran out of oxygen. This is
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: the lad at the bottom of the abseil. And I'm like,
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: don't worry, I'm here. So I gave him my oxygen.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: So I've got a lad, he's got advanced frostbite. He's
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: got no head torch batteries because he didn't have a
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: good head torch like me. And he's got no oxygen.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: And we're literally on the edge of the death zone
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: on Mount Everest. Two Westerners. who haven't, you know, I'm
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: not the world's greatest. I've only climbed two mountains in
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: my life. Not that I'm bothered. I'm totally not fazed
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: by this. I'm only saying that because people are like, oh,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: you shouldn't have done it. No, fuck off. I climbed
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Mount Everest. I've done everything perfect. It's great. I'm a
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: very happy person for the rest of my life. I'm
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: not complaining at the Sherpas. I'm not complaining at this
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: shit company. I'm definitely not complaining at the other climber,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: who's a lovely bloke. But I've got to get him
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: down the mountain now. So I'm sharing my oxygen and
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: I'm making sure. And it's like that, guys. It's nearly vertical,
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: this mountain. It's not, you know, what you can just
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: put your bag. If you put your bag, he's gone.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: He's hurtling down at like 100 mile, 120 mile an
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: hour near freefall speed, right? So I'm making sure that
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: this boy is clipped on at every opportunity. I'm making
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: sure he's getting a drink when he needs a drink.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: I'm giving him the oxygen. It took me hours just
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: to get him down to camp three, the next camp.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Then I cooked him food in an old abandoned tent
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: that I managed to find some rations and a cooker.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: I go out now into what is a blizzard to
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: get snow so I can make him a drink. All
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: the time I'm looking up the mountain going, where's this guy?
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: He must have fallen off the mountain. He must have
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: just fallen. You know, or, He's had a heart attack
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: or collapse with altitude sickness and his head torch is
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: buried in the snow, but it ain't good. You know,
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: cut a long story short. It took me a day
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: to get this guy down the mountain. What should have
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: taken like two, maybe four hours maximum. We couldn't find
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: the ropes for half of it because there's so much
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: snow coming in. It was all covered over. And all
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: this is off the back of all of this being wrapped,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: you know, um, like the first thing the guys did
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: when we, the Sherpas did, when we come from the summit,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: they went straight to sleep. There's no conversation about, look, fellas,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: we really need to get down this mountain quick. There
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: could be weather coming in. We still got the Coon,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: but there were none of that. just went straight to sleep.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: So there we are again. I've just summited Everest. I've
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: now got nothing to drink till the morning, nothing to
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: eat till the morning. And they've left us in a
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: tent with no door. The tent, the door had ripped
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: off in the wind. So I had to go and
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: find me and this lad another tent, right? So it
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: all just such a load of shit. And the reason
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: I'm saying this is these guys tried to blame us.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: So anyway, cut a bit of a long story short.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: Turns out, right, the guy's gone down with exhaustion, which
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: happens on Everest. Rather than go, Chris, no, actually, can
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: you come and help me? Which you know I'm ex-Marine.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: We don't leave people behind. I would have been, even
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: though it meant climbing back up the mountain, I would
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: have gone back. The first thing I would have done
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: is say, oi, ditch them eight oxygen cylinders. He refused
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: to give them up because he's getting $ 150 each for them.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: And he doesn't want to bollock him from the, big boss, right?
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: When he gets down and believe me, he would have,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: he'd have got fucking flayed alive for leaving them cylinders.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: But had he just told me I'm struggling, I would
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: have gone, look, I'll take responsibility for the cylinders. Leave them,
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: leave them in the snow. You can come back for
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: them next year, right? That's a lot of people do
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: this sort of stuff. I'll pay for them. I'll pay
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: you from on me credit card. And I'll pay the
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: company for the cylinders if they want. It's not worth
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: dying over, brother. You know, they're just hunks of metal.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: But I didn't have that chance, lads, because he didn't.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: He told me, go, go.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: So there was no point where I had a decision.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Do I like leave this guy with exhaustion? Because he
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: never told me. What he did instead was crawled into
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: a tent. There just happened to be these nearby tents
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: called the Lhotse camp. And without telling anyone, despite the
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: fact he's got the radio and he's got the satellite phone,
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: which should have been our satellite phone, but, you know,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: he hasn't told anyone. Instead, he crawls into a tent
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: and goes to sleep for two days. How do you
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: think we felt? We're all in grief because we've lost
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: this guy. I went to meet his family and I agreed.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: I said to the family, look, I'll raise $ 3, 000 a
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: month for the daughter for her education. Guys, I don't
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: earn anything, you know, but I would do this for them.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: I didn't have to do it. I'm not duty-bound or anything.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: I just, like, I'm fucking crying. I don't cry, but
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: this little girl made me cry, mate. You know, her
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: daddy's fucking still up there. It was just awful. And
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: as I'm getting on the plane to go home, guess what?
