There is little courage involved in setting out on a journey where the destination is certain and every step in between has been mapped in detail. Bravery is about leaving camp in the dark, when we do...
I always had a really natural faith as a kid. Where I knew God existed and it felt very free and pretty wild and natural, and it wasn't religious.
The second element to why the show has worked is undoubtedly my team.And guess what? I am not alone out there.I work with a truly brilliant, small tight-knit crew. Four or five guys. Heroes to a man.T...
The next night was New Year’s Eve, and I made a secret plan with Shara to meet her outside the back door on the stroke of midnight.Let’s take a walk, I suggested.Sure. It’s midnight, minus five degree...
The less you see of your toxic friends and the more you see of your enthusiastic friends, the better you will feel about yourself, and the better you will become. So spend your days in the company of...
The area became known affectionately by the other recruits as simply: ‘The asshole of the world.
The DS had told us the parameters – run, you pass; walk, you fail.
Our achievements are generally limited only by the beliefs we impose on ourselves.
Mr. Sturgess ran the classes with iron, ex-military discipline. We each had spots on the floor, denoting where we should stand rigidly to attention, awaiting our next task. And he pushed us hard. It f...
Many people find it hard to understand what it is about a mountain that draws men and women to risk their lives on her freezing, icy faces--all for a chance at that single, solitary moment on the top....
Just let me get moving, I thought, and the pumping blood will shake the stiffness and pain from my back and feet.
If I had to sum up what happened on that journey for me, from the hospital bed to the summit of the world, I tend to think of it as a stumbling journey.Of losing my confidence and my strength--then re...
I reassessed the map and my timing. I had to come up with a plan to get myself out of this mess, and fast. I turned 90 degrees and started to climb back up onto the high ground that I had just come of...
Going through this phase, though, did confirm in my mind that at least Shara wasn’t marrying me for either my looks or money. I was both broke and bloated.She, bless her, still loved me all the same.
Finally, I broke through and hit the steep track on the far side of the forest, and spotted the lone DS tent, silhouetted against the skyline.The routine when arriving at a checkpoint was rigorously e...
Eton, for all its virtues, seriously lacked girls. (Well, apart from the kitchen girls who we camped out on the roof waiting for night after night.)But beyond that, and the occasional foxy daughter of...
Consider the billionaire who flies into the South Pole for an hour to ‘experience’ it, compared to the man who has toiled, sweated and struggled across hundreds and hundreds of miles of ice, dragging...
A young kid came up to me in the street a few days ago. He looked me square in the eye and asked me: If you could tell me one survival message, what would it be?I thought about it for a moment. I want...
If we were caught pointing at a map with a finger, instead of a blade of grass or something sharp, we had been threatened, by the unforgettable Sgt Taff, that he would ‘Rip that finger off and beat yo...
You see, life is unpredictable, and as sure as eggs is eggs, it won’t always swing your way. But when those storms come I have a clear and simple mantra:In other words: Nature has a way of rewarding t...