Bear Grylls

Every year the death toll on Mount Everest rises, and for every ten mountaineers who make it to the top, one will die. Yet at 7.22am on May 26th 1998, Bear entered The Guinness Book of Records as the youngest, and one of only around thirty, British climbers to have successfully climbed Everest and returned alive. He was only 23 years old.

The actual ascent took Bear over ninety days of extreme weather, limited sleep and running out of oxygen deep inside the 'death zone' (above 26,000 feet). On the way down from his first reconnaissance climb, Bear was almost killed in a crevasse at 19,000 feet. The ice cracked and the ground disappeared beneath him, he was knocked unconscious and came to swinging on the end of a rope. His team-mate and that rope saved his life. The expedition was raising funds for the Rainbow Trust and Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Previously, in 1997, Bear had become the Youngest Briton to climb Mount Ama Dablam in the Himalayas (22,500 feet), a peak once described by Sir Edmund Hillary as unclimbable'.

Prior to the Everest Expedition, Bear, also a Karate Black Belt, spent three years with the British Special Air Service (21 SAS). What makes his story even more remarkable is that during this time he suffered a free-fall parachuting accident in Africa where he broke his back in three places. After months and months of rehabilitation, focusing always on his childhood dream of Everest, he slowly became strong enough to attempt the ultimate ascent of the world's highest peak.

Bear has a natural talent for communication and his speaking and TV shows has brought him worldwide acclaim. As a motivational speaker, he has addressed corporations all around the world on his experiences on Everest and how these can help us in our life and business environments. He is among the youngest and most successful speakers in the world.

Timeline

1994-1997
Served with the British SAS (21 SAS).

1997
Youngest British climber to reach the summit of Mt. Ama Dablam, Himalaya.

1998
Youngest British climber to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.

2000
'Facing Up' the account of Bear's Everest ascent is published and reaches into the top 10 Best seller list.

2001
'Facing Up' nominated for the Boardman Tasker Mountain Literature Prize.

2004
'Facing the Frozen Ocean', Bear's second book is published.
'Facing the Frozen Ocean ' is short listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year.
Films a four-part prime time Channel Four Series on what it is really like inside the French Foreign Legion. 'Escape to the Legion'.

2005
Bear breaks the world record for the highest ever open air dinner party, slung under a hot air balloon at 25,000 ft.

2006
Bear's new TV Series called 'Man Vs Wild' premiers across America on the Discovery Channel. (View here). He is currently filming another 14 programmes for US Discovery. (visit Discovery's website)
Bear films 13 x 1hr programmes for Discovery Channel Worldwide. The TV Series is called 'Man Vs Wild' and features Bear being dropped into some of the world's most inhospitable places, equipped with little more than the clothes on his back, and showing how to survive and get out alive! The locations Bear is currently filming in include: the Jungles of Costa Rica, The Moab Desert in Utah, the remote Pacific Islands, Sierra Nevada, USA, the Alps, Kenya, and Alaska.

Taken from beargrylls.com