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: He arrives in base camp.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Fuck you.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Having spent a day and a half in a crevasse
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: that he'd fallen into. And everyone's like, aren't you over
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: the moon? I'm like, well, you don't kind of know
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: what we've all been through. It's not about being over
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: the moon. It's like I was abandoned in the death
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: zone on Mount Everest by both of our Sherpas left
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: to rescue a lad who would have, in all honesty,
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: could quite well have died if I'd not rocked up
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: at that moment. And, Instead of people going, oh, Chris,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: really well done, mate. That's fucking good. You know, typical
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Royal Marine. No, they blamed us for this guy. And
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: it was just, I'd never been so, I didn't know
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: the internet was that nasty. I just didn't know. I
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: get nice people on this channel, you know. And occasionally
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: you get someone who's clearly a bit bitter and twisted.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: I tell them, just go and heal your childhood trauma.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Stop taking that out on my guests. You just make
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: yourself look silly. I'll never write a bad comment anywhere
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: about anyone.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: That's one thing we say. We'll never call anybody out
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: on our podcast. At the moment, there's a lot of
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: other podcasters calling other podcasters out, which I find a
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: bit strange. You know, calling them shills or whatever. And
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I find that I'll never leave a comment that's nasty.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I'll never mention any other podcaster, unless it's positive on
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the podcast. Chris Watt either. Or BBC. Yeah, but there's
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: enough out there to talk about, as in politicians or
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: these people who are trying to convince us that wrong
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: is right. and to aim your anger at and hatred
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: and childhood trauma. Yeah.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: So you did ask.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: What an amazing story. What an amazing story. Yeah. Maybe
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: you cut this podcast in two.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, it's good to get the true
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: story out because people are so indoctrinated from all the
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: videos they've watched on Everest all their life that they
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: genuinely believe that you'd leave a Sherpa to die and
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: steal his oxygen while you were... You know, this is
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: the level of mentalness that media creates, you know? It's
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: so different when you're up there. It's just different.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I went up Mount Snowdon and I was shaking like
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: a shitting dog. That's not even that easy. Was that enough, Chris? Well,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I went over one bit.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: I didn't realise how... My knees went up. I'm not
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: really good with heights. I was terrified, if I'm honest.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you probably.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Crawling across it.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: When I knew I was going to climb Everest, that's
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: what I did. I went to Snowdon because other than
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Gouda Peaking in Norway, I've never been up a mountain.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've been snowboarding every year for the last
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: 25 years. I've been up mountains, but not in this
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: kind of sense. So Snowdon was the second one I
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: ever went up. And yeah, that route, I don't know
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: if it's called the Crib Gok or whatever, but... where
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: eventually it's like that and you're physically climbing up.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't go up the hard one. I didn't go
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: up the easy one, but I didn't go up the
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: hard one. Somewhere in the middle. Were you wearing corduroy, Chris?
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Something like that.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: My mates did take the piss out of me. We
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: went up the Peak District as well this year and
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: my mates took the piss out of me because they
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: had like cagoules and stuff and I had like old
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: clothes on.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: They called me fucking whalebone. Because... I had like a
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: leather rucksack and they all had like, you know, cagoules
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: and stuff. I didn't. You're like 1902 Explorer. Good fun though.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm no hiker, but yeah, I've never been
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: up a mountain until when I'm snowed in. I enjoyed it.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: It was really good. Yes.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: So thank you for asking. Sorry if I went on
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: a bit. It's just done.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: It was a good, interesting story.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: My son's 11 and he was getting death threats.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: What?
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Well, it was like this. People were writing through my
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: social media when I say mention that I've been out
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: on my mountain bike with my son. And they were writing,
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: why don't you tell your son to go and get
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: a rope so you can hang yourself, you cunt.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: What? Yeah.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: I fucking kid you not.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: What goes through people's minds to do so?
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: They've got this schema in their head that all these
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: rich Westerners that shouldn't be on Everest... We only go
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: there to abuse the Sherpas and leave them to die.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: And they've watched all these videos where this has been
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: like the narrative because it's a clicky narrative. People are
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: going to watch. You make up a load of shit.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: People watch that stuff. So what happened was because the
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: expedition company were very slow in getting a rescue package
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: put together, right? And there's so many reasons for that
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: that people don't want to even try and understand. For
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: a start, this is a company that's skint, hence why
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: they got $ 4, 000 out of me, right? They literally ran
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: out of money on the mountain. Now, to get a
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: chopper to come up from Kathmandu, especially so you can
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: fly around looking for one person, not that one person
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: isn't equal to all of us. I didn't mean it
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: like that. But in their view, well, that's going to
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: cost us probably $ 150, 000, you know, to have a chopper
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: come up and spend all that, like two or three
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: days or whatever, and a crew of, you've got to
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: find a crew of Sherpas after the season's ended to
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: get all their kit back together and go up there
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: and either work for free or you've got to pay them.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Then there's no, you don't even know where, it's a
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: huge mountain. could be literally in so many different places
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: on it so i'm not trying to justify this i'm
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: just saying i think this is probably like but it's
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: kind of a bit of a irrelevant conversation anyway because
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: they all thought he was dead you know they they
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: just they just you you you don't but by the
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: time we got back to base camp and i woke
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: up in base camp it's three days now you know
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: it's taken us two and a half days to get down.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: By the time I got down, I was tired. I
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: was just tired. They brought me a tot of rum
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: and I'd done that and that was it. I was
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: just out like a light. They had to come and
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: get me and force me to go to my tent
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: and sleep, right? And when I woke up, it's three
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: days now that this guy's been up there in the
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: death zone on his own. What conclusion logically can you really...
