Latest / The Folkestone & Hythe Sports Podcast / ONE FROM THE ARCHIVES.IN 2013 ALAN FIGGY FIGGINS CAME INTO THE STUDIO WITH HIS DAUGHTER JAX AND TOLD US OF THEIR TRIP UP THE HIMALAYAS.

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ONE FROM THE ARCHIVES.IN 2013 ALAN FIGGY FIGGINS CAME INTO THE STUDIO WITH HIS DAUGHTER JAX AND TOLD US OF THEIR TRIP UP THE HIMALAYAS. · The Folkestone & Hythe Sports Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've had a few people in, courtesy of the ferret,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: you see. The ferret's very kind of, he's always getting
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: his guests in. If you see the ferret in town
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and he's walking towards you, because he wants you on
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: his station. But more importantly, we spoke and did actually
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: spoke about Jackson Allen. Good morning to you both, by
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the way. Good morning. Lovely to have you guys in,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: you crazy people. But we spoke about a few weeks ago,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: ferret made us aware of what you guys are up to.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: up in the mountains. Ferret, would you like to explain
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: what these lovely people have been doing?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Well, whilst they've been trekking up the Himalayas, we were
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: actually getting, this is amazing, I still, modern technology, getting
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Facebook messages from Mount Everest. You know, I just found
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: it absolutely incredible.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Check you out, name drop in the mountain. Yeah, I'm
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: just getting texts from Mount.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: Everest, it's alright.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Okay, well let's crack on, shall we? Now, this morning,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I'd like to introduce Alan Figgins, affectionately known as Figgy.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Morning, Figgy, you alright?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Morning, good morning.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And his daughter, Jax.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: Morning, Jax. Good morning.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: How are you, alright?
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Okay, Jax, let's start with you now. Just tell me
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: a little bit about your career and what on earth
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: managed you to want to go trekking up the Himalayas?
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: Well, we've always loved walking in the mountains. We used
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: to go and walk in the Lake District a lot,
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: didn't we? And I used to work in intensive care.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: And through networking, we found out about their first set
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: of research in 2009.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: No, was it 2007? So as soon as I heard
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: about that, I thought, oh my gosh, that's something I
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: would just love to do.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: And because dad's crazy, he came along as well.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: So you've got this link between your medical background and
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: the tricking, which you both love.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: But there's more to it than that. I mean, what
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: is this trick all about?
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: It's actually about studying people with low oxygen levels and
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: the way that they put healthy people with low oxygen
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: levels is they put you at altitude because your body
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: naturally gets low oxygen because there's very little pressure the
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: higher you go up, which is why you struggle to breathe.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: And that relates to intensive care patients who have low
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: oxygen levels when they're very sick. And so the research
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: is actually to try and discover how you can help
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: some people with low oxygen levels in the intensive care
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: unit if they can design a medicine or something like
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: that or a treatment that can help those people with
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: low oxygen levels to recover.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: So in intensive care, at certain points, the patient is
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: very vulnerable because of lack of oxygen.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: So you're trying to reproduce or learn something at high
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: oxygen that might answer a few questions. Yes, yes.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: But some people don't have low oxygen, or they manage
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: to cope. So they don't know why some people are
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: fine and some people aren't. So that's partially why they
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: wanted to look at normal people of all ages and
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: find why some were all right and some weren't.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Okay, excellent.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Now, Figgy, if we switch to you. Figgy, first of all, Figgy,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I've known you for a number of years, but let's
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: tell the listeners how old you are.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Go on.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Don't be shy.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: 76 in July.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: 76?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: I've been telling everyone you're 74.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: Anyway.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: That was years ago.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: That was a couple of years ago, right. Now, Figgy,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: you and I, we've been running forever, right? But you've
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: been running in some fantastic places all over the world,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: and you've done How many marathons have you done?
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: 110.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: 110 marathons. 110 marathons. I've done three, I think. And
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: that was enough.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Well, you're catching up. You're catching up.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Now, first of all, Figgy, just tell us some of
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: the places that you've actually run in your running career.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: The first one I ever did was in Kuala Lumpur. Right.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: In 1960, would you believe?
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 1960.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: I've also run in the Sahara Desert half a dozen times. Kalahari, Namibia, Senegal, China,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: North America, Canada.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Did you do the Great Wall of China?
