Degree Over, I Become a Full Time 'Everest Aspirant'

It's been an incredibly busy month, with plenty of Everesty stuff going on- so i'll try to keep this post short for fear of boring everyone to death!

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Firstly- congratulations to Kenton and Ran Fiennes, who reached Everest's summit early Wednesday morning last week. Ran is now the oldest man at 65, and KC has topped the Big One 7 times in 6 years now, so Mum: i'm in good hands!

Please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/everestranulph

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The BBC are currently airing 'Everest ER' on Monday's at 7pm, which is a documentary following Kenton and Rob Casserely (also a guide on the 2010 expedition), if anyone would like to know more about who i'll be on my expeditions with and what it will be like on Everest, this show is a great insight- you can catch it on Iplayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ktb46/Everest_ER_Episode_1/

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Since finishing my degree i've gotten my teeth into finding sponsorship. It is possibly one of the most soul destroying tasks on the planet- like being a sales person, but the product that keeps being rejected is you... great!

Woo!

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On the training front, the day after handing in my last essay i drove down to Devon for a coastal marathon, not exactly the end of term celebration i was hoping for but nonetheless we managed to celebrate in style after the race was over!

Myself, Rob Casserely and Stuart Burbridge (http://www.ocean2summit.com/) are all heading to Everest next year and Rob is also on the Manaslu expedition in September, so it was great to go and meet the guys and stay with them for the weekend.

The race was awesome- the views were breathtaking and the terrain was very tough. Rob managed an amazing 18th place, whilst i managed to somehow take a shortcut and miss out two checkpoints. Now looking forward to the Mont Blanc Marathon, the pinnacle of training for this year- it's one month to the day and i'll be honest i'm pretty nervous: hiking at altitude is one thing, running at it is another!

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This bank holiday was just spent climbing Snowdon in North Wales. Our team from Holloway chose to take the Miner's track to the summit, and knowing that it was only 3 miles long and had a vertical gain of about 800m, i decided that it was relatively chilled compared to my more usual trail races of 20+ miles and 2km vertical gain, so i would try and run to the top!

I collapsed on the summit in a pool of sweat, lungs heaving etc, to find that i had finished the route in 1 hour 33 minutes. Nothing in comparison to the 4+ hours spent on a coastal race, so i felt pretty good- though extremely angry that i didn't break 1.30- so really i just sat on the top pretty pissed off whilst waiting for the rest of the team... great!

In the end i called my mum, my little brother (Alfie, 8) answered and the conversation went something like this:

B: Alfie, guess where i am?

A: On top of Everest?

How could i possibly beat that?!

B: Er no, Mount Snowden in Wales!

A: Oh...

To say he sounded dissapointed would be the understatment of the century... oh well, must try harder next time!

Thanks to Bob, Mike, Lee, Simon, Kirsten, Rianne and Lucy for a fantastic time- we shall return to the barn for a naked mile one day, Kirsten and i will have to rise to the challenge!

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Procuring sponsorship and publicity for Everest has reluctantly forced me into being uncharacteristically assertive- carpe diem etc etc, i am now one of those annoying people who 'networks', or attempts to anyway!

Today i saw that BBC Radio Berkshire were handing out some flyers in Reading, so i went up to the nicest looking one, shook her hand and blurted out:

'himyname'sbonitaandi'mclimbingeverestin2010'

Thankfully she (Katie, a producer for the station) was quite responsive to this information, duly interviewed me on the spot, took all my details and has promised to follow up with a radio interview soon- i just wish it was that easy all the time!

I have also secured a page 3 feature in the Staines Informer- not THAT kind of page 3! So will let you guys know when it is published.

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Finally, this Sunday will see myself and a big team from Holloway, Oxford Brookes and the Bracknell Forest runners tackle the Salomon Turbo X race on Surrey Hill. It's gonna be messy... Good Luck guys- the race is on!

