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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 9f55de8 | The South Col is a vast, rocky area, maybe the size of four football pitches, strewn with the remnants of old expeditions. It was here in 1996, in the fury of the storm, that men and women had struggled for their lives to find their tents. Few had managed it. Their bodies still lay here, as cold as marble, many now partially buried beneath snow and ice. It was a somber place: a grave that their families could never visit. There was an eerin.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| adefc91 | VW Valley is one of the final mountains one climbs on Selection--but it's among the worst. VW stands for Voluntary Withdrawal, and when you see the mountain you can understand why people have often quit here. Steep, windswept, and boggy--and at mile thirty it is the point where many recruits quit and remove themselves from the course--broken by the sheer distance, weight, and speed. But not me. Not now. On my backside, I slid down the first.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| a99089c | The final examination came and my mother came down to watch it. She hated watching me fight. (Unlike my school friends, who took a weird pleasure in the fights--and more and more so as I got better.) But Mum had a bad habit. Instead of standing on the balcony overlooking the gymnasium where the martial arts grading and fights took place, she would lie down on the ground--among everyone else vying to get a good view. Now don't ask me why. Sh.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 812f123 | Eventually, two Swedish climbers and a Sherpa called Babu Chiri found Mick. By chance--by God's grace--Babu was carrying a spare canister of oxygen. Neil and Pasang had also now descended, and met up with Mick and the others. Neil then located an emergency cache of oxygen half-buried in the snow nearby. He gave one to Alan and forced both him and Mick to their feet. Slow and tired, his mind wandering in and out of consciousness, Mick remem.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| e9d3453 | The next day's call would be vital. Then at 12:02 P.M., the radio came to life. "Bear at camp two, it's Neil. All okay?" I heard the voice loud and clear. "Hungry for news," I replied, smiling. He knew exactly what I meant. "Now listen, I've got a forecast and an e-mail that's come through for you from your family. Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?" "Go on, then, let's get the bad news over with," I replied. "Well, th.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 1769b30 | I have always loved the quote from John F. Kennedy: "When written in Chinese, the word is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity." Looking back on my life, I can see that I have never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger. And here was all that I loved before me: great risk, but also great opportunity. I had never felt so excited. Neil was already preparing to come back up. Mick, so for.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 2cad116 | That night, the tent that I had been alone in for so long was suddenly heaving with bodies, and piles of rope and kit--with Neil, Geoffrey, and Graham squeezed in beside me. I tried to drink as much boiled water as I could get down. I knew that I would need to be as hydrated as I could possibly be to tackle what lay ahead. So I drank and I peed. But still my pee was dark brown. It was almost impossible to hydrate at this altitude. The ritua.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| fc74fb6 | Many times I have been grateful for the simple, military skill of being able to live with people in confined spaces. It has helped me so much over the years on expeditions and beyond. And I was especially glad to be with Neil. When we hang with good people, some of their goodness rubs off. I like that in life. The other thing the army had taught me was how, and when, to go that extra mile. And the time to do it is when it is tough--when all.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 32243b0 | The infamous South Col awaited me over the top. I longed to see this place I had heard and read so much about. The highest camp in the world at twenty-six thousand feet--deep in Everest's Death Zone. I had always winced at the term Mountaineers are renowned for playing things down, yet mountaineers had coined the phrase--I didn't like that. I put the thought aside, pulled the last few steps over the spur, and the gradient eased. I turned .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 60dcb13 | Seven P.M. Half an hour to go until we started the laborious task of getting kitted up again. It would take us at least an hour. By the end no part of our bodies or faces would be visible. We would be transformed into cocooned figures, huddled, awaiting our fate. I reached into the top pouch of my backpack and pulled out a few crumpled pages wrapped in plastic. I had brought them just for this moment. Even the youths shall faint and be wea.