Latest / Chris Thrall's Bought the T-Shirt Podcast / Marine Swims Channel, Cycles To Nepal & RUNS Up Everest | Mitch Hutchcraft

Transcript

Marine Swims Channel, Cycles To Nepal & RUNS Up Everest | Mitch Hutchcraft · Chris Thrall's Bought the T-Shirt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello friends.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, Chris Throuw. I'm a former Rual Marines commando.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I've adventured for better and sometimes worse, across eighty countries
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: on all seven continents. Welcome to the Port the t
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Shirt podcast. Mitch, welcome back, do you mate? Brother? It's amazing,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: isn't it that we chatted before? Little did I? Little
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: did we know when we chatted before you were with
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the Atlantic Dagger. I'm just going to show the instagram
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: here at the Atlantic Dagger Rule Marines Transatlantic Rowing team
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: and you just crossed the Atlantic to Barbados, and little
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: did we know then that you would have you would
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: have climbed Everest and I will be I'm in Everest.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Absolutely yes, so strange mates, that was the first podcast
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I ever did, And yeah I did Atlantic and followed
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: now Everest and you're doing it next year. There's a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: nice pattern going on.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, So let me just start by saying massive congratulations
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: friends at home. Mitch swam the English Channel cycled to
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: was it India? Mitch?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Then twelve thousand k to India to sea level in.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: India, then ran to Everest.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: And ran nine hundred k to Catman do to from
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: sea level and then three hundred and sixty k from
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Catman do yumped yumped to base camp before before everest.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Utterly unreal, and I'd say, if there's a I don't
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: think there's a better way to get Instagram subscribers. So
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: quickly is.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, mate, I is just having a great team, having
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: having someone who took a chance on us, you know.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And yeah, but yeah, persistence and hard work plays.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Off, buddy, absolutely, So I don't know in which order
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: to to do this, but let's just go back to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: the beginning then quickly, can we chat about your time
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: in the Marines.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely incredible, only about five and a half years,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: all got four or five. And I wouldn't I thank
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: it so much, you know, I wouldn't change a second,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: even the crap times. You know. It helps forward that
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: mindset that's needed to get through this kind of these
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: kinds of this kind of stuff. And yeah, it was
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: just such a pillar, you know, such a pillar to
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a foundation for everything. And it was kind of like
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the first big dream ticked off.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: My dad died the year before I joined, and that's
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: why I joined. Kind of the big factor throughout all
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: of the Max editions and this you know he's been
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: him so to have ticked off that first massive dream,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: it was just it was so important.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, you meet a lot of nice blokes in the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: or not. Everyone's not everyone's nice, but there is that
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: there's like a common thread though, isn't there that you
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: really do. It's almost weird that we joined up to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: do the job that we did when you think how
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: bloody nice a lot of them blokes were, you know
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: for sure?
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean attracts. I think it attracts, you know,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the kind of people that already have that predisposition, you
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. You know you don't join in,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: you don't know, you don't learn the mindset if you
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: don't habit when you obviously when you join, you're not
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: going to get through. So I just think it brings
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of lads who fit the same together.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely absolutely. And did you struggle at all when
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: you left the corps mentally or well?
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I was quite lucky so no, I mean, I you know,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I rejoined about two years after Afghan and it was
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I was lucky enough not to have to go see
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: or go through half the stuff which you did. But
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: you know, my many of my friends did that. I
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: know that had been a lot longer, So it was
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: all right for me because I didn't have that and
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: obviously haven't been in for like, I hadn't been into
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: like ten twenty years like a lot of the lads,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So I didn't have that big like transition. And I
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: joined at twenty one. I'd already lived in Australia, I'd
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: worked for three years before the real world, so it
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: wasn't a massive transition, but it was because I left
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: literally during COVID. I left in April in March twenty
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: twenty one, so it was a little bit nerve wracking.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Yes, and your background is in zoology, that's that's got
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: to be a first.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. There weren't many. Yeah, there weren't many people who
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: had like studied zoology and had worked with animals and
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the zoos and stuff. But it was just, yeah, it
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: was all something I thought I'd get back to one
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: day maybe, But yeah, I just wanted to get that dream,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: get that dream done and see what happened with it.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and what was your motivation? I mean it's almost
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: a bit cliche, isn't it. I want to work with
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: children and animals. Yeah, and I'm not saying that to
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: put it down whatsoever. It's just that very few people
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: probably probably follow it through.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Now. That was it like I got to like the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: end of school, and it was like I liked, I
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: want to I want to either do fitness or like
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: wildlife conservation, like animal stuff. So I just chose that
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: just because it was something I was a bit more
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: passionate about. And yeah, and after that for a few years,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I've never reready done anything with it. Too much is
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: how have you been doing there? I'm working in like
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: one particular zoo and stuff and nothing crazy. But then yeah,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: then kind of life going the way because then I
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: went to Australia to live there for a year with
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: my dad's family. But then I got the call at
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the end like two weeks to live so that kind
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: of changed things a little bit. And then that that
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: just changed the entire dynamic of my life. You know,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: that was like such a big, big key moment. And yeah,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: but that's why everything kind of falls into place now
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: because not only you know, well, we're raising hopefully a
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: ship ton of money for this charity go into later.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: So now it's like I get to combine helping veterans,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: mental health, people struggling mental health and wildlife conservation at
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the same time simultaneously.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, that was one of the charities I'm guessing.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: For yeah, yeah. So ever since so saves him, there's
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a small organizations based out of London, so they've really
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: been operating for three years now. So they've literally made
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: and mental health course using wildlife and nature to treat
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: vet veterans transitioning into civil life. It's awesome. So they
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: work with like their partnered with London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: so they'll run two courses a year at the moment.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: So literally you go there like live on the zoo
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: for a week five days, sorry, Like they've got glamping
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: pods and stuff on the like pods on the on
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the zoo, working with the animals, like you know, yoga,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: just all completely scientific based kind of mental health course
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: called called the Warriors of Hope course. So it's literally
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: called the Warriors of Hope course. But not only that,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: that's just half of what they do. The other half
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: of what they do is that they utilize the skills
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of vets that are veterans that are leaving and send
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: them to like Africa to do any poaching projects, trade
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: to do anything from tracking to poach it to anti poaching,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: to bed courses to try to training, like yeah, so
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: they utilized the skills of these of these guys and
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: girls who are who are struggling by sending them to Yeah,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: it was just incredible. I came across them the year
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: after a road the Atlantic because obviously it was only
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: a week before, a couple of weeks before I met
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: you for the first time on the podcast. That's where
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the idea for this came into my head. The whole
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: idea for Liberit, for this expedition was literally born Bud
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: on that shift, you know, on that three hour shift
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: for several weeks across the Atlantic. And then so a
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: year after I got back, just before cycling across the US,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I came across them randomly. I found a number on
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the company's house online for a charity I thought it was,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: and it was a different charity answered by a different guy.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Next thing, you know, we're on the phone for forty
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: minutes and he's telling me how they they held veterans
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: by using wildlife and try and I was just like, right,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: this sounds this is this is spot on the next thing,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: you know, our cycle across the US for them, get
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: a few quid for them, and then yeah, obviously by
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: that point this this has been a four year process
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: to get this this expedition done. I was fully falsely
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: ahead to attempt this mad challenge. So yeah, and it's
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: just been great. And now I'm like, they're their ambassador.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Awesome, we'll come on and talk about your cycle across
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: the States. And another irony, we haven't even discussed this.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I've just got got a rather expensive gravel bike rather
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: cheap to cycle the tour divide, so from yeah, for
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: friends at home, that's I'm going to cycle down the
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: rocky mountains from Canada to to Mexico after I've climbed Everest.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: But it's kind of like the PCT version, but a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: bike trail, isn't it. Yes, that's awesome.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Coming back to we'll put links folks for the charity below.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: It sounds absolutely just where we need to be heading
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: with respect to mental health and and and and veterans
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: mental health. Absolutely, But I mentioned earlier, wasn't it sad?