Manaslu- Record Attempt

A massive development on the Everest front- i am now on an expedition to become the youngest person in the world to attempt a summit of Manaslu- the world's eighth highest mountain.

The change from Cho-Oyu to Manaslu has come because of problems with the Chinese Goverment in Tibet, so we are switching to Manaslu in Nepal.

The expedition is set to be fantastic- Manaslu is a beautiful mountain but quite remote, i'm going to be climbing with a great team and to say i'm excited is an understatement! It's difficulty is rated the same as Cho Oyu, so i am pretty confident that success is within our reach- just got to keep working on those lungs and thighs!

The expedition leaves on the 28th August and returns mid October. I am starting to amass the many items of kit needed for a Himalyan expedition- boots, crampons etc. Only 4 months now until i leave from Heathrow!

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On the training front, the ante was upped again recently when myself and Mr Ray the Rayman (aka Tom) decided to try out the 22 mile Exe To Axe in Devon- at over 4000ft vertical gain, it topped the Grizzly and the London Marathon by miles, and is most certainly the hardest race i've ever done.


So, another 20+ mile race down, my forth so far this year. Next up is the Exmoor Coastal Marathon on the 9th May, 28 miles and 8000ft vertical gain! Running with Rob and Stu (http://www.ocean2summit.com/), will keep you updated on how we do there...

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The Lovely Steve Ramsden has been helping me in the past week with getting a short film together on my training so far- here are some stills from the short, and it will be posted as soon as it's done. Look out for it on here or on South Today when it airs- i'll keep you posted.

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Finally, a shout out to Kenton who is currently in Kathmandu after a pretty rushed last couple of hours in the UK!

KC turned up at my house at 4 (has to be at airport for 6) having not even packed yet- despite the fact that he's embarking on an Everest expedition! As is the life of the very busy Mr Cool.

Needless to say the hallway was carnage for the next half an hour as Kenton ripped open box after box of gear ready to be packed and ready to go to Heathrow. We made it in good time- and as i drove back home all i could think was- i'll be going next year! (well, hopefully in a more organised fashion!)

Keep up to date with what's happening on the big E this year at http://www.dream-guides.com/, good luck to Kenton and his (top secret!) client- we should be hearing about a summit attempt in mid-May!

Drowned Rats and Determined Women

What a week!! Like many of you, i don’t think i’ve seen snow like that in the UK in my life.

But now, what do we get? Rain, and lots of it- a huge storm tonight according to the forecasts, so what better conditions to go on a lung busting run?

My lovely housemate Danielle and myself tentatively agreed to go on a hilly 8.5miler- each of us probably hoping that the other would give in and say “i’m not going out in that!”, that’s what i was thinking at least!

Neither gave in, so we nervously pulled on our gear and slipped on the trainers- the rain battering at the windows, daring us to take it on. It was a case of ‘1, 2, 3..GO!’- you can’t dally around in a storm like this, and so we dashed off screaming many expletives that i can’t repeat here for fear of my parents having a read..!

A fast finish and cack-handed high five (both our arms were so numb we weren’t capable of doing it in style) and we could leave the god awful storm and chill out in the (relative) sanctity of home- just wished the heating was on!

In news on the Everest front, thanks to all those who have been giving advice on the sponsorship brochure, i have taken all comments on board and it is a lot better for all your help- so thank you!

Despite the snow and resulting lack of train service (even their website was down…), i managed to get to London to meet an amazing woman: Tori James.

Tori is the first Welsh woman and youngest female Briton to summit Everest, and was nice enough to go for a glass of wine and let me assault her with a barage of questions for two hours

Tori says that attempting such a challenge requires 90% mental toughness and 10% physical ability… oh, and also perfecting the skill of peeing into a bottle at 8000m.

So it’s been another enlightening week but i can’t afford to step of the treadmill for one second- so much to do, so little time! Tori had to give up her full time job to get fit and raise sponsorship for Everest- i just hope that when the going gets tough (which it really will), i will remember her wise words and somehow pull it all off- fingers crossed…