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| f213dac | It was like climbing a mountain of waist-deep molasses while giving someone a fireman's carry, who, for good measure, was also trying to force a pair of frozen socks into your mouth. Nice. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 75167d0 | Sir Edmund Hillary, Everest's first conqueror, once said that the mountains gave him strength. I'd never really understood this until now. But it was intoxicating. Something deep inside me knew that I could do this. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 80f5bf3 | I learned two very strong lessons from them: the grass isn't always greener elsewhere, and true love is worth fighting for. | Bear Grylls | ||
| e7af024 | In addition to these international climbers, we were supported by a climbing team of Nepalese Sherpas, led by their Sirdar boss, Kami. Raised in the lower Himalayan foothills, these Sherpas know Everest better than anyone. Many had climbed on the mountain for years, assisting expeditions by carrying food, oxygen, extra tents, and supplies to stock the higher camps. As climbers, we would each carry substantial-sized packs every day on Everes.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 0c77f10 | We soon reached a dam and had to make a decision. We knew it was forbidden to cross a dam, in the same way that it was forbidden ever to use a footpath or forestry track. (Unless it was part of the dreaded morning battle PT.) This was a simple rule on Selection to make sure that you got used to navigating properly and that the going underfoot was always hard, which it inevitably always was. (In fact I, still to this day, feel a bit guilty i.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| f761646 | Lesson one: Pack light unless you want to hump the eight around the mountains all day and night. By the time we reached Snowdonia National Park on Friday night it was dark, and with one young teacher as our escort, we all headed up into the mist. And in true Welsh fashion, it soon started to rain. When we reached where we were going to camp, by the edge of a small lake halfway up, it was past midnight and raining hard. We were all tired (fr.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 52a65f0 | I remember, for example, the time at prep school when I was chosen for the under nines' rugby team. Well, to be more accurate, I was chosen to be linesman, as I wasn't good enough for the actual team. Anyway, it was a cold, miserable winter's day, and there were no spectators out watching, which was uncommon. (Normally, at least a few boys or teachers would come out to watch the school matches.) But on this cold, blustery day the touchlines.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| b46cc56 | Since we were on Everest, many other climbers have succeeded on the "big one" as well. She has now been scaled by a blind man, a guy with prosthetic legs, and even by a young Nepalese teenager. Don't be fooled, though. I never belittle the mountain. She is still just as high and just as dangerous. Instead, I admire those mountaineers--however they have climbed her. I know what it is really like up there. Humans learn how to dominate and con.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 193c700 | At this stage though, with the greatest will in the world, I wasn't going to be climbing anything, not unless I could raise the sponsorship. And little did I know quite how hard that could be. I had no idea how to put a proposal for sponsorship together; I had no idea how to turn my dream into one company's opportunity; and I certainly didn't know how to open the doors of a big corporation just to get heard. On top of that, I had no suit, n.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 99ac921 | So that is how we came to be standing in a sparse room, in a nondescript building in the barracks at SAS HQ--just a handful out of all those who had started out so many months earlier. We shuffled around impatiently. We were ready. Ready, finally, to get badged as SAS soldiers. The colonel of the regiment walked in, dressed casually in lightweight camo trousers, shirt, beret, and blue SAS belt. He smiled at us. "Well done, lads. Hard work, .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 526c984 | In every potential sponsor's eyes, I was a nobody. And soon I had notched up more rejection letters than is healthy for any one man to receive. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 5f2285f | So that is how we came to be standing in a sparse room, in a nondescript building in the barracks at SAS HQ--just a handful out of all those who had started out so many months earlier. We shuffled around impatiently. We were ready. Ready, finally, to get badged as SAS soldiers. The colonel of the regiment walked in, dressed casually in lightweight camo trousers, shirt, beret, and blue SAS belt. He smiled at us. "Well done, lads. Hard work, .