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: Every video you've ever watched, whatever it says, if you
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: spend more than X amount of time with a problem
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: in the debt, you're fucking dead. So it was a weird...
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: He survived though. Yeah, he survived. In his mind, he
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: didn't want all this fuss. He was just like, look,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: I decided to come down in my own time. I'm like, great, dude,
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: but do you know the fucking shit you put on
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: me and my family because you haven't been online and
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: apologized and said, look, hold my hand up. These guys
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: didn't do anything. What they did instead, in an attempt
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: to explain why he ran himself out of oxygen, him, right?
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Only you are in charge of your oxygen on Everest.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: You can't, you know, it's up to you. Even if
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: you've got a Sherpa, you've still got to make sure
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: you've got oxygen to get down. And rather than just
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: hold his hand up and say, look, I fucked up here.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: I used weight because I didn't turn around when we
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: couldn't make it to the summit. I'm talking about these
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: guys now, right? Because they didn't turn around, he used
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: all his oxygen up, right? He's a chef. It's understandable.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: He's not supposed to know this shit, right? But anyway,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: rather than hold his hand up and say, look, I'm
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: a chef. I shouldn't really have agreed to go up.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: I should have been honest with these guys and said, look,
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: it's beyond my pay grade, fellas. But instead, no, I
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: took the money and I went and I got myself
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: in trouble. No, instead of saying that, he said me
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: and the other climber had used all his oxygen. And
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: I would just like, that is so shit. That is
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: just that. It was at that moment that I lost it.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: But I was like, right, I've kept quiet till now.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: I've been really gracious. I haven't pointed fingers at anyone.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I'm not into that. But you say that when my
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: son's dad risked his life up there to save your client,
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: and I could have not come home because of it.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: And then you say it was my own fault. Like, sorry,
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: that's crossing a line, you know?
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: What it just shows is humans in any country can
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: be lying bastards. That's the sad state of affairs, isn't it?
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Even these wholesome people that we look at, the Sherpa... Nepalese,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: aren't they? The Nepalese, they are, aren't they?
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what he said is, is that we fannied around
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: at the Camp 4 when we should have gone straight down, right? No,
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: we fannied around there because you two went straight to
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: bed when we got down from the summit and were
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: fast asleep, leaving me with your client with advanced frostbite
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: to deal with, having to find your client a tent, right? That's,
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: and what he's trying to say is because we fannied around,
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: we used up all the oxygen, but What he's not
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: being honest about is, no, we didn't use any oxygen
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: at Camp 4. We didn't need to. It wasn't, you know,
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: when you've got limited oxygen supplies, you don't need it
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: unless you absolutely have to. And we were fine at
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Camp 4 without it. We were chatting away, you know,
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: doing our stuff. It would have been a waste of
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: oxygen to just suck on it for the sake of it, right?
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: Same as I didn't use it on the summit. We
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: were up there an hour. Stood on the summit of
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: Mount Everest without any oxygen. It was absolutely fine. Wasn't
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: even worried in any slightest, you know.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: What I'd say, Chris, is I won't be concerned now. Everything's,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: everyone's come down all right. Everything's gone all right, regardless
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: of what anybody says. The cult's going to listen to
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: the Sherpas, aren't they? But like you said, it's a
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: one-off experience. You won't be getting, in another year, everyone
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: will have forgotten about it and you won't be dealing
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: with that cult anymore anyway. Because they're a set of cults.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. But the reason I'm speaking my, my piece
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: now is because initially all the TV, you know, the
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: like Netflix companies and that got involved and they're all
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: emailing me going, you know, will you be part of,
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: and one by one, they all pulled out and they
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: all pulled out. Cause when they did a little bit
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: of digging below the surface, I'm guessing they realized there's
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: no story in this. You know, it's not, it's not,
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: it's what I was saying earlier is what they were told. Yeah,
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: because the expedition company didn't get a rescue started for
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: like five days or something, right? And to be honest,
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: between you and me. I think the only reason they
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: got it started was because the company that had done
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: our permits for us was another company that our company
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: was like under the umbrella of, right? And when this
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: umbrella company, I won't say their name, Well, I will.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: It's called Seven Summits. When they started to be dragged
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: into the media, then they were like, fuck, we haven't
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: even got a chopper up. So then they got a chopper.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Up there, right?
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: So the media jumped on it as Sherpa abandoned on Everest,
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: meaning the expedition company didn't get a rescue in place
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: for this guy. But the public read that as me
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: and the other lad had abandoned this guy. Do you
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: see what I'm saying? where I physically couldn't have abandoned
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: him even if I wanted to, guys, because he didn't
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: tell me he was struggling. He just sat on his
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: pack for a rest like we'd done hundreds of times,
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: hundreds of times. Totally normal. Usually, I just waited. I'd
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: stand there waiting for him to get up again because,
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: like I tell you, we don't leave a man behind.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: The only time that I had to continue was when
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: we were going up to Camp 4. I look around,
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: check he's all right. And at that moment, I saw
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: him sit down on his backpack. So I just stood
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: there and I waited and I waited. And by the
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: time five or six minutes had gone, you've got to
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: remember I'm on precious oxygen now. I don't know what
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: happens when the oxygen, I don't know if you just
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: keel over dead for all I know, you know, and
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know how far camp four is from this place.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: It might be another five miles for all I know.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: It might take another nine hours to get, I don't,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: I've never been up there before. You know, I figure
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: it's probably about two or three hours away. What I'm
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: saying is I can't just hang around, wait, waiting for
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: someone that's, that's sitting down all the time, you know?