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: I was going fishing one day with my son in
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Plymouth and he looked down from the pontoon as we
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: were getting on the boat, and he said, look, Daddy,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: there's a boat exactly the same as yours. And I
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: lookdown and there was the sister boat to Isabelle, which
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: we rowed Louie and I row the Atlantic in, and
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: it was Danielle. Yes, the boat that you rowed the
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Atlantic in. And it had gone obviously to a subsequent crew,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: one of whom was called Craig. So Craig and I
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: got in contact former marine. They were all a crew
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: of Marines, and sadly he took his own life recently
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: after leaving what can only be described as just such
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: a sad Facebook post that said, hello, you know, hello folks,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I love you all. It's been an absolute pleasure. But
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: by the time you read this, I'll no longer be
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: with you. And I wish he could have seen the response.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: There were thousands of responses, huge, huge part from Marine
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: saying mate, no, not the way, you know. I just
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: immediately picked up the phone and there was no answer.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: I was trying to call him on Facebook. There was
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: no answer. I'm calling Bruce, I'm calling you know. I
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: called his skipper to see if anyone and so yes,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: more congratulations again mate on that front.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: No, mate, it's yeah, it's just timble. I mean, all
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: we can do is try our best to talk to people,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and it's okay to speak like I said to you earlier.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Likes that kind of about hit home with me a
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: little bit because, as I say, my cousin called Craig
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: hung himself like a years ago now, which was a
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: big kind of reason for this exact same thing, like
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere, no one knows. It's like, so yeah,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: it's kind of a mission now to try and spread
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: as much positivity as possible.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, absolutely, So there you are, You're doing your
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: your row and shift a few hours off. That's it,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: and you've come up with this idea.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I just remember speaking to h to color you know,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: my my part own Parker. I was like, we lost
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a bit about a thousand miles across and I was
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: you know, as you know, most male adventures are born
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: amidst mad adventures. So it was like, God, what's next,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: you know, like and I just so I just don't
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: even know how it happened. Really, I just remember thinking
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: about every because every it has always been the catalyst. Ever,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: this has always been the dream ever since I was
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: five and I picked up a book from one man,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: and I always I always want to climb Everest from zero,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: to climb Everest from sea level, to go from zero
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to the top of the planet. You know, it's I
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: thought that would be really cool. But also in the
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: back of my mind was always swimming the channel, you know,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: for me, just the kind of physical challenge of it.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: You know, five times more people if somebody ever to
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: swim the channel. So that kind of raw physical challenge
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: had always been one of the other big back burning
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: dreams in my head. And I just remember like literally
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: rolling along with Connor one day and I just had
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: like a light bulb moment where I was like, oh, buck,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: fuck if I if I if we just link the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: middle bit, if I can just link in the middle
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: bit and cycle across the planet, it kind of becomes
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: a triathlon. And then so then I was like, all right,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: so we'll swim the channel, we'll cycle, We'll cycle from
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: France to India, then we'll run from India, We'll running
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: a hike from India to the Everest in climate and
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: it just kind of like weirdly fell into place. I
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: remember thinking about the time scale was like you know,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: leaving leaving late summer, getting hit in the Middle East
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: in like November Christmas time, and how even like, you know,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: not cycling through like the Arabian Desert Iran during summer.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: You know, it always actually works quite well, but also
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: gives me enough time to you know, that might that
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: I break it down, break it down the mileage and everything.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: I was like, that's that's doable. You need to allow
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: quite a lot of chrishion time for injury, sickness, the logistics,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: bureaucracy easies, you know what I mean. And I was like,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: it gives enough time to like if there's fuck ups,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, not a lot. If there'd been
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: one or two major, major major like sicknesses or injuries,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: it would have been game over. You're that you know,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: I was still averaging one hundred and forty k on
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the bike for four months street non stop.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: That's that's why most people don't consider it though, mates,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: isn't it you.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, But I knew it was possible.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: So I just wanted to show people like what is possible?
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: And so yeah, I just mad. I just took the plunge.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I quit TP February last year, with six months to
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: go without a penny in my pocket, knowing I had
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: to raise hundred at least one hundred grand or something
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: and it was more than that when I had the
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: team come along, and it was just yeah. So I
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: just spent the next six months making a thousand phone calls,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: going to meetings, going to events, and somehow managed to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: get just like ten percent of what was needed to
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: get started, not even knowing if we'd make it to
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the end of Europe, let alone the Middle East, Asia Everest,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and somehow, just a little bit by bit, people started
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to believe in it, a bit more in yeah, so
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: yeah got through and blind optimism.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: And did you have the money? I mean, Everest is
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: not cheap, as we both know. I should hold my
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: hand up here and say that I'm just in talks
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: at the moment about getting everything paid for me in
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: terms of sponsorship. Did you have the money together before
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: you left.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Or oh no, no, no no. I didn't have the way
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: to pay for Everest into a Pakistan. So I literally
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: left first three quarters of the trip, didn't even know everything.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Whether I get to the end of me I have
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: to pay for Everest. It was. But luckily about halfway
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: through through a mutual sponsor, like I say this Adrian
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: and Ada Adventures, they reached out to me. It offered
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: like the Don't get me wrong, it was still it's
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: still a lot of money, but they were like very
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: flexible about it and really really supportive of the of
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: the expedition and stuff, and it was just like that
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: kind of mentality just needed from someone like we'll make
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: it work. Like we'll make it work, you know, and
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I'm still paying them that I'm still paying them off now,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: but sponsors have done it. It's done now and I've
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: been so lucky. Yeah that just so lucky to have it,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: for it to have paid off, and yeah, just so
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: bangful me. Yeah, it.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Is amazing. I was on the Atlantic for a big
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: part of it obviously for fifty days and in the
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: build up to around the Atlantic because you know, especially
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: as a you know, a two man crew where I
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: kind of you know, I had to do a lot obviously,
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: So I feel guilty that I didn't get involved beforehand.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: But the truth is I didn't get to hear here
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: that you were doing it until we were on the
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Atlantic in Giane.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Nice as you heard while you're on the Atlant while
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: you're actually rolling.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just come across it. I'm like, lude look
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: what Mitch is doing. He's actually swam channel to tear,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: swim in the channels. I think everyone who's done a
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: bit of swimming would love. That's That's the kind of
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: holy grail, isn't it. Yeah?
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like the Everest of swimming. And like that's
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: why I'm so nervous. You know, ninety five percent of
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: my training before I left was just swimming, like barely
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: just a little bit of cycling, and like it was
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: all swimming because like, well, day one, it could have
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: all been over in day one, and it very very
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: nearly was mate, And it was Yeah, I knew it
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: would be the biggest challenge by far. That and Everest,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: the two parts that are completely in nature's control. Completely
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: you're at the mercy of nature. And it was like
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: it was that made it scary, you know what I mean.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: So I only had six months to train for the Channel.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I say, I quit work in February. I only had
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: literally between February and September to train, having not really
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: done any open water swimming before. You know, I've never
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I've never swam as well club, I've never smound competitively,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: nothing like that. I just got myself over, found myself
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: like a kind of like a coach, not a coach,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: but yeah, a coach, but like a kind of group
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: that does coaching, that does channel swimming coaching. Follow over
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: to Croatia for a week and just got absolutely smashed.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Two hours in the pool in the morning, two to
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: three hours in the ocean in the afternoon, every day
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: for six days straight, finishing with a six hour swim
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: because you have to do you have to do a
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: six hour qualifying swim, so you have to swim for
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: six hours NonStop without touching anything in sixteen degree water,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: obviously with no wetsuit to even qualify to swim the channel.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: But I was really lucky that back I managed to
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: get even get because it's about it's about three thousand
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: pounds three to four thousand pounds and about a two
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: year process to even book it. It's mad. You have
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: to book the one of the few little fishing vessels
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: that are the pilot vessels. You have to book that
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: like two three years in advance most of the time. Luckily,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: back in May twenty twenty three, just after the cycle,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: there was a there there'd been a cancelation for the
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: following September, so if like not that luckily they've been
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: a cancelation and it was yeah, so just even the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: logistics to get in the day one sort it was
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: just absolutely nuts. And yeah, I mean again, any any lads,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: any any anyone listening and he has any like questions
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: like the channel ever, if any of that, like, I'll
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: be happy to answer anything, but it's yeah, it was hard.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: It was by far the hardest day of my life,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: like one hundred percent it was. It was so I
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: like pretty much the worst kind of day for whether
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: they had it was a kind of abidar whe where
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: it would even go out. So yeah, it was eighteen
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: hours nineteen minutes of just NonStop swimming. But the last
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: six hours was just five hours was just genuinely trying
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: not to drown. It wasn't like swimming My right shoulder
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: had completely seized, artending artists in my wrist kind of
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: swimming one handed, and it was just I'd inhaled and
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: aspiated so much water that like I wasn't breathing by
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: lattery anymore. By lattery. It was just like as soon
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: as you take a breath, head down, you're gasping for
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: another breath. Yeah, thirteen boats, thirteen boats left England that
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: that that day, and ours was the only boat that
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: made it to France at that time. It was only
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: one other boat made it, but that was my friend Sean,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: who had traded with in Croatia. He was much quicker
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: than me, much faster. He made it six hours quicker.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: We done about twelve hours. He made it before the weather,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: before the weather came in, so every other boat turned
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: around here. We were the only boat, the only boat
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to push through that weather. It was brutal because you've
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: got like winds state one, two, three, four five. Normally
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: it's like if it's warm, if it's two or above,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the boats don't even leave Dover Harbor. But the last
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: five hours of the swim it was four or pressing
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: five for Wednesday. It was absolutely horrible and horrible.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Was there a temptation, I know, to do the official
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: to be recognized as an official Channel swim, it's got
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: to be done in swimming trunks.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Was there any consideration of, well, look I'm going to
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: clim be climbing, you know, running all the way cycling
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: and running all the way to up Everest. Yeah, maybe
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: I'll wear a wet suit for this, or or a
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: pair of fins.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, absolutely never considered fins. But technically it's a
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: triaf It was a triathlee. It was a triathle, you know,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: And so I was like, well, so I definitely looked
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: into it. I asked the coaches and that from my
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the channel swimming coaches and all that, and I was like,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: I basically just like, what would you recommend? And it
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: was definitely like because I didn't understand it and all that,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: but but yeah, basically it's much safer to swim without
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: a wetsuit essentially, and ironically so, but they're also they're
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: also all very much into that. You know, it's like,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: it's why is it?