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| a5d0b26 | Since I did Selection all those years ago, not much has really changed. The MOD (Ministry of Defence) website still states that 21 SAS soldiers need the following character traits: "Physically and mentally robust. Self-confident. Self-disciplined. Able to work alone. Able to assimilate information and new skills." It makes me smile now to read those words. As Selection had progressed, those traits had been stamped into my being, and then du.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| dce755f | But what do I remember and value most? For me, it is the camaraderie, and the friendships--and of course Trucker, who is still one of my best friends on the planet. Some bonds are unbreakable. I will never forget the long yomps, the specialist training, and of course a particular mountain in the Brecon Beacons. But above all, I feel a quiet pride that for the rest of my days I can look myself in the mirror and know that once upon a time I w.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 320ffce | Meanwhile, Trucker and I, through all of this, had been renting that cottage together, on a country estate six miles outside of Bristol. We were paying a tiny rent, as the place was so rundown, with no heating or modern conveniences. But I loved it. The cottage overlooked a huge green valley on one side and had beautiful woodland on the other. We had friends around most nights, held live music parties, and burned wood from the dilapidated s.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 0008876 | Benjamin Disraeli | Bear Grylls | ||
| 4486528 | In every potential sponsor's eyes, I was a nobody. And soon I had notched up more rejection letters than is healthy for any one man to receive. I tried to think of an entrepreneur and adventurer that I admired, and I kept coming back to Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin. I wrote to him once, then I wrote once more. In all, I sent twenty-three letters. No response. , I thought, So I did precisely that, and at 8:00 P.M. one cold eve.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 8c38cd6 | When I woke up a man in a green beret with a big feather poking out of it was leaning over me. , I thought. I blinked again but he didn't go away. Then this immaculate, clipped British accent addressed me. "How are you feeling, soldier?" It was the colonel in charge of British Military Advisory Team (BMAT) in southern Africa. He was here to check on my progress. "We'll be flying you back to the UK soon," he said, smiling. "Hang on in ther.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| b4fec9b | None of this was in the game plan for my life. I had been hit hard, broadside and from left field, in a way I could never have imagined. Things like this just didn't happen to me. I was always the lucky kid. But rogue balls from left field can often be the making of us. | Bear Grylls | ||
| b7b8e57 | I was in and out of the hospital almost daily from then on. They X-rayed, poked, and prodded me, and then they did it again for good measure. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 156762f | Later that week, I was bicycling down a pavement in the City of London when I passed a company called DLE, which stands for Davis Langdon & Everest. , I thought, as I skidded to a halt. I took a deep breath and then confidently walked into their ultraclean, ultrasmart reception, and asked to be put through to the CEO's office, saying it was both urgent and confidential. Once I had the CEO's secretary on the line, I pleaded with her to help .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| a7bb754 | So I got lucky. But then again, it took me many hundreds of rejections to manage to find that luck. I am sure there is a lesson n that somewhere. Someone had taken a punt and had faith in me. I wouldn't let them down, and I would be eternally grateful to them for giving me that chance to shine. Once DLE were on board, a few other companies joined them. It's funny how, once one person backs you, somehow other people feel more comfortable doi.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 2fd3a4c | Whenever I got out of bed I had to wear a big metal brace that was strapped around me. I felt like an invalid. I was an invalid. This was crazy. As it was, I had done the worst of both worlds: I had neither gone for the reserve straight away nor had I managed to land the canopy with any degree of skill. I felt I could have avoided this accident if I had been smarter, faster, clearer-headed. I had messed up, and I knew it. I vowed that I wou.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 9a5055b | I woke in bed, sweating and breathing heavily. It was the third time I'd had this nightmare: reliving that horrible feeling of falling, out of control, toward the ground. I was now on month two of just lying there prone, supposedly recovering. But I wasn't getting any better. In fact, if anything, my back felt worse. I couldn't move and was getting angrier and angrier inside. Angry at myself; angry at everything. I was angry because I was s.