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: So on that occasion, I waited and I waited in
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: the end. I had to walk, keep walking and, And
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: I couldn't stop going like that. It was like an
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: obsession in that light air. I was just upset. I just,
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: I couldn't, I was going, Chris, keep walking. You got
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: to get to camp four. But my moral side was like, no,
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: just one more look to see if he's, you know,
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: I couldn't stop looking to see if he's got up
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: yet and he's coming. And as it happened, he was
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: a few minutes sort of behind me, but, What I'm
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: saying is I couldn't physically possibly have made a decision
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: to leave this guy because he'd never said he was struggling.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Do you get what I'm saying?
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Not only that, though, they're there to... They're meant to
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: be the experts to be guiding you, not the other
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: way around.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. You know, even though he's the chef, he's
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: been to Camp 4 19 times carrying oxygen. Not for
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: our expedition. He's been up there once for us. But
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: these Sherpas earn extra money by... carrying oxygen for other companies, right?
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: So it's not like he's never been there before or nothing.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: He knows the score. Like I say, if he'd just
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: been honest with me and open and gone, yeah, Chris,
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: I'm actually struggling. I've run out of oxygen. First thing
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: I would have done is get that on you. But
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: here's the thing. I wouldn't have known then that while
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: I'm doing all that, the other climbers quietly dying down
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: there below us. or potentially dying or falling off the
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: rope with exhaustion himself, you know? So it's all a shit.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter. I'm fine with it.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize. I knew you'd had a couple of
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: things that had gone on, but I didn't realize how
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: deep it was, to be honest with you. I hadn't
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: followed that deeply. I just followed a few videos that
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: you were putting on YouTube. Yes.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: Yes. No, it was... You know, they weren't used to
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: a person like me. They thought when I went back
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: down the mountain with altitude sickness, and I was really,
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: really sick. It's a weird thing. It's like having... the
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: flu with chronic diarrhea, whilst only being able to walk
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: three steps without then stopping to rest for at least
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: 30 seconds, if not a minute or two.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: What that shows you though, Chris, is that altitude sickness
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: isn't a supposed virus or a bacterial infection, but it
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: creates the same symptoms as what we've been told is said. Absolutely, yeah. Absolutely.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: It's your sales being fucked with, you know, and the
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: main reason in society we do, we fuck with is
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: through our diet. It's not through a bogey, a bogeyman
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: that doesn't even exist. But people are, people are, you know,
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: switching on to that now. So yes. Anyway, it was
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: just fine. I'll tell you what, we can just make
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: this about Everest and we can record again. Yeah. You know,
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: we'll record again and I'll put this out. But here's
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: the thing.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: I think it's great. I'm enjoying listening, to be honest
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: with you. Yeah, it's good. I wanted to know what
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: had gone on. You wanted an adventure, Chris. Yeah, yeah.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: So I get back to Kathmandu and I had all
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: these plans that I was going to celebrate my summit
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: by walking back down the trail, the trek, you know,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: stop at the tea houses. Dare I say I was
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: going to have a sneaky beer because we don't normally drink, but,
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: you know, we do stupid things, don't we, when we're celebrating.
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: And I was quite a lot. yeah and and I'd
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: met this young lad he was a young lad called
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: Dawa on the way up I stopped him with his
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: family for a little drink and he'd added me on
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: Instagram and all this stuff he's only he's only like
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: 10 or something so I formed this friendship I was
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: really looking forward to going back down and said I
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: did it you know bring him a souvenir or what
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: some buy him something along the way and But here's
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: the thing. I'm in base camp and I'm just depressed.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, not clinically or nothing, but I'm whatever the
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: opposite of how you're supposed to feel having just summited
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: the highest mountain in the world to raise awareness of
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: a vital cause following a 50-year dream that you've had,
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: battling through immense illness when everyone said, go home, go home.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, fuck you. If you keep saying that,
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: I'm blocking you from the social media, right? I don't
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: want to read that shit. I should have been in
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: celebration mode, but of course I can't celebrate because we've
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: lost someone. And I'm not, you know, I'm not a
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: narcissist or a fucking ego mate. This, to me, that
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: was not a success. So rather than walk down and celebrate,
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: when they said there's a space in a chopper, do
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: you want to jump? I was like, fucking, let's get
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: back to Kathmandu, you know? I then spent two or
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: three days in the hostel. You know, I couldn't even
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: let anybody know other than a phone call to my girlfriend.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: that I've summited Mount Everest, all these people that supported
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: me on social media that are waiting for news because
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: they know I've gone up. They're like, Chris, you know,
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: I'm paralyzed because I don't know. I don't want to
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: appear like I'm celebrating because this guy's died. So I
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: just sat drinking beer for two, two. And finally I
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: got my phone out. I thought, right, how can I
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: tell the world that? Yes, I've been up there, but
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: I lost the Sherpas and, you're feeling awful about it.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: And so I've done this video. The problem is I
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: wasn't expecting the backlash. So I just did an honest video.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: Fucking hell. Then the YouTubers and that jumped on it
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: and literally ripped it apart with such, you know, I said,
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: for example, that when I was in this tent and
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: the wind was howling outside and I genuinely didn't know
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: at that moment, If we were going to get off
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: that mountain with two people alone on Everest alone, except
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: for the one guy behind us, which we're assuming he's
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: not with us anymore. Right. That's all we could, you know.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: And I remember thinking then that as much as I'm
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: going to support this other climber, if he starts going,
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: you know, if he goes unconscious from the altitude, I've
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: got to leave him. Not because I'm greedy with my life,
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: but because... It's called human instinct. No, it's not, mate.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: It's because I've got an 11-year-old boy at home.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Well, exactly. That's what I mean. If you're okay, you're
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: not going to kill yourself for someone else.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: I'm not leaving my boy on his own for the
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: rest of his life with no daddy. Fuck you. Just
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: because in your weird, you know, enigmatic... romantic view of Everest.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: You think I'm going to sit there and die with him.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: It's like, no, I'd made the decision. If he goes
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: down and dies, I just got, you know, I've got
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: to get myself back to my son.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: That to me is like being a good parent. Oh no,
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: that was twisted into, um, fuck the Sherpa. Fuck this guy.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: My son is more important than you.