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Why is it safe for me?
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Basically? The long, long story short is like, if you
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: wear a wet suit a lot of the time, you're
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: kind of it's like wearing a mask. You're basically because yeah,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: you're warmer, but like over when you're swimming, like to
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: do something like that, you're like, if you're starting to
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: feel like if things started to go wrong with your body,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: or you start to eat it masks how you might
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: be feeling because you've got a wetsuit, or you might
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: not feel if you if you're completely justnked by skins,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: like you kind of have a lot more control, not control,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: We have a lot more awareness over your body, you know,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're getting cold, you know, if something's
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: starting to really niggle or something, you know what I mean. Like,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and yeah, it's kind of so it's yeah, this might
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: just be them kind of persuading me not to wear
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: a wet suit, but they were just being like they
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: basically just said no, I just put on weight, put
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: on weight and you'll be fine, you know, like it's
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: not gonna be cold. And in the end, the cold
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: wasn't wasn't It wasn't even one of the main issues,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: thank god. But yeah, it's it's done to everyone. Obviously.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: It restricts movement as well. It massively restricts movement, even
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: if you have a really good one because I've done it,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: I've tried it. I swum quite a lot, you know,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I've tried it before. It restricts movement a lot. You know.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: The champions on another level, Yeah, many many a factors.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and you look like you really did bulk up.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Was it hard putting on the weight?
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Oh so so hard everything I could, you know, Yeah,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I got to ninety five. I was ninety five when
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I saund the channel and I was seventy nine and
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: or something everest, so it wasn't even that bad considering.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I just thought it might it might help
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: me float as well. That's what's got another thing, you
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, I think like a rock. The
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: month before in August, I've done this challenge, just like
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: this kind of first challenge in the Lake district. And
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: because it's fresh water, I was sinking. It was sinking,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: and it was like, well, okay, if you're train in
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: fresh water, water will feel easier because you float.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Better tell me about it. I'll wear even in the pool,
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: I wear float shorts. Yeah, they're I mean, they're awesome
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: for anyone that's not heard, and they're just near prene
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: shorts basically, and for people that are ultra skinny like
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: I am, I should say, low body fat but a
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: bit muscular that that's like not a good recipe for floating,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: you know exactly. And the float shorts keep they just
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: keep your core a little bit more stable so you
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: can you can enjoy it more. And of course the
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: thing about triathlon, it's quite kind of a funny one. Yeah,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: I think everyone worries about the swim and that, oh
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: my god, I don't want to drown. That's why they
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: have the swim first, obviously is when people and the
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: irony is the wet suits. I mean, I've got I've
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: got a surf wet a really decent surf wet suit,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: and I've got a really decent zone three I think
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: triathilm one and both of which it's hard to get
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: your legs down. You float, you float so much or you.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Know, yeah, that's another big reason why, like it's considered
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: kind of cheating, you know, because you float so much
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: more in it, you know what I mean. Yeah, And
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: so I kind of it would have helped me so
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: much because I sink, you know, I sink so much.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: But I'm so thankful that it was so hard that
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I had to fight for my life. I'm so thankful
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: for it because every day after that it felt felt felt.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Easy, incredible. So just very quick one. Then, what is
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: it like when you feel the sand or the mud
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: if your feet.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Man, it was. I was kind of delirious by then.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I just remember kind of not being able to speak,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: like screaming friends friends now, like walled up on the beach.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: I just it was. It was. It was like as
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: good as something everest. It was. It was like pure
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: dist belief that you that you've done it, you know,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've swam to France. It was. It was. Yeah,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: it was such a relief. It was just beyond words, mate,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: you know, it literally collapsed on the beach in my
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: girlfriend's arms and it was bloody incredible. It was just amazing.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: And the final question, because I love the technical aspect
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: of all this stuff, I'm always you know, it's on
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: the back burner in my head obviously, was the skipper
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: invaluable was his knowledge of the currents and the tides
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: and the weather.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they are that. Yeah, they're all that's
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: their job. They know they can they even like predict
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: the tides. They kind of know how to position the boat,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: where to position the boat. It's a constant battle. Yeah,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: But having a good coach is so so important. Ended
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: I was so lucky last minute that one of the
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: coaches was free to come on my boat and if
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: that didn't happen, the skipper I wanted to call my
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: swim six hours before I finished it, wanted they wanted
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: to call it. The only reason that it wasn't called
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: it because my my coach went, no, he's going to
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: do it. He's going to do it, and I just
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: made it.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Wow, incredible. So coming onto the cycle again, techy nerd question,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: what what bike did you use?
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: And again like the bike I used was in the box.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I never touched it, never ridden it, never had a
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: bike fit in, never done anything. Stupid man, it was.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: It was just we were trying to find a bike
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: someone who obviously donate a bike. I ended up getting
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: a Cannelly Cannelly touring bike. But actually it was really
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: good in the end because it was a touring bike,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: gravel bike. The frame had one like some award for
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: like Guinness World Record for around the world whatever, So yeah,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: it was really good. And I was just like, you
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: know what, I know it's going to be it's going
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: to be stupidly painful because I said I'd hardly trained
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: for cycling at all. It's in ninety five percent swimming,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: so I knew it was gonna be painful, but yeah
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: it was. It was a good bike apart from day one.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Literally walked cycling through the high street, well, cycling through Calai,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: which was only twenty miles from where you finished the swim.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: You don't finish in Calais, obviously, finish yourself. Literally we'll
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: go day. Like, twenty minutes into the cycle from Dudody,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I hear what I thought was a gunshot, and this
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: is twenty minutes into day one, and the back wheel
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: was just I had the biggest blow out I've ever
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: had in my life, like the biggest blowout. Luckily it
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: was about three hundred meters from It happened about three
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: hundred meters from the Kaflon. So day one walking walking
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: into buyer Maki to have a big map. Walking into
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the Caflon no one has said, had twelve thousand kve
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: open road ahead of me. I was like, oh, this
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: is going to be a long road. It's just going
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: to be a long road.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Yes, I would have thought you'd got out the water
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: and then cycled straight to the nearest pub.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well I wish mate. Well well after the swim,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I was it destroyed me that much like my my
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: tongue was completely falling to pieces. I said, like I
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: was eating chunks of my tongue, Like literally my tongue
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: was peeling off. You know, you've probably seen you like
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: we're essentially done it that kind of thing. But he
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: was only in the water six hours at a time.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I was in the water for eighteen hours. So it
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: was kind of like what you see on Telly, but worse.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: And it was I gave myself. I didn't give myself
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the channel because it's so dirty. I got tom slighters.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: So for five days after the swim, obviously in the
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: little in the village where I finished the swim and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the beach, I was wiped out. I lost two kilos
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: just from swimming the channel, just two kilos. And then
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: five days because I couldn't eat. I couldn't I couldn't eat.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: The worst time slaughters I've ever had. But after five
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: days or yeah, after five days like being bed bound, yeah,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: managed to get myself on the bike to the beach
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: and then started. But yeah, it was it was my
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: I knew, I knew it would be like a day
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: or I I was hoping for like two or three
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: days just to get the bike set up, get everything
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: ready before starting. But yeah, I was just after the swim.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I physically couldn't pete piss myself, pissed my stealth. Sorry.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I had to have my girlfriend literally like like shoulder
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: carry me to the toilet. Like I couldn't walk down
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the stairs. I had to piss in the pint glass
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: in the bedroom and just get her to take it down.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: I was broken, BlimE me, I should explain, Mitch, I'm
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: putting up your photos on talking. I'm not ignoring you.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: I just got the screen over there. It's just.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Absolutely fine. But I remember I remember being in like
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: trying to have the muscle, like the you know, because
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the villay, the town's all famous for like the muscles,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: you know, the the muscles and stuff, see if you.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I remember being so threaders that I could eat them
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: because I was that I was hanging out that bad.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: But but I can't wait to go back to remember
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: back to that play to whist On. I'll go back
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: there one day and it will be I just can't
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: wait to take the ferry. I can take the ferry
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: across the channel. It's going to be so nice. Just
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: look down and be like, oh man, that's it's a
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: long way.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: That's cheating.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Sorry. The bike bride Jay was bloody incredible good.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: I mean we could have a chat for hours on
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: just the bike ride alone. You cycled it. I drove
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: a school bus.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Nice. Nice, Yeah, we also drove a school bus.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: So oh you was at your backup.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: We had a campavan for the first three weeks, so obviously,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: so the first three weeks two thousand and K two
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to three thousand, so from Palais to Budapest. I also
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: towed my golden retriever with me on the back of
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: a doggye trailer, so he was with us all the
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: way to Budapest with the campa van, but then had
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: to be returned. After that, we were stuck in Budapest
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: for a few days because we have a vehicle and
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: my friend we last minute found the cheap nineteen ninety
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: five banged up school bus from North London and my
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: friend drove it in seventeen hours and one go to Budapest.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: And then we had that school bus from Hungary to
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the Turkey Irack to the border of Iraq, right up
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to literally ten miles from the border of Iraq, which
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: was quite funny.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: So let me just think which route did you take?
