Mission failure not an option for Special Forces veterans attempting Everest record
The forces veterans of Mission: Everest are attempting to set a record by summitting the world's highest mountain and back in a week.
Even more shocking, they are doing all their acclimatising at home in the UK, at sea level.
The quartet is made up of expedition leader Major (Ret'd) Garth Miller, who is joined by a team of ex-Special Forces soldiers, Veterans Minister and former Royal Marines colonel Al Carns, Anthony "Staz" Stazicker, who was seen on television's SAS: Who Dares Wins, and Kevin Godlington, one of the founding members of the charity Tickets for Troops.
All eyes are on the four Special Forces veterans; if they are successful, they could change the future of high-altitude mountaineering.
They are due to set off today, making their way from London to Kathmandu, and then flying in a helicopter to Mount Everest base camp.
The team will spend a maximum of a couple of hours at base camp, where they will be checked by a doctor. A lama will then bless their climbing equipment and pray for their safe passage on the mountain.
A key part of their pre-acclimatisation is hypoxic training. The group have been sleeping and exercising in a low-oxygen environment which creates the physiological changes that occur at high altitude.
Maj Miller explained: "We've been sleeping in tents like this since the beginning of February. With the idea of accumulating about 450 or 500 hours in it. That's a combination of sleeping every night for seven or eight hours and then exercising as well."
The current record is 21 days, which is already held by expedition leader Maj Miller, who told BFBS Forces News how the team can go faster this time around.
"That's enabled by more time in the pre-acclimatisation phase," he explained. "So, spending more time sleeping in the tent at home, more time training at simulated altitude with the mask on, and using the xenon gas, which will reduce our susceptibility to altitude-related illnesses.
"So we'll be able to climb higher, faster and without the risk of falling ill. So, they're the big levers that we're pulling, and we've got quite a lot of technical innovation as well [that] we're taking advantage of.
"We've got the very latest oxygen equipment, we've got the very latest generation in summit suits."
A machine attached to the tent quite literally sucks the oxygen out of the air, simulating high altitude. The team can tell how high the altitude is by using a handheld device in the tent with them.
"For example, last night I was sleeping at 6,500m. So, the equivalent of camp two on Everest," Maj Miller added.
They are taking on this record-breaking challenge to raise money in support of Armed Forces and veterans' charities, particularly those who support bereaved children.
"It isn't a hack or a shortcut. It's still really uncomfortable and your body's still acclimatising," he said of their training regime.
This means the team will still experience side effects, such as headaches, lethargy and difficulty sleeping.
With one bonus: when you get up in the morning, you can go downstairs and make yourself a cup of tea.
It means the team will not be prone to extra injury and fatigue like you would if acclimatising at base camp.
The expedition is more environmentally friendly thanks to their reduced presence on the mountain. This is a factor particularly important to Maj Miller, a former regular officer with the Royal Gurkha Rifles.
He has travelled back and forth to Nepal since 1997 and speaks Nepali.
"That's where my fascination with mountaineering began," he said.
When asked what chances he thinks the team has in completing it in seven days, Maj Miller said:"I think they're good" acknowledging that logistics and weather also need to line up.
Maj Miller was asked how he would feel if they did not complete the record attempt.
"Between the four of us, we've got 75 years of military experience, really at the sharp end of the Royal Marines and the Army. So we're more familiar with mission success, than mission failure," he said.
"I think it's fair to say I'm absolutely confident with our climbing experience and our familiarity with pushing the boundaries physically, that we're going to get it done.
"So I don't think mission failure is really an option."
The team's donation page is here.
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