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: Which in a way, It's sort of true, but I
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: didn't say it like that. Do you know what I mean?
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: I didn't say it like that.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: In fairness though, as well, when you're in certain situations,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: your mind does think stuff that you, some of it
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: you think, well, that's bullshit. And some of that's all right.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: And all you did were open your heart up to say,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: this is what I was thinking at this particular point. Yeah.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: And then everyone jumped in. And I said, when we
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: got down to camp two, the first thing I did
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: was jump on the radio and say, look, We're missing
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: a Sherpa. Two things have happened here. He's either died
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: or there's a possibility he's crawled into a tent at
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: the Lhotse camp, right? So I told them the information
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: they needed to know. The public jumped on it or
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: the cult of Everest jumped on it saying, Oh, he
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: didn't even bother getting on the radio to let them
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: know a Sherpa had gone missing until he got down
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: the mountain himself. I didn't have a radio. He had it.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: And he had our sat phone that was, you know,
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: meant for our safety, really.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: Can I ask, why did that other Sherpa piss off?
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: Everyone asks me that. And do you know what? It's
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: like this. He had full confidence in me to get
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: down that mountain. He's seen how I performed on the
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: summit day. We laughed our asses off. It was fucking
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: pretty easy, to be honest. Someone said to me, it's
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: like the Royal Marines 30 miler. This was a Royal
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: Marine that summited the year before. I got great respect
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: for the guy, don't get me wrong. I was going
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: up there thinking, so when is this going to get difficult,
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: like the Royal Marines commando test then? Because it was way,
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: way harder. Literally way, way, way harder. So my Sherpa knew.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: I was fine to get down that mountain. What he
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: didn't factor in is the other guy had actually grabbed
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: him as he went past and said, hey, I'm low
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: on oxygen here. And for some bizarre reason that I
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: don't know, the Sherpa went, dug up an oxygen cylinder
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: because they had a stash in the snow, which is
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: just bizarre in itself. But some of our oxygen was
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: buried in the snow and he dug it up. screwed
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: it onto his own respirator, you know, his own mouthpiece,
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: and went, well, just go slowly. And then he left
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: the guy. I can't explain that. I've got nothing against him.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: When it got down, if it wasn't for him, we
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: wouldn't have got through the Kumbu Icefall, I don't think,
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: without falling in a crevasse. He was painstakingly meticulous. It
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: took us 19 hours to get through the icefall, which
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: should take you two and a half hours. 19 because
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: the ropes were covered in the snow. And we was
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: all doing our bit, you know, trying to find, but
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: he stuck with us. Plus he's carrying this fricking great Bergen.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: I was worried he was just going to fall through
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: an ice bridge at any, any moment, but he got
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: us safely back to camp. And, I had no hesitation
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: in taking my climbing boots that they're worth, you know,
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: over a thousand pounds. I went there. In fact, this
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: is an interesting thing. He said, could I borrow your boots, Chris?
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: Because mine is soaking wet and I've got to go
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: back and take the ladders in, in the Khumbu icefall
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: because this is what they do every year. But because
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: we were the last people on the mountain, They'd left
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: them in place a little bit longer just so obviously
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: we could get down. But now it was our responsibility
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: to go and get them in.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: I don't mean mine. I'm just a fricking client, but
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: our company. So he's going back up. I'm like, you know,
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: do you want any money? Do you want some money
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: for some whiskey? Because these guys like to, do you
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: know what I mean? They like to have a little
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: tot and I give him my boots. Here's the thing, right?
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: When the Sherpa finally came down, you've got to remember
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: this was a few days later, he said all the
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: ladders were still in place. So these guys, I think
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: they managed to find two Sherpas in base camp and
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: my Sherpa. They'd obviously gone up, pretended to take the
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: ladders in, but just left them all in place, knowing
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: that their mate was going to come down in his
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: own time, you know, that this was a possibility, I suppose.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: So I chuckle because obviously they got paid to go
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: and do it, but And when he came back down,
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: I said, how are the boots? He said, yes, very good, Mr.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Chris.