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Did you go Iran, Pakistan, Turkey around the.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Original clouds, Turkey around Pakistan. Iran completely rejected our visas
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: in the end, which was a pain in the artist
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the way it is right now. So yeah, then it
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: was just then. But then like we were literally in Turkey,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: like we have to. We literally had two options. We
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: go north, but that was like Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, having across
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the Castimi and see because there's not enough time to
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: cycle around Russia with the visa you can get, and
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: then Afghan and down. Or it was because it was
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: reallynoy because either way now there was like a small
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: crossing of water. It would have to be done, if
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I just wanted it to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: be completely but it is what it is made. You know,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: you can't control bureaucracy, you can't control the world, you
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. So but we made it. So
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: it was that that was we had that option, or
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: we had the option to go south. That was it.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: So we decided and I thought it would be much I
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: just watched the third the idea of the adventure of
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: going south. So we went. So we went from Turkey
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: We went the whole lot, the whole way through iraq Q,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: eight Saudi Arabia, the uau Man, three thousand k across
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the entire the Arabian desert all the way to Amman,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: where we then tried our hardest, like literally, I had
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: meetings with the with the British ambassador, the Indian ambassador,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the Pakistani ambassador, the Minister for Tourism, the Prince of Oman,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: trying to find a boat across the Karachi because it
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: was only free about four hundred k across, well, not
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: to the closest bit, but at the AA it was
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: so shit. We had to be food to Karachi, where
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: we even drove four hundred k back towards the Uranian
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: border just for kind of purity sake. I mean, I
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: ended up in ironsight. In the long run, I ended
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: up doing one thousand, one hundred K more than I
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: originally estimated. Originally this was called limitless twelve thousand K
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: to Everest. It turned into a limitless thirteen thousand, one
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty seven K to Everest.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: My gosh, so sorry if I missed that bit, Mitch,
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: How did you actually how did you get from that
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: kind of peninsula across.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: So I literally cycled to I circled to the most
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: easterly point of the entire Arabic peninsula, and then we
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: came back to Muscat and we had to fly to
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Karachi just across that water. But then if you look
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: at Muscat and then if you look at the border
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: of Iran from you look at Karachi, you got the
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: border around. We then drove four hundred k back towards
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: the radio border to where we would have crossed from Iran,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: even though we'd done more k's by then anyway, and
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: we carried on just for Yeah, but I'm glad we
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: did because Belushi is Stan. The whole southern area of
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Pakistan where we were, it's a bit dodgy, like we
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: had like army esports, terrorist area. It was a bit bad,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: but it was beautiful, it was so studied. And then yeah,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: then it was one thousand, six hundred k through Pakistan
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: all the way up to Lahore. And that's where the
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: next funny story was because we were promised in Iman
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: that we'd get our Indian paper visas at the Indian
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: consulate in Islamabad. Turns out that didn't happen, So I
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: cycled sixteen hundred k obviously to Lahore, the only land
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: border opened between India and Pakistan, because I hathr and
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: then we had to then obviously it wasn't on route.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: We then drove to Isladabad to try and get our
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: paper visas. We never told we couldn't. So then it
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: was so annoying then because then we had to come back.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Obviously I had cycled all the way from from their
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: sixteen hundred k to La Hall, so then we cycled
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: the last forty k to the border, because then you've
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: got the wagger border, you know the border where there's
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: like the dancing ceremony between the Indians and the Pakistans,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: like literally the gate, the gate the border is a
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: gate that opens up and they do like a dance off.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: And we were like, so we had fan my cameraman
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Apps he had like this idea, all right, well what
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: we do is then we'll cycle up to the border,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: touch the gate, watch the ceremony from the Pakistani side.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: The only way we had to do this now is
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: it was this is the most risdiculous part. So we
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: watched the ceremony from the Pakistani side. Literally I got
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: a video obviously all the YouTube and everything touching the gate,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: and then we had to drive back. Then we had
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: to go back to La Hall and then essentially we
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: had to fly three thousand kilometers to cross two meters
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: so because there's no direct flights, so we had to
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: fly to the bay with two bikes, fly to the
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: bay back from ritzar which is the next town, and
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: then we and then we drove back to from Aritza
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: to watch the ceremony from the Indian side two meters
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: the guys that wouldn't let me touch the gate from
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: the Indian side, but I got to two meters of
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: where we were where we were twenty four hours before.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: So obviously in the morning cycled from that position and
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: carried on. So we had to pay two thousand pounds
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: and we traveled three thousand and k to cover literally
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: two meters. So I just walked back a few meters
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: in the video and we were like work, that's the
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: two meters done, and then carried on and then it
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: was another two thousand, two hundred k through India, which
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: has absolutely been insane. Try cycling through it, through Central
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Deli through twenty two hundred k of more cycling to
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: finish it off. And then yeah, then we reached the
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: small town of Digger, which is like a tiny little
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: seaside town on the bit like scaredness in the UK,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: that's what we consider it. A kind of crungey on
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: they escape, But the Indians finished there, literally rode into
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: the ocean. I was so excited, like it had been eleven,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: nine hundred and twenty k since Calai. Literally rode into
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: the ocean. So excited down the ramp into the Indian Ocean.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: I said, my passport, my my headphones and my charging back,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: all in my all in my bag is in it
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: on my bike. That was That was kil Yeah. And
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: then two three days later set off, set off on
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: foot from that exact ramp. Actually got my feet wet
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the wave a wave hit me. So the day one
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I got you know, I had a piss wrapped feet,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: which is really annoying. So yeah, and then started to
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: run from that position. It was well a nine hundred,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: eight hundred and seventy seven k to Katmandu from that point.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: But that was the biggest challenge by far. You know,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: the body was completely considged, conditioned, one hundred percent conditioned
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: to cycling. You know I've been doing We've been cycling
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: every day four months, four and a half months. The
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: biggest challenge for me with two new surgeries was always
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: going to be will the knee even will the knee
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: even survive this? You go from as I say, legs
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: completely condition to cycling to a to a nearly a
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: nine hundred k ultrre marathon without having ran one mile
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: in six months, that was the biggest challenge. And yeah,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the first week ten days, which what I as I expected,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: like pure agony. I was still managing to do like
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: run like thirty five k day, but my it was
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: like Nie rolling on painkillers, limping in tears, crawling some days.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: But as I knew, you know, the core teaches you everything,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: you just applied your own mindset and you did buy it.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: If a if the mind just believes the body will follow.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: And after about ten days I kind of even felt
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: that switch and then ended up doing three marathons back
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: to back and managed to Yeah, got to the border
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: of the pool seven hundred k later, and it was
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: just like when I got to that border of the pool,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: it was like, oh my god. So, don't get me wrong,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: injured is nice. But after fifty four days in India,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: we will like get us out of here and back
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: in my favorite country in the world. And yeah, it
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: was just incredible. Went from flat it was completely flat
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: obviously that whole way pretty much as soon as we
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: got to the pool boarder, we had to climb like
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: three and a half thousand meters just to get to Katmandu,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: so that was fun. Basically just turned into a very
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: fast launp speed walk up the bloody mountains for thirty
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: well yeah, for like forty k days and yeah, it
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: was this incredible bunny credit my mate got to Catman
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Do and got to Catman Do, and again we were
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: quite lucky because then we had like a good chunk
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: of time there to get stuff ready for Everest, put
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: on try and put on a kilo or two before
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: then setting off from the same spot for the for
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: the next part, which was the fringer in the sixty
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: k yump to base camp. But the best thing happened
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: there mate. It was completely unexpected. When we finished the run,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: like the British ambassador was waiting for us loads of people.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: We had like a party and he told us that
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: we didn't realize this. Then then when Hillary intending first
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: climbed Everest in fifty three. There there was no hotels
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: in Catmandu or anything, so we didn't realize that they
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: stayed at the British Embassy, had breakfast with the British
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: ambassador in the morning and then set off on foot
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: from there. So we got invited to do the same thing.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: So the missus came over, so me and I was
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: at the VIP suite of the British Embassy. I had breakfast.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: We had these the same breakfast that Hillary and Tending
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: had had breakfast with the British ambassador had left the
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: same way. They gave us a flag, same as they
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: did the Hillary. So we literally replicated the lot of
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: the first calm of ict in the history nearly exactly
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: with the longest clime of Everest in history.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Unreal. Yes, we should explain for friends at home. So
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: going through Pakistan, you have to go through the baluchis
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Stan desert.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was the first first three hundred k
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: was the blush Standard.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Desert, notorious for bandits.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Who Yeah, it was really annoying because one section that
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: the army stopped us literally forced us in the back
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: of the truck and they had to like do a
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: forty k section of the hills, the really dangerous part,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: and it was just so annoying, you know what I mean.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I made up for it, obviously, but it was it
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: was really really frustrating. Pakistan was like a game of
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: cat and mouse. Was trying to avoid the police. Like
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: I'd often can't the back entrance of the hotels to
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: avoid the police escorts that were still outside waiting for you.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I'd literally sneak around the back and we just we
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: just escape and evade the police.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: In the army, Yeah, they liked their escorts. When we
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: did Blucher stand in the bus we had it was
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: a three hundred k stretch and the bus in front
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: pulled us over and he came on board and he said,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: what weapons have you got?