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| bae9574 | In the end I concluded, nothing ventured, nothing gained. (A vital ethos to follow if life is to have flavor, I have since learned.) I knew I should at least attempt Selection. If I failed, well at least I would fail while trying. Facedown in the dirt. Knowing that I had given it my all. (Oh, and what's more, I knew that the SAS required secrecy from anyone attempting Selection, which was perfect. If I failed, I concluded, at least no one .. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 8ffcc6a | Sometimes it takes a knock in life to make us sit up and grab life. And I had just undergone the mother of all knocks. But out of that despair, fear, and struggle came a silver lining--and I didn't even know it yet. What I did know was that I needed something to give me back my hope. My sparkle. My life. I found that something in my Christian faith, in my family, and also in my dreams of adventure. My Christian faith says that I have nothin.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 7763325 | I was soon discharged from the rehab center and sent back to the SAS. But the doctor's professional opinion was that I shouldn't military parachute again. It was too risky. One dodgy landing, at night, in full kit, and my patched-up spine could crumple. He didn't even mention the long route marches carrying huge weights on our backs. Every SF soldier knows that a weak back is not a good opener for life in an SAS squadron. It is also a clich.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| ddf95eb | My time at Eton did develop in me a character trait that is essentially, I guess, very English: the notion that it is best to be the sort of person who messes about and plays the fool but who, when it really matters, is tough to the core. I think it goes back to the English Scarlet Pimpernel mentality: the nobility of aspiring to be the hidden hero. (In fact, I am sure it is no coincidence that over the years, so many senior SAS officers ha.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| ab8420d | I was soon discharged from the rehab center and sent back to the SAS. But the doctor's professional opinion was that I shouldn't military parachute again. It was too risky. One dodgy landing, at night, in full kit, and my patched-up spine could crumple. He didn't even mention the long route marches carrying huge weights on our backs. Every SF soldier knows that a weak back is not a good opener for life in an SAS squadron. It is also a clich.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 9e64e68 | That afternoon, I went to Henry with a suggestion. Michael and Graham were still ill. But I was feeling almost fit again. "Why not let Geoffrey and me head up to camp two, so we can be in position just in case the typhoon heads away?" It was a long shot--a very long shot--but as the golfer Jack Nicklaus once said: "Never up, never in." Sure as hell, I wasn't going to stand any chance of the summit, sitting here at base camp twiddling my thu.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 6a5652a | In 1996 the disasters on the mountain had robbed Neil of the chance to go above camp four. Two years on he was here again--only this time the summit was within his reach. He felt strong and waited anxiously for Mick to arrive. They would need to be together to manage the last ridge and the Hillary Step. Something told Neil that things were not going right. As the precious minutes slipped by, as he waited for Mick and the others to reach him.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| f881441 | That New Year I was invited to stay with one of my old school buddies, Sam Sykes, at his house on the far northwestern coast of Sutherland, in Scotland. It is as wild and rugged a place as anywhere on earth, and I love it there. It also happens to boast one of my favorite mountains in the world, Ben Loyal, a pinnacle of rock and steep heather that overlooks a spectacular estuary. So I did not need much encouraging to go up to Sam's and clim.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| 16976fe | On the third day, I asked if she would like to climb Ben Loyal with me--with anyone else who fancied coming along. None of the guys wanted to join me and I ended up with a group of four girls, including Shara. We spent two hours crossing the marshy moon grass to reach the foot of the mountain before starting up the steep slope toward the summit ridge. It was fairly sheer, but essentially we were still going the "easy" way. Within two hundre.. | Bear Grylls | ||
| c7acc5a | As we pulled up at the big school gates, I saw tears rolling down my dad's face. I felt confused as to what part of nature or love thought this was a good idea. My instinct certainly didn't; but what did I know? I was only eight. So I embarked on this mission called boarding school. And how do you prepare for that one? In truth, I found it really hard; there were some great moments like building dens in the snow in winter, or getting chosen.. | Bear Grylls |