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: Very, very good. I said, they're yours, mate. That's how
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: grateful I was. You know, I would have given him
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: the crampons too, because they were a special custom fit
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: for this boot, a unique fit. But I thought I
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: was going to have to do a talk when I
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: got back to my son's school. you know, go into
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: the school and say, Hey guys, this is, does anyone
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: know what this is? Yes, it's a crampon. And that's,
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: so I, um, I didn't, I tried to talk the
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: other climber and like, could you give him yours? Cause
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: they were this custom fit as well. Um, but he
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: just mumbled something about, they're in the bottom of my bag. So,
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: you know, so, you know, that was that. Um, but
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: it would just like, uh, I didn't look at a
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: lot of this negative stuff, but just because it kept
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: coming up, like in the YouTube and stuff, I'd listened
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: to a little bit. I just couldn't believe, you know,
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: when YouTubers do a hit piece on someone and if
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: it's like, you know, Fauci, well, it's fair fucking game
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: in it. Cause the guys see you NT, you know,
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: dig out blind. No one's really, you know, he, he,
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: he's going to get what he deserved. And he really,
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: which is the massacre of thousands upon thousands of people.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: Hmm.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: That's not me, though, is it? I've just climbed Everest
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: for a charitable cause, to raise awareness that my buddies
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: are dying of suicide and no one else is talking
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: about this. I haven't, you know, what have I ever
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: done to you in your life?
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter, does it? Because all they're looking for
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: is views.
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: And I see the whole social media thing imploding because
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: of that as well. Everyone's fighting over the same subscriber number.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: and it didn't just have to be in the truth
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: whatever it is world it could be in any world
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: they seem to be all fighting over different well the
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: same subscriber because there's only so many people listen to
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: podcasts certain podcasts.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: So It didn't matter to these people that I've gone
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: to meet the guy's family. That is not a nice meeting.
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: Believe me, they were beautiful to me. They really liked me,
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: to be honest. They were like, Chris, we don't blame
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: you in any way. You're just a client. You're in
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: our country. We're supposed to look after you, not do
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: what they did to you up there. They said our
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: beef is with the company that kind of didn't even
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: get a rescue off the ground.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: And we're all like on Instagram and each other's Instagram
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: and all that now. When the Sherpa come down, the
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: first thing I did was video him, video call him
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: and just say, hey, you fucker. You know, I didn't
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: bring up any shit, but I felt like saying, why
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: didn't you just tell me? Do you know, you know,
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: so that was all that. But I was on a
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: podcast yesterday talking all this through and the host, Kerry,
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: bless her, Kerry Hopkins she said Dan Chris what have
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: you learnt by all this and I thought about it
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: for a minute and I thought about all that negativity
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: and that hatred from you know and I thought what
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: I've learnt is I'm a massive legend you know and
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: I ain't changing one fucking bit for anybody I'm sorry
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: And do you know what? They're all massive legends too.
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: They just haven't realized it. I'm not putting myself above anyone, boys,
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: am I? I'm saying we're all massive legends. I got
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: up there and demonstrated it on that mountain. Got nothing
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: to fucking feel bad about. It's an awesome result. I've
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: achieved a lifelong dream and I saved lives. Off the
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: back of it, I got an English Veteran of the
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: Year award. There we go, folks. So, you know, my
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: message to anyone is just keep being yourself because there's
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: so many haters out there. Just you be yourself and
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: remember you're massively loved.
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I remember me and Chris spoke to you more
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: or less a year ago now and you were saying
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: you were planning this trip and it's mission accomplished to
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: nick a George Bush term. But it is actually mission
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: accomplished because we're putting the negative shit aside. you did
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: achieve what you wanted to achieve. You went to Everest
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: and you raised money for the charity.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. This is what I'm saying is we shouldn't get
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: lost in other people's narratives. That's their shit. But you
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: got to remember, we got so many veterans committing suicide
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: every year.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: It's because they're buying into others' narratives, aren't they? Not always.
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, it might be, It might be some deep
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: down war trauma that they did something in battle that
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: they maybe can't live with, I guess.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I'd say it's all of the above. I mean, I
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: think a lot of people carry childhood trauma. It's how
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: you deal with it. Yeah. How many veterans do we lose, Chris,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: a year at the moment? Yeah.
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: The nature of complex PTSD is when you're in that
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: dark moment, your lack of a male role model from
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: childhood is suddenly there on your shoulder, aren't they? Going,
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: I told you you were shit. I told you you
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: were a bad son. Told you nobody would ever fucking
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: want you. And this is allowed to escalate in people's
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: heads till they take themselves out of the game.
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: What were you asking there, Chris?
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: How many people do you lose? How many veterans do
• 58:39
  Speaker 3: you lose a year on average?
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: It was at its all-time height a few years back
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: with sort of some, like the fallout from Afghanistan sort
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: of thing. And we don't know official statistics because the
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: government obviously not going to record it. And we don't
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: also know, you know, what about the people drinking themselves
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: to death? What about the people smashing up their car
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: and dying because they've gone out, you know, in a
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: drunken stupor? What about the people who's kidnapped? are failing
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: for the years of alcoholism while they've been self-medicating their trauma?