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're like.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Fricking bread bread bread, bread knife, it's some of the thing.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: It's on the chopping board right. And there was twelve
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: of us on this bus, volunteer workers. And he said, okay,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: he said, but you know, if they catch you, they'll
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: cut all your they'll cut all the bloke's throats and
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: they'll still steal your women. Oh this this sounds good,
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: he said, stick with us. We're you know, we're loaded
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: up with weapons and ammo.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: So I was stuck.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: I stuck by them and literally about sixteen k in
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: we we bust a diesel pipe and we slowed down.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: We slowed down to twenty mile an hour or something ridiculous,
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: and I had to do the whole of baluch Stand
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: at that speed.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Still, I wasn't doing twenty mile now. I wouldn't.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't have fancied doing it on a bike mate.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. We had
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: like this tiny, little beating up, little tiny van thing,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: obviously with my cameraman in it following like one hundred
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: meters behind. But we're really been awed to do much,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: that's for sure.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: So did you get talking stomach wise? Now? Did you
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: get any stomach bugs on?
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I was quite lucky in Pakistan India three times? Yeah,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Day two was Day two of India. We got it
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: from Rice in like a nice hotel. I was so threaders,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: I'm so annoyed. It was horrible. But yeah, only three times.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I'm really really lucky. That could have been a game change,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: that could have been game over. And sometimes three person
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: in the last weeks or you know, I was really lucky.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: It never lasted more than twenty four to forty eight
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: hours that first day and that second day when we
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: crossed the border into India, I was so determined to
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: like make some time up. I was up till six
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: a m. Just out of both ends like crazy. But
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: they're like managed to get three hours kip and I've
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: still done one hundred K that day.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, because a friend of mine had to cancel his
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: every spid because he got stomach bug.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was always the biggest worrying after all this,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: you know, get there and then one tiny little thing
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: happens out of your control and then it's over and
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: you haven't done it. It's mad.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: Are they kind of meticulous at advanced base camp? Or
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: is it? Are you sort of thinking, God, mate, I
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: wish you wash your hands before you touch that articulous?
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Like literally camp too is just wait, all advanced. There's
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: literally just like a tiny little temp of loads of
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: gaslinders and cooking noodles. That's it. That's it. But I
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: mean as far as it goes and everything's thoroughly boiled,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: it's kind of just there's no meat really, it's just
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: like egg you might have some egg in there of
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: noodles and stuff. It's fairly safe food ish, and you
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: know they're not like dirty people. They're all amazing and
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: they're all pretty pretty, you know, like that's pretty clean.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: But like anyone, it can happen to anyone at any time,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: and it's just scary, like, yeah, I know there was
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: There was a little lad up there. He's half in
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: half Nepalese, half Japanese tree. He was a friend of
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: mine I made. He was trying to be the youngest
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Japanese person's climb. Everest was six sixteen year old. Lad
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: was climbing then he had he had He got severe
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: stomach issues and had to turn around the camp three.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: I felt really bad for him.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not not not nice, not nice at all.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: I mean I was very lucky. All I had was
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: was laryngitis and a complete loss of voice for three weeks,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: so which I took. I was like, you know your
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: voice to climb Everest.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: How did you find a climatization?
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean luckily so an I had advantage of
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: jumping three hundred and sixty k from Katmandu to Lucla,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: which like no one never does is it's so gradual,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Like we'd the last four days before getting to Lukela.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: You were already between two and three thousand meters and
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: then we got to Lucla and we had four days
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: in Lukela. Beerform then arrived, so I kind of had
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: a head start or the ecconmalization, which was quite good
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: because when I'd done base camp when I was eighteen,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: like you know, I remember having quite bad headaches and
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: all that and stuff and well on my dad lam
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: eighteen months ago. So yeah, eighteen months ago, Like I
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: had an infection in my throat, which like meant which
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: nearly took me out. It was crazy because I didn't
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: wear a buff. Yeah, so do not take your buff
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: offers at all once mate, Okay, do not take off
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: your mask or buff the whole way. So I was
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: determined this time to get through. So yeah, So by
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the time we got there and the team arrived and
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: I got to base camp, was feeling good. It was
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: feeling good and got to base camp. They left base
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: camp literally straight away to come back and climb the
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: Butchery East, which was the first which counted as the
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: first rotation, and I was exhausted, like bloody exhausted, but luckily,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: like I don't remember having even one head out the
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: entire expedition, which was which is so lucky, you know,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: so so lucky. Yeah, I was so thankful.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: Where did you purchase your kit?
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: So a lot of it was kind of like Petzel
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: and they gave us loads of kit. We've got a
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: lot of it in the UK. And then basically quite
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: a few people from the UK fly over to join
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: me on base Camp track and all that something. I
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: have a half who's amazing nicky. She like I had,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: like for example, I'll just be coordinating loads of stuff
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: all like my boots for crampons, IA's helmet, all of
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: that stuff that was in the UK. Everything was shouted
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: into a suitcase. And then when the base Camp team
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: flew from London, five of them came from the UK.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: When they came from London and she just gave the suitcase,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: so all the lads you wore over and then everything
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: else like sleeping bag and I just the last little
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: bits because everything you need you can literally come to
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: the pool not bring a single bit of kit from
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: the UK. Everything you need to clime, every she can
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: get in caplan do anyway, which I knew. I knew
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: like worst case scenario, I get to Kaplan do hopefully
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: released with one week or something to sort stuff out
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: for Everest before then after the run, before starting the
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: trek to base camp. But luckily everything Yeah, obviously Aga Adriana,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: they had like they had loads of spect kit and
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: all all that. So just managed to wring it and
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: get it done.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: And I've heard you can get heated boots. Now, was
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: that anything you considered?
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I got, Yeah, so I got the I got
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Scarper to say. Scarper sent me a pair of their
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: brand new eight thousand Phantom heated boots, and but I
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: didn't I didn't use the heated part at all. So
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: if you're climbing evereston spring, you don't need them. I
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: was quite happy to know. Yeah, So even like obviously
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Adriana and Gelder were both like they're good, but like
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: they don't you don't need them at all. I was like,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: all right, well, but then between the balcony in the summit,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: my left foot did get a bit cold. So if
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: you you know, if if you've got a tendency for
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: cold feet quite a lot, I definitely recommend you use
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: them you know what I mean. But yeah, like luckily,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: like obviously it's cold, it was minus thirty on the summit,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: but it's not like the boots were so good, you know,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: triple layered as it is, and I in the after
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: their advice, I was going to use the heated part,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the heated part of the boots, but in the end
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: and the end, they just chose not to because they said,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: as long as you're like, you know, it's just all
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: about as you know, mate, everything is just about the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: small bits of admin, tiny bits of admin. Changing your socks,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: changing your socks are camped for for example. You know,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: they were like, as long as you've got goot fresh socks,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: good socks, soubit socks, and then boots, they were like,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: you'll be fine. Like the only time, like Yogi's the
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: only time that Geoji used his heated boots was when
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: he was like when he climbed k Too in winter.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: You know that was minus seventy so yeah, that's pretty
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: nicely he was the youngest person to climb k to
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: and winter in that team.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Have you still got all your kit?
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Next to me?
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: Still what sized feet have you got?
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: I'm like a ten, but you go through two sizes above.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: So I've got twelve the size twelve boots. Otherwise I
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: could have said you could have.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: Him, mate, I'd get both my feet in them.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: I thought, you've got tidy feet.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well I got between seven and then eight are
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: usually ranged from. I'm also extra wide, which kind of
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: very difficult to get footwear wide footwear.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was definitely make cool. I had it, and
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: I think, what other kit I've got. I've still got
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: my I've still got my crampon's helmet, bits like that.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: What something you got your down suit? No, you might
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: be able to.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Help you with that, maybe five seven, five eight as well?