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I thought you did, yeah.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: So you ran up the Great Wall of China.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: That was very hard.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I bet, yeah. Seems some amazing things, though.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Very interesting.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: That's some amazing marathons. I mean, some of the things
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and the sights you must have taken in along the way.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, yeah. Machu Picchu, the trail from... over the
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Andes to Machu Picchu, 30 miles, that was absolutely mind-boggling.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: And is it... I mean, obviously, this is quite a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: big ask, but out of 110 marathons, have you got
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: one kind of... I mean, you've got so many memories,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: but is there one kind of thing or something that
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: happened that sticks out from the rest of those?
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Well, the Machu Picchu Trail is unforgettable. It really is.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: It's across the Andes, is it?
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You go up to 14,000 feet and then you
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: sort of descend from there, but... It's absolutely incredible.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: It's just, honestly, I'm a little bit kind of struck
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: by it all. I thought I was fit, you know.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: I did a small 37-mile walk last week, but this
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: is absolutely nothing compared to what you guys are doing.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: And tell me about up on the mountain and everything. Oh,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Chris has got a question over in Studio 2. Chris,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: are you there? Yes, I'm here. Look at that. We're
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: linking up live now. You've got a question for our guests.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Yes, I have.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: It was just about the Machu Picchu Trail, actually. That's
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: not so much running as mountaineering, isn't it?
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Because if you climb 14,000 feet and then go down
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: the other side, that's pretty steep. Yeah, yeah. Well, basically,
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: we camp out at about 7,000 feet the night before,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: get up at 3 o'clock in the morning, and then
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: you have breakfast and make your way up to the gate.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: There's a special gate where you have to have a
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: license to go on the trail and all that. You
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: get there for 6 a.m. So that's a climb of 2,000
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: feet for a start. Wow.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: I walked out the road in remembrance once and I
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: got dizzy.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: But as you say, the trail has been built by
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: the Indians, the American Indians. And it's all stone steps
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: and trails. They all did it for coca leaves. Coca
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: leaves was the currency. No money. They all got paid
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: in coca leaves and they all did all this more
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: or less voluntarily for the king. And this trail is
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: 30 miles long. Incredible.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: That's just... That's beyond belief, isn't it? I could talk
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: to you all day, Alan, about your marathons. I really
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: could do. But I want to find out about the mountains.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: So what I thought I'd do is I'm just going
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to play a bit of music. Take a breath. And
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: then I want to find out about what it was
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: like up there. Really, really up there. You know what
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I mean? Just up there, crazy up there. So we'll
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: play some music. We'll get that done. And then we'll
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: come straight back to you. This is Stereo Hearts by
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the Gym Class Heroes.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: I am back with the ferret. I'm also with Jax
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: and Alan, our mountain people.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: As I'm calling them today. But it's more than that. Now, Ferret,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: we were talking before about the marathons. Right. I want
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: to get back to.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we want to swing it back to
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: what's happened in Everest.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Now, Jax, if you just briefly run us through, tell
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: me about this really, the worst airport in the world, apparently.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Go on, tell us about that.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's in Lucklow. It actually takes you up the
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: first stage of the mountain. And it was, I think,
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: Sir Edmund Hillary was involved in a lot of fundraising
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: activities To get the airport sort of set up so
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: it was safer to land. And it used to be
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: grass and they used to have to clear the cows
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: out of the way before the aeroplanes landed. Now it's
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: sort of on a 45 degree angle with a brick
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: wall at the end and very, very short. And you
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: see us flying around. You only come in these little
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: two twin engine aeroplanes that only seat 16 people. So
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: you can. actually touch your pilots on the shoulder and
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: actually see out of the front windscreen. So that's all
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: very bizarre when you're used to jumbo jets. And you're
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: sort of flying and then suddenly he just dives down
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: and there's the runway. And it's the most bizarre and
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: unsettling feeling ever. And because it's on an angle, they
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: slow down very quickly, but you think you're just going
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: to crash. And he just suddenly does a quick right
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: turn and there you are, you've stopped. But it is
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: quite odd when you're used to these nice big gap week.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: So the next step, tell us about the actual trekking
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: up the Himalayas.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so what we did, because they wanted to get
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: as many people up to base camp so that they
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: can complete all their research, we would walk for a
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: couple of days and stop each day in a lodge
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: and just gradually get higher and higher. And then after
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: a couple of days trekking, we would rest for a
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: couple of days. And we'd take photos and then do
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: a couple more days trekking and then rest for a
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: few days. And that just allowed our bodies to adapt
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: so that we could get to base camp.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'd have kissed the ground when I got
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: on a plane. I'd have just been like, I'm still here.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: How high did you go up the mountain? What was
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the altitude that you went to? 17,650 feet.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: 17,000 feet. Now, I was trying to describe this and
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: make a.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Comparison last week.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: We've got friends that do a skydive about 12,000 feet.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: So you were another 5,000 feet above those before you started.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. Oh, wow.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: The thought of somebody just flying past you. You've still
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: got a few more thousand feet to go. That's just crazy.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Figgy, just bring us back to every day at the Himalayas.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, you started off doing tests.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Yes, we were tested every day. We did our pulse
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: and box step exercises. So we tested at rest and
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: after exercise, blood pressure taken. So very well looked after,
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: but all these results are correlated and entered into a log.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: And they'll examine them all at the end, really.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: Brilliant.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: And hopefully, I mean, you guys giving up that time
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and doing that kind of stuff will really benefit people.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we hope so, yeah.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: We've only got a couple of minutes left, and I really,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: really want to ask you this question. What was it
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: like up there? What was it like at night time?