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: So it's a very, you know, when I say suicide,
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: I kind of mean all of this field really. And
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: so I would say the numbers are probably... like in
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: their thousands a year talking about the people that die
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: homeless or, or, or, you know, the actual people that,
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: that take themselves out the game in that sense is a,
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: can be around 250 a year, but it can be
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: from what I've seen statistically as low as 50 a year,
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: but there's no official statistics. So, This is why I
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: just talk about it. You know, I say, folks, how
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: can these veterans start the healing process from their childhood
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: trauma if all the charities are just banging on about
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: combat PTSD? So these lads that really need the help
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: and really need the support, they're at home doing a
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: line of Charlie and necking from a bottle of Jack
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: Daniels going, Well, I can't go to a charity, can I?
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: Because I was never in a conflict, or I was
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: in a conflict, but I stacked blankets in the background.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: You know, these charities, they're all helpful heroes, aren't they?
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: They're walking with a wound. Do you see what I'm saying?
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: What people don't understand, though, Chris, is, and I've never
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: been in a war zone or been in the military,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: but I can understand, I can empathise that Them guys
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: that are on them aircraft carriers in the Gulf at
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: this moment in time that are on alert 24-7, basically.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not sticking up for what America are doing. And
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: them Iranian citizens that are there thinking, am I going
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: to get a Tomahawk missile dropped on my kid's school?
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: That is trauma in itself. There doesn't have to be
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: actually anything happening. But the thought that it might happen
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: now is trauma in itself. And they've been doing that.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: We saw on that battleship, the aircraft carrier, There were
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: three suicides or three attempted suicides just recently on that battleship, sorry,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: aircraft carrier. And that's what we're told about, you know. Yeah.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: So my, one of our officers, when I was on
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: an aircraft carrier, very nice chat. I specifically thought, bloody hell,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: he's really nice for an officer, this guy. Bloody that night,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: hung himself in his cabin. The lad I shared a
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: room with when we served in the Northern Ireland conflict,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: a chap called Dave, we got back from that conflict.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: He gassed himself in his car. One of my biggest
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: supporters of all my charity stuff was a sergeant major.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: He had four children. I thought he was sorted. I
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: thought he was on top of the world, this boat.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: Took himself out the game. Guy that should have been
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: rowing the Atlantic with us. He was supposed to be
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: in our sister boat. Nice go. He's the first guy
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: to congratulate me when I rode the Atlantic. He then
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: left an awful suicide note on Facebook and he took
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: himself out the game. In that suicide note, he didn't
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: mention conflict or anything. He talked about three people that
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: had turned their backs on him. So what does this
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: tell us? Rejection, isn't it? It's that rejection we had
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: as a child through not having a father on the
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: scene or having a father who wasn't there for us
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: all the time.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: Gabor Matty talks about all this stuff, doesn't he?
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: He's a really interesting chap to listen to about it all.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: I've got quite a lot of books about it. I
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: studied quite a bit of psychology in the 2000s with
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: a lady. I went to, I didn't know she was
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: a psychologist. I'm not. I've bored Chris to tears with
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: this one. But in the early 2000s, I wanted to
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: know why we're getting into certain, let's say, situations with
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: business partner or wherever. Um, And I wanted to understand
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: why we're making these decisions in my life. So I
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: found this lady who I didn't realize at the time
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: was a clinical psychologist. I just wanted to go for
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: clinical hypnosis and get all this stuff out of my system. Anyway,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: I ended up studying with her every week. Every Monday
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: I used to go for about eight years to the
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: point where it was very interesting. Scary as well, don't
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: get me wrong, because you're unraveling all this. And you
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: realize that everybody you choose in your life was like
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: that person, that parent, that you didn't actually want to
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: be like. Yeah. And that is one wet fish moment
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: around your face, is that. But that's how I dealt
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: with my, I suppose you could call it childhood trauma.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: Our dad wasn't horrendous, but he didn't have to be horrendous.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: It can be a slight comment that you translate wrong. No, no, no.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: I don't think you had to translate him wrong for that. No,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: I don't think you had to. But you had your
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: issues as well with him, Chris.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: So it affected both of us in different ways. But
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: you have to deal... Some people can deal with it
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: and other people can't. And I'm not saying we're stronger
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: or better. It's just the fact that we've acknowledged that
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: and are part in whatever struggles we had.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And I should just add on the subject
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 2: of Everest, guys. I'm not bitter about any of it.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: Nor should you be.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: You know, and I know I'm talking quite frankly about
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: the people involved. I don't... I totally get it. These
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: guys are overworked. They barely speak enough English to communicate
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: with you. So that, that stuff, you know, I'm not
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: talking about all Sherpas now. I'm talking about my experience.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: They're exhausted all the time. They're asked to make this
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: superhuman effort. Like I get it. I, I, I'm like
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: on their side, but I have to mention all this
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: in order to tell my story. Do you know what
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: I'm saying? And, and, When your 11-year-old's getting death threats,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: that's just unacceptable.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: Can I say, Chris, from an observer looking in, it
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 3: sounds to me like the company shouldn't have sent that
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 3: chef guy anywhere. And he should have been looking after you.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 3: It starts with the greed of the company, really, doesn't it,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: that shouldn't have sent that guy. You can't blame that
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 3: guy because you probably thought, I'm on a number here,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 3: I'm going to earn some extra cash.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: And they just lied to me as well, Chris. When
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: I got back from Kathmandu, I just flew back to
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: base camp Um, they said, oh, we've sent a Sherpa home.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: He had a heart attack.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: In the meantime, they said to the other climber, oh,
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: we sent that Sherpa home because he's got a drinking problem.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: So that immediately said two different things. I said, oh,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: if he had a heart attack, how did he get
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: back to Kathmandu? Cause you know, these guys walk carrying
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: all their equipment. He said, oh, we, we paid for
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: him to have a helicopter. I was like, okay, I
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: wonder if you realize he's on my WhatsApp. So I
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: just went back to me 10 and I called the
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: guy and I'm like, buddy, where are you? He said,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: they fired me. I'm like, what? I said, I said,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: did you have a heart attack? He's like, no. He said,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: they fired me. They didn't pay me my, you know, $ 5, 000
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: that this is their year salary, right? What is a
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: generous salary, but, uh, I said, oh, but they got
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: your chopper back to Kathmandu though. He went, no, they
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: made me walk all the way.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: It beggars belief, you know, it beggars belief, but all
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: of this is just how it is. I couldn't afford
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: a company that costs 150,000 pounds. I don't have that money.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: I made a decision, go with a local Nepalese company.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: It's not affordable, but I can get that money together, right?