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, okay, Yeah, thanks, that's all right, that's all
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: right again. The downs was the last bit of item
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: that was that was brought Adriana. She like she went
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: into Katmandu just before flying out to Luke a bit
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: to find me a down suits. I didn't even though
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: it's downst I was having until I got to base camp.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: Pretty much.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: It was lucky And how do you balance then your
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: layers because for example, I've got some dive in underwear
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: here that I wore in Antarctica for scuba diving I mean,
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: and it's honestly, it's like the nicest pair of pajamas
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: you ever put on. It's like fleeceline, really thick, and
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: it's designed to keep you obviously warm under a dry suit.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: If I was to take that to Everris, would I
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: just find myself sweating profusely even.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Mate, Yeah, especially if it's not Marino, but it's not
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: designed or not Marino, but it's not like designed air
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: out then yeah, mate. It was so hot. I was
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: in a T shirt until Camp four. That's how it
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: was about thirty degrees between camp. Between base camp and
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Camp three, it was it was like above thirty so
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: and I had like just thin thin Marino, like the
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: kind of thin Marino all you need, mate, is like
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: as in long John's bottom, basically basic layers, and then
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: the same for the top, you know. But they were
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: just really good, you know what I mean. Luckily it
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: was all obviously sponsored by Buddy don't know which, and
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: like obviously they're awesome, awesome kit almost too good, especially
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: with I like the the Marino based layer, like the top,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Like I put that on for like literally one minute.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: I was like fuck this. It was like I run
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: really hot anyway, mate, So I mean take them because
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: like for base camp and all of that, it will
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: be really handy. It'll be really handy, that's for sure,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: you know. And when you're static, it's probably going to
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: be really good. But you really want dynamic kind of
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: breathable kit when you're up there, for sure. Even like
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: for the Summit push, like gent, you'll be surprised. Just
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: one thing Marino based layer under your down suit will
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: probably be enough. I had a T shirt under my
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: down souat. That was it.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: So there you are. You've done your rotations to further acclimatize.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: In that video where your shirper comes a knock in
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: that moment, I think that everyone everyone or certain people
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: dream of yeah momentary them Itch, you did look a
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: bit like it's go time. It's go time.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. For that first rotation, I was like
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: not nervous as in like you know, it was just
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: I got a lot of anxiety because so much it'll
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: come down to this, you know what I mean. And
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: it was like but I was just so in the zone.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: I was so focused by that point. But about about
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: six hours before that video had been a massive avalanche
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: that kured a couple of people as well, So it's
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: just all stuff that plays in your mind.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, was it hard dealing with the social media? In fact,
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: how did you you? I took it?
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: You hadn't got it? Yeah, because I had Standing Molly,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: my two Molly, my amazing producer back in the UK.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: But Fan was the guy that was with me on
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: the ground every day from day one to the end.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Like he'd make the long form YouTube as well as
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: the short form stuff as well. And I've got obviously
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: I got better, right, I've got used to it. I
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: still hate social media. I don't like it, but it's
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: necessary evil. But yeah, he just basically for the biggest stuff,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: the really well ledited stuff, he'd make it obviously put
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: it out, and I did the caption. I'd pretty much
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: with a caption every time and all this and we
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: just kind of have a schedule and put it out.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean that was because of him. That's
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: the only reason we had such good, consistent, consistent content
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: of the whole journey. I'm so so thankful for it.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: Did you have that thing? I remember when I ran
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: the length of the UK and I was scrabbling around
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: trying to get every last minute thing done, you know
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: how it is, There's never enough time. And then I thought, oh,
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: I've got a hit, go live on the Facebook page.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: Once I've done it, there's no going back. I've announced
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: the world.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna run the UK. Yeah, yeahah, yeah, I remember
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: that moment like it was yesterday, mate. I was. I
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: just got back from cycling in the US. It was
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: May twenty twenty three. Yeah, so it was May twenty
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: twenty three. I was working at a buddy I was
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: working in static security and body in Staffordshire or a
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: house in the garden in the shake On in High Veers,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: working working bloody of that. And yeah, what I actually
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: sold is like for that is at that point, like
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: I reached out to Elite and Nimbs and all that.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: I've got a video from Limbs and the other people,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: and that's saying like we're going to support you. This
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: is the maddest thing we've ever heard in our life.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: We're going to do it, like we're going to help
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: you and all of that. And by this point, obviously
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: the idea had been in my head for a year
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: nearly and and I made and that that same week
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: I made a call and the boat. I found out
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: that the boat was available for the following summer. The
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: most important part. So soon as I've got that conformation
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: about the boat and then I got like a bit
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: of support from someone else, I just said fuck it.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: And I literally remember like pressing that button and saying
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: I was about to attempt the longest clime of everest
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: in history, and I was that shit, I'm committing now.
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Let's Mitch, let's talk. This is a massive thing that
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: went in our favor row in the Atlantic, and we
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: as a pair cracked it in fifty days, which is good.
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: And we didn't we weren't in one of the modern
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: boats as you know that luckily that we you know so.
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: But the but the big thing that did go in
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: our favor was was the windy.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: App Oh yeah, yeah.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: Being able to know anything up to I think ten,
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: if not twelve days in advance, exactly what the wind
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: is going to be, right down to it was. It
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: was unreal. I'd say to Louis, right, lou we got
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: another two and a half days of this. You know what, mate,
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: We're not going to be you know, we're not going
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: to be getting blown anywhere. It's full on on the oars,
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: I said, but then ran about half past two on
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: Friday afternoon. It's picking up from X amount. The wind's
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: going to pick up from X amount of knots to
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: such and such. The swell's going to be this, it's
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: going to be coming from this direction. And we you know,
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: we didn't have way We didn't set anyone. We we
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: set one way point that was Barbados, right. The other
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: crew we went with four young young lads, you know,
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: strapping young young lads, very nice crew of Europeans. They
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: went way point to waypoint, so they were completely ignoring
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: the weather all the time. So you know, we we
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: we made everything work for us. You could say, that's good.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. I remember from that accuracy. That's good.
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: So my question to you is, I see, oh, you
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: see a lot of people cracking Everest. Now you certainly
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: the casualty side of things seems to have gone down,
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: although I'm not obviously underplaying it, and.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: This down, that's only because of the heroic like they
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: have been dragging down so many lifeless alive bodies down
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: from Yeah, it's the only reason for me survived this
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: year is because these superhumans Okay.
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: I just wondered. I mean, if you think in the
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: in the older days, you had to rely on some
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: guy in an office in Birmingham who just was a
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: big fan of weather, and he's getting some he's getting facts,
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: some random satellite image prediction of what it might be
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: in three and there must be a big difference from
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: those days to now. You can get your phone out,
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: you can go right, we've got a window. Now it's
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: seven days, although there's a day in the middle that's
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: looking a bit iffy. Boom, let's go go, let let
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: let's go. And I just wondered, did you get into
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: the weather side of it? Is this something that.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: You I mean, I mean I did a little bit.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, we go we had you had the app
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: and we'd be checking it all the time. It's much
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: more accurate these days and as we can predict. But
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: also obviously up there it literally will change like that.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Literally with summit windows were closed like that and stuff.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: But it was interesting, it was interesting watching it. It
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: was interesting watching it. I didn't try to get too
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: obsessed with it, you know what I mean. It was
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: like the obviously, like the Channel, or like the Atlantic.
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: You know, it's I tried not to. I learned not
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: to get too overwhelmed or think too much about something
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: out not in my control.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And second question then is would it have been
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: a case of had your summit been been unsuccessful, would
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: you have had would they have given you another crack
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: at it? Or is it like.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, No, I mean I'm very sure as long
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: as I was okay, as long as I wasn't like
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: half dead or something, especially because our submit attempt was
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: like we were like, well, one of the first people
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: to attempt the summit. You know, we were like twenty
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: four hours behind the fixing teams. So the summit line
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: the summit, the summit and the whole lines of the
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: summit had been fixed and we were like twenty four
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: hours behind them. So it would have been a case
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: of comb back down. I could have taken a week
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: to kind of recuperate and in gone back up. But again,
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: so happy it didn't happen, because then I would have
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: been going up with hundreds of people.
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, Roger, it does look a bit intimidating when you
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: see those big snakes.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: That's that's that's that's where yeah, that's where people die,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: and that's where you get frostbite, and yeah, it's it's
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: it's mad. I just didn't want it so lucky. Like
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: I literally got to the South summit and the you
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: knows for sunrise and the whole world lit up below me,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: and then I looked up and the hary step there
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: was one person on it. It was magical.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: Ah, unreal.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: I really, I really pray for you, mate.
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so describe that moment. Then when you're leaving, is
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: it camped for? Is the top camp?
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it cam for South whole. Left about nine thirty
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: at night, and yeah, it was like a big ten
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: eleven hour push. At eleven hours, got to the balcony.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: The balcony is eighty four hundred. It's kind of the
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: kind of halfway point ish change up. You change oxygen
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: in there, so we change oxygen there and my feet
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: got really cold, so the inn the next two hours,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: I was like a little bit worried, aboit anxious because
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: I couldn't feel my toes for two hours. I was
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: just wriggling them like I've never wiglded my life. And
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: that was quite a little quite hard climbing after that,
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: between eight four hundred meters in the top, so I
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: just kind of completely zoned out, compartmentalized, completely z owned out.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: And I didn't even look up for two and a
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: half hours, and I just kept them repeating like two
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: words to myself, like gelgi gelgi and oxygen, gelgi, oxygen,
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: get them two words, And in my head I was like,
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: as long as I've got them too, I'm going to
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: be fine. And gelgia oxygen. And I kept on doing it,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: and then before I knew it, we were at the
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: South Summer at eight seven hundred dish and I hadn't
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: even literally looked around, and I looked to my right
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: and left and I didn't even realize the sun had
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: come up. The sun was rising, and it was completely
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: clear the entire world was below me. Like, looked to
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: your right and you can see into China as far
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: as the eye can see it. Looked to the left
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: and it was just yeah, and that was such a good,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: cool moment.