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: You get a feeling of isolation, really. You go so
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: far and the tourists gradually get less and less and
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: less until the last few days, it's only the hardliners
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: that are left. And you do feel isolated. There's nothing
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: around you, just these huge mountains, no vegetation, nothing. Very
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: few people, very few locals, you know.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: It makes you realise what a hard life the locals have.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can imagine. You know, they live.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: Literally in huts and they quite often will sleep with
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: their livestock and you just think, wow.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: It really is marginal living, it really is.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: You guys need to write a big blog about this
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: or a big book or something. I need to know more.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Did you take many pictures as well?
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, one of the most amazing things is we
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: came out of our tent in base camp one night
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: and the moon was just rising over the Cumbo Icefall.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: And it was lighting up the whole of the arc
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: of mountains that are around the base camp. And, oh,
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: my gosh.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: That's amazing.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: One of the guys had a flashy camera and took
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: the picture. And it was awe-inspiring. And it was worth
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: every breathless moment.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: If you have got any pictures that you can send
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: in to the Ferret at some stage, because I'd love
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to get them out to the Academy listeners. Because I
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: don't think it's just too much to comprehend. Yeah, it's mind-boggling,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: isn't it?
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: It is, yeah.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: You can't grasp what... You.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: Just can't describe it, really. It's... And even your cameras
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: can't capture them.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can imagine. But your eyes did. It's the scale. Yeah,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: it's the scale.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: It's only when you're there you realise the scale of
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: what you're in.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And lastly, what was it like when you came back?
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Was it a difficult adjustment? You know, when you kind
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of obviously have to get back up there, altitude, aloneness,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and then you've got to come back down into the room.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: Physically, it's actually great because.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: Your body's trained.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I suppose.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: And you're like, whoa, I couldn't go to the toilet
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: without having to stop three.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Times and catch my breath.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: But, yeah, psychologically, you feel really odd because you've been
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: so isolated and seen some amazing things. And then, of course,
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: you land in Kathmandu and the crowds and the poverty
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: and the hustle and bustle. And even when I was
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: back home in England for a good week, I felt
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: really unsettled.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I can imagine.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: Which is nice because it means that your holidays affected
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: you well.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Honestly, guys, I really could talk to you forever,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: but unfortunately we've run out of time this morning. But
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: if people want to find out more about this and
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: about you, you know, what you guys do, is there
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: a website or anything that we can go to?
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, if they go onto their search engine and put
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: Extreme Everest 2 and that'll take them to the website
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: and they can go on various links and see some
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: of the pictures from our treks.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Fantastic. Well, we'll definitely get the link up then from
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: that site on our page today. So if you want
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: to see a glimpse of what these two wonderful people
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: have seen, then head over to our website after the show.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: We'll get that link up. Can I just say, Jackson Allen,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: thank you very much indeed.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: Thanks for coming in.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: It's been a pleasure to talk to you guys. It's
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: been absolutely brilliant. We've got to go off to the
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: news now. Ferret, what an amazing pair of guests you've
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: brought there.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Great stories.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Enjoy the rest of your weekend, guys. Thank you. And
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming in. 110 marathons.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: 17,000 feet altitude. I thought I was fit. They like
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: big numbers, don't they? I hate these people, yeah. We'll
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: be back after the news.