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: I'll borrow half of it. And I went on their
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: TripAdvisor to see the reviews because I'm not stupid. I'm
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: not just going to give a deposit to a company
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: and it comes back, oh, stay away from them. And
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: all the reviews online were really good. They were like, oh,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: the big boss looked after me on our trek last year.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: There was none about Everest, but all the trekking ones
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: were just like five-star reviews. I thought, what more can
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: you do? Do you know what I mean? My mate
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: who climbed Everest the year before, he did some research
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: and for me with the Sherpas up there. And they said, no,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: they've not heard of this company, but there's a lot
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: of companies up there. Just use your loaf, Chris, sort
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: of thing. And like I say, had I been with
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: another company, like an English one or an English run one,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: when I went down to Kathmandu and came, they might
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: have said to me, no, no, you're... Do you know
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: what I mean? For all I know, they might have said, no,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: to be on the side of safety, Chris, you're not got.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, we're not covered by insurance if you go back
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: up or whatever.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: I don't even know how that works, to be honest.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: But obviously, I had top-notch insurance, but I wouldn't have
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: been able to access it anyway because I didn't have
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: the satellite phone and they will only accept a phone
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: call from you. They won't say, I couldn't like radio
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: base camp and say, guys, could you call my company
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: for me? You know, they wouldn't have come for me
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: anyway because obviously it was someone else who's had a problem.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: But I'm just saying, hypothetically, had I had a problem...
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: I couldn't have used my insurance anyway, because he had
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: the satellite phone. So, but like I say, I'm not bitter,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: nothing like that. It's just, you know, people need to know.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: And if there's TV and movie companies getting involved, they
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: need to know the real story through podcasts like this,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: rather than go and fabricate a narrative that really makes
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: us all sound like a bunch of CNX Tuesdays. Do
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Because it would never, you know,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: as a problem, as a tried to make clear it
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: was like never like that you know it was never
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: like that and you just don't half meet some real
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: weird narcissistic weirdos when you climb Everest I don't mean
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: on Everest I mean the fallout when you get back I.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: Don't think you need to go up Everest to meet
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: some oddballs Chris Yeah.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: Well, there you go, yeah.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: Anyway, listen, chaps, this was meant to be me podcasting you,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: so thank you so much for here. You can probably
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: tell I needed to tell it, didn't I?
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Well, do you know what, Chris? I'm honoured that you
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: did it with us.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: I'm honoured you felt comfortable enough to do it with us, yeah.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, 100%. You guys are the real deal. Anybody knows that,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: And to be fair to you, Chris, you tried to
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 3: move on. It was me that said, what about that
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 3: other bit?
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: You kept asking questions.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we could be talking about the Mongolian bird flu now.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: Couldn't we? I'm sure there's plenty of time to talk
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: about that.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, listen, we'll go again. But fellas, for the
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: purpose of this one, thank you so much. If there's
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: anybody out there listening that can help me recover. See,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: what happened is, I had to stop my fundraising when
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: this guy, we thought he was dead, right? Because it
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: would have seemed inappropriate. There's me asking people for money
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: when really his daughter needs it, right? So I stopped him.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: But of course, that meant I was left with £ 20, 000
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: that I've now got to try to find somewhere. God
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: knows how. So if there's anyone out there is what
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to say, can chip in a fiver. I'll
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: put a link below this video, friends. And thank you
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: so much to everybody that did support me. You know,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: you absolute legends. If you can like and subscribe, folks.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: I feel weird saying this when it's... Dom and Chris
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: have done the podcast. But we will go again.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: Co-hosts on the Chris Thrall show.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: Hey, you could come and take over from me. I
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 2: can have some time off.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: I've enough taking over from my podcast.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: Hey, I could go and climb Mount Everest or something,
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: you know?
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, that don't work, does it? But fellas, thanks ever
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: so much. Folks, like and subscribe. We're going to go
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: again soon. Much love, much love. Cheers, cheers.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: Thank you.