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: Unreal. There aren't any like McDonald's or anything up there
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: is there.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, it's not like snowing. There's not there's no.
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: Train like a wine bar or something. You can just
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: stop and.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: Maybe one day now, maybe one day there's a little
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: there's a there's a little ledge where you can maybe
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: have a maybe have a swigger whiskey or something. But
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: I was so fred as I left my whiskey to
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: camp for yeah, so annoyed that I had to wait
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: to get back to Camp four before I could.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: I'll come on and ask you about that, because that, Yeah,
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: I'm interested to know something about that. So how okay
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: in terms of what we did in the Marines, because
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: there were some tough, tough old times there, how hard
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: is the physical and you know mental aspect of it?
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: I mean overall overall mental aspect was probably very similar
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: to that the strain of like training for example, you know, physically,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: like the Channel was harder than any day in the
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: core any by far. Yeah, But after that, like again
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: like Everest and stuff like, it was it was fuck.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: It was hard, but like no harder than one of
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: the really hard jumps we'd have, you know what I
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: mean as in terms of physically demanding like well, to
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: be fair, it was twenty one hours the summit day,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: twenty one hours from camp too, sorrow. Yeah, from Camp
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: three to Camp four to the summit back to camp
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: two twenty one hours with no sleep. And that was
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: like similar. That was like nearly collapsing when I got
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: back to camp two. So that was kind of up there.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: Recall it the hardest day we ever I ever had
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: the call. But it was bat it was, yeah, it
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: was it sets you up so much for.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: It And had you add a sip of whiskey on
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: the summit that caused you problems?
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: Do you think, Oh, no, just a tiny swig, you
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: know it's uh, Girlgi loves of rent rum. Girlgia loves
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: a little drink. And we were like, oh damn it.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: But it was it was about it was about thirty
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: five thirty pro min hour wings up there when it
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: was meant to be no window or I was just
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: it was clear, but it was. It was nanny. It
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: was narny. And having just stepped over them bodies, it
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: was like a stark reminder, you know, as you know, mate,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: the summit is literally halfway. It's halfway. I made a
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: promise to my family that I'd come back alive, and
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: it was like, yeah, just get the pictures. We need
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: to like enjoy the summit that first and foremost for
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: like five minutes just on my own, and then.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: Just get down the bodies that you saw. Were they
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: recent climbers or were they some of the historic ones?
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: I think they would have been the last few years. Yeah,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: they weren't historic. They weren't, but they weren't this year
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: because we were the first people on there. It was
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: the first person died the day after. I got that
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: the day after.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: How did that happen?
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: It's just it was at camp for pure exhaustion and
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: I think his heart just stopped. Yeah, yeah, I think
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: it was a Filipino guy. I can't remember. Really sad,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: really sad, but yeah, yeah, overall, it's been quite lucky
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: this year. You know, it's been quite it's been quite good.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: But again that's not down to the Western.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, got you, got you. We'll rest in peace to
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: those poor folks. Okay, moment on the I mean I'm
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: just visualizing. Obviously you're a big visualized guy, and so
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: am I. You must have visualized those last few steps.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: I mean you're all I mean, once you're on the summit,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: you whether you whether you're five meters up there or here, like,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: you've done it. What what what does that feel like?
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: I've been visualizing that moment for twenty seven years, and
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: it was as magical as I've never dreamed of like
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: it was, as I say, mixed mixed dole to mix
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: a little bit with the kind of anxiety and havn't
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: just seen the bodies and stuff, but that was just
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: a realistic that was just like a kick in the
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: ass to say, you're not done yet, mate, But it
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: didn't take anything away from it.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is kind of as beautiful as I ever
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: imagined it was. Yeah, it's hard to describe, mate. You'll
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: see it. You'll see it, is it.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: I mean I've always said, as much as it's beautiful
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: up there and you've got you've got a vista that
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: you're never ever going to see again, I just want
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: to get up and get down.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah I had that as well, especially after
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: thirty fifty seven. K I'm not going to be tired.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: I'm tired now.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to enjoy every moment, but I still
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: enjoyed every moment as much as I'm sure I would
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: have done, but even more so, you know, having been
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: on that stummitch, knowing that I just got there from
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: dover using human power, it was such a we incredible feeling.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you've got that added. I mean to
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: any regular everest clamor just getting up there is the
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: most amazing experience. But to think everything that you've done
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: I was blown away by the love and support even
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: at base camp, you know what I mean, Like everyone
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: like was just everyone knew me even when I arrived
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: and was giving me like hugs and and like good luck,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: telling me good luck and all that and just I mean,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, kind of adds to the pressure
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: as well, you know, adds to the pressure quite a
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: lot as well, when you've got kind of all these
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: people in the whole world expecting you to But it's
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: a boost as well. It's a big boost. Yeah.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: I mean that's why I asked you about when you
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 2: when you hit the go button on social media. It's
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: I remember before I ran the length of the UK
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: that I was packing my kit the night before for
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: about the team time, trying to get the weight down
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: and and I looked at my girlfriend and I said
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: my partner and said, I can't remember what I said.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: I said, Hunt, what am I doing right? And I'm thinking,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: because I know thousands of people are going to follow this,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: you know, And she just looked at me and she
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: said you'll do it, you always do. I was like,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: oh yeah, I do, don't that right?
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: And that was it.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: That just killed the anxiety, like dead for the But
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: there was a couple of things. First of it does
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: put an additional pressure to succeed when you've got this
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: massive wave of support. And the other thing is, did
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: you get this thing where some people really meant well,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: but they could be a fricking pain in the ass.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Mate, that's absolutely, that's inevitable.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: You know, it's probably different for you because you were
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: out of the UK for all of this except the
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: short part whereas I was surrounded by for the UK run,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: I was anyone could come and join me, right and
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: and some people would like they just kept bugging me
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: the whole way. One chat message to me he said, right,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: stop stop there, now you've done enough, Chris. I'm like
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: only halfway down the country. He says, I'm coming up
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: there to take over from you.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: So strange that.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, so ah, right, So you turned around, you're coming
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: back down. Were you compass mentors? Were you able to
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: clip onto the rope? Ok?
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I mean often, I mean I had
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: quite fit gloves on. I was completely complimentous, but quite
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: a few times just for speed, like if he's there
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: before me, like before I even knew it, you'd done
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: it for me. I thanks, But yeah, ninety of it
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: I was, I was, I do it with myself. Yeah,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: good good, And I didn't want to be that climate
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: that was so out of it that like they had
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: to be carried, you know what I mean. Yeah, I
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: want to do this strong, you know what I mean?
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: And so yeah, no, it was great.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be a world record if if you shirp
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: a carriage all the way back to the UK.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: Probably not the best best swimmers shirpers, I would imagine,
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: not being a landlocked country.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: No, like yeah, and it's quite funny actually because Golgie's coming.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: He's coming, he's coming next week. He's coming to stay
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: at mine in Devon.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: When I see him. Will I meet him on Tuesday?
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: Possibly if he's if but there's a good choice he
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: might not be back in time. But if they can
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: make it, Adriana and Gilgy, so you'll have you have
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: five world record holding mountaineers hopefully at the event. But yeah,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: them to not me, them two they're absolute legends, and
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: I hope that they I hope that they can make it.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: But as well, I be in bio means mate, anyone
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: listening to this who wants to come down, I think
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: they'll be in off rooms. So please, if you want
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: to come down to Talk Key on Tuesday, come down
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: and put that out there.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, I don't know if we'll get the podcast out
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: by then. We we've got loads in the bag at
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: the moment, but so you're coming down. It was quite
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: interesting when I watched that. I think he's a Polish chap.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: He's a builder in London, and he he documented his
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: all way like you. He got hundreds of thousands of
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: followers doing it, and I did smile that he was
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: yomping back down with his Shirpa and they were clearly
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: I know you've still got the ice fall to go,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: but they were. It looked like they were sort of
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: on safe territory, you know, home pretty much home now.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: And they met some sherper coming up and they all
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: stopped for a spliff and a beer.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had. We had a beer. Between Camp two
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: and three. We had a beer stop. It was good fun.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, I'm not drinking at the moments. But it's you
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: can tell how much I think about beer. But I
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: asked such questions.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's yeah, well I got back she was
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: about to cap for Yeah, so I had my girlfriend
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: NICKI got me a bottle of We always had like
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: a bottle of ship whiskey to have like in the
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: day and then like wuld have a nice one, a
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: nice one that like would be kind of a treat
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: now and again so yeah, when my when girlfriend NICKI
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: to Catman Do after the run, before the trick from
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: cat Man Do, she bought bottle of Abba Feldie, one
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: of my favorite single monks, and and that was kind
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: of we had that that kind of survived the entire
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: it added to the twenty ko yump from three hunred
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: and sixty k Catman was added to the added to
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: the pack, and it survived all the way to base camp.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: And then yeah, I pulled it into a little Mountain
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Do bottle and it was like it was gonna be
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: our sonit whiskey, but but it bloody fell out the
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: bag in the tent, so I had to wait to
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: get back to camp Ford before having that. Having that scotch.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: What about medication, then, do do do these expedition companies
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: have any sort of pills and potions that they pet.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the only thing they really use now is you know,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: is di diox and stuff like that. That's the main
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: one that you use. But only you only use that
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: if if you have to.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean, what does it do?
