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...
Psalm 121 says:Good person to have on side, I always figure.
My grandfather always had a little framed picture by his bed that simply said:So every once in a while, take out your backpack and head off for a night under canvas. Even if it’s only for one night, a...
Most people crumble when squeezed, but the champion feeds off it.Develop this trait, even if you don’t feel it naturally applies to you. Embrace the dramas whenever you can - in order to practise!Tell...
Listening carefully to this voice is how we distinguish ourselves from the rest of the crowd who so often barge through life, too busy or too proud even to acknowledge their intuition’s existence.
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 a...
If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.The dude who said this was dead right.Life is all about getting up again, dusting yourself down again, learning from the les...
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...
I was so proud to have been made a lieutenant-commander in the Royal Navy in 2005 (Dad would have approved!), and through the expeditions that I have led in Antarctica, the Himalayas, and the Arctic,...
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....
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...
Fears and worries - about things that are long passed, or that may never materialize in our future - all weigh us down and slow us up.So where you can, drop the worries.Jesus talked a lot about this,...
During the year before Shara and I got married, I managed to persuade the owners of a small island, situated in Poole Harbor, to let me winter house-sit the place in return for free lodging.It was a b...
Among these have been an unhealthy number of near-death moments, many of which I look back on now and wince. But I guess our training in life never really ends--and experience is always the best tutor...
Without doubt, we all get handed ‘lemons’ sometimes in life. No one is immune from this. Maybe it’s an incurable illness, or a soldier caught in a roadside bomb; maybe it’s a duff education, a dysfunc...
Think of your favorite sports star. Let me tell you, they spent every waking moment of their teenage years in the gym, pounding pavements or knocking a ball against a wall. You just don’t get good at...
I exercise about 40 minutes a day, and I'll run one day and do circuit training the next day. I live in an area where there are brilliant hills and mountains, so I get a good hill run with my dog. At...
When I'm filming, survival requires movement. You need your energy, and you've got to eat the bad stuff, and survival food is rarely pretty, but you kind of do it. I get in that zone, and I eat the na...
Empty vessels make the most noise. It is true. The best adventurers and climbers, and the most successful people I know in life, are all great listeners, and they don’t talk too much.
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 qui...