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: It just helps the body of climatized essentially. It's but
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: it's again, it's kind of some people do take it
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: as a preventative measure, but it's not. I mean, I
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: wouldn't recommend taking it if you're absolutely fine, you know
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: what I mean. But yeah, it's down to you. It's
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: down to the individual. Really, it's down to the individual
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: and the company. Like it all depends, like if you're climatizing,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: if you're climatizing quick like relatively, if you're climatizing gradually
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: as you should be, like you're okay, you know. But
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: like for example, most most people use diemocks on Killy
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: these days because Killy onlike based camp, you ascend very fast,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: very quickly, you know, And that's when you want to
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: be taking it, because it just prevents quite bad out
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: of your six.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: So gosh, let's I'd like to ask you what it
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: was like to get back down to base camp. I
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: can just imagine it was just sure.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: That was the moment, Mate, that was for me. The
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: finish line was not until base camp, especially across that
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: could cross that company, Mate, there were some sketchy moments
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: and yeah, but that was the moment it really I
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: got back. I was. I walked into the big cafeteria tent,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: all my kit on still harness, walked into that tent
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: like to like all my friends, and that obviously had
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: all very annoyed, actually quite jealous that I've done it already.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: They were all waiting around for every week before they
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: even went up. So I walked into that tent and
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: like just kind of fell to my knees and everyone
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: was just giving me a huge It was just so
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: it didn't feel real. It still doesn't feel real, said him.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: In three weeks, so it's going to take about probably
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: about a year to sink in.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: What what kind of contract did you have with your
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: family then? Because I had a weird thing, Mitch, when
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: when we were in Granking area just about to row,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 2: I went out and just had some meat time with
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: my boy. I wanted to have a lot more I
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 2: almost could cry. Mate. I wanted to have so much
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: more time with him, just give and Daddy just wander around,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 2: you know. And you noticed like there's so much last
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: minute stuff to do. And in the end the day
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: before we were wandering around the shops in that little
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: seaside village and and I was just feeling it bad.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: I've never had this experience before because I've never done
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: I've never done anything that potentially is so it's potentially down.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: You know, I was only just drops, doesn't it You
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: got just drops and you probably get blue. It's almost
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: like that feeling when you're coming back training after or
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: coming back to training after some beerlieve or something. It's
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: almost like that gut dropping feeling.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I wan't bother for me, Mitch. Honestly, I've had
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: a great life. If I died on that ocean, so
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: be it. It's you know, but I always like, wait,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: the same with evert you know, you've got to weigh
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: it up. Do you do you stop living your life
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: and the thing that you aspire to and the things
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: that keep you living like a legendary life when you
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: have a child. And I just looked at Everest. I've
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 2: watched so much stuff on it. Now I've seen the
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: progression and I feel now, despite the cues at times,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: it's probably the safest time to go. I'm not, like
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: I said, I'm not bothered for me, I understand the risk.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: But that time in Grand Can Area, I said, son,
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: you know, Daddy would always promise you I'm coming back,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: But I don't want to make that promised now because
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 2: if if anything happened, I don't want that My last
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: words to you is I promise to come back. So
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: let's just say that probably going to be all right, mate,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: not not not a problem.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: You know, And I respect your honesty. That's fair enough.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: He's very mature, you know, for he's ten.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, sure.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: He hangs around so much with that with adults, like
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: a lot of kids probably do these days, because they
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 2: don't go and play like we used to.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: But rowing out of that little Marina just on the
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: ponting crying his eyes out, man, And fortunately my mind
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: was so much on the task of Skipper that I
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 2: was able to sort of zone that.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: But how was it.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: Getting back with your family? Who'd you? You obviously come
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 2: good on your promise?
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a real mate. Yeah, yeah, I did bombs,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: I'll come back and with my sister and my mom
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: and the girlfriend, they were like made me promising, and
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: it was again it's quite a hard especially with the
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: whole journey, you know, trying to promise in that it
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: was more the bloody cycling through like Pakistan and India
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: that was the most likely time. I'm genuinely nearly been
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: killed at least a dozen times on this trip. I
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: mean to the point where like one more six more inches,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: six more inches and I would have been crushed. You know,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: it's so many. So it was it was a weird feeling, mate,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: coming home and just such a relief, just such a relief.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean, such a relief absolutely. And
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 2: at the airport then was there a big reception for me, see.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: I mean not massive, it was just lovely, Like my
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: my girlfriend Niggy, my I drew back with my mum.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: So my mom flew to cat Man.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: Do I saw that?
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because she was she was gutted because she never
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: got to fly to Barbados because of COVID. She never
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: got to fly to America after the bike ride, all
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: these things that were done, you know, she was. She
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: was like, I don't care. I don't care how much
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: it is. This is the you know, the biggest thing
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: you're ever going to do in your life. I'm gonna,
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: I promise you, I'm going to be their bless her.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: She's never been to Asia in her life. So she
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: flew out with my producer. She flew out my producer
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: to Catman Do and yeah, so I was meant to
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: stay in Katmandhu actually an extra week for the Everest
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: Summer Tear's summit, but she was flying back on her
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: own and I was like, obviously, after eight months a while,
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: I was going to get home. So I just came home.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: I came home on the twentieth or whatever it was
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: nineteenth with her, and it was Yeah. The main thing
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: was my dog mate, Rod Retriever was waiting there. He
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: threw with a T shirt on saying welcome home daddy.
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: We did it, and so he was the main one. Yeah,
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: it was amazing. My girlfriend was there, my mum, my auntie,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: and my best friend and just two other friends. Bless him.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: A lad, yeah, Jason and the lads, A young lad.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: That's that's starting. That's that would be at Limpson for
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: day one in eight days blessing. Wow. Yeah, he's just
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: a friend of mine who's been an eighteen year old
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: who's nineteen year old, who's been following the journey from
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: like six months before I started, come come with me
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: on all the build up expeditions, and he's now joining
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: the Corps. Was joining the Corps and kind of helped
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: him out a lot over the last year, and it
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: was just so nice to have him there as well.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: Just like complete surprise. But yeah, small intimate, little family,
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: it's great.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: Brilliant Mitch. On that note, just to say massive, massive
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 2: congrats not only to you but your support crew. You know,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: you came up with a plan, you took action, and
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 2: you nailed it. That's what life's all about. I'm going
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: to see your Tuesday, really looking forward to that and
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: introducing you to my my little adventurer.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: That good man. Look forward to it.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, and stay on the line just so I can
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: thank you properly and try and borrow a tenor off.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: You and anyone listens to this when it comes out,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: just head over to the Instagram page and donate. After
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: all that, please, Yes.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: Friends at home, hope you enjoyed this as much as
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: I did. I say this a lot. If you've made
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: it this far in the podcast, give yourself a massive
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 2: pat on the back, because so many people won't watch
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 2: my podcast unless I'm doing some conspiracy kind of stuff
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: and they're not getting it. The path to enlightenment is
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: by getting stuck in and learning about journeys like the
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 2: one Mitch has gone on. The setting your dreams is
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: by looking at what other people have done and going,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 2: do you know what I wouldn't mine to do that
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: one day? And I'm I'm going to keep it on
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 2: the back burner because the day when you do that,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 2: the day just comes and you look back and you think, bladyel,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 2: I've lived all my dreams and it's it's absolutely amazing.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: So that's my mission for this podcasts and all my
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: podcast is to get the message out there for people den'tire.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: If it's you going for a walk or while camping
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: for the first time, we're going for a swim, success
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: is more proportionate. Just get out there, get uncomfortable and
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: do your own thing. The only person does a definition
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: if possible, is looking in the mirror.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, and Mitch, what's your what's the name of your podcast?
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: Podcast?
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: I thought you said you had a YouTube channel.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, YouTube channel. Yeah, sorry, it's exact same makes but
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: if people just search Mitch Hatch m I T C
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: h T. Just search Mitch Hatch is exact. Same for
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: Instagram and YouTube, exact same name. Yeah, and the link
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: the link for the the linked link is in the
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: bio on Instagram for day eating.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just showing your YouTube channel now. And yeah, great, excellent, excellent, excellent. So,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 2: friends at home, if you could do the honors and
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 2: like and subscribe, click the notification bell. Don't forget to
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: do it now because so many people forget and they say, Chris,
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen you for two years. I used to
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 2: love your podcast. And it's like, yeah, you forgot to subscribe.
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 2: So have a subscribe, folks. And thank you to everyone
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 2: that supports us as either a YouTube channel member or
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 2: on our Patreon all one ninety nine a month, folks.
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 2: It's it's half a cup of coffee a month for
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 2: uncensored material, go to locals. And that just leaves me
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 2: to say thanks again to Mitch and well done again.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 2: Massive love to you all, go steady see it soon.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: Friends.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the bought The t podcast.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 2: Please like, subscribe, and share, and don't get to follow
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: me on social media. Use the name Chris thro All, Instagram,
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: Chris dot Throom. Thank you,