We'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this podcast was produced, the Galligall people of the orination. We pay our respects to Elder's past and present.
It's twenty twenty four and we're at the peak of Mount Everest with one of the world's leading high altitude climbers, Kenton Cool. To most, this would be a once in a lifetime moment, but for Kenton, this is his eighteenth summit. Every climb is tough, and every climb has risk. If you become complacent at eight thousand meters in the death zone, the mountain is going to kill you. But the view and the feeling at the top make every risk worth taking.
For Kenton, He's acutely aware of how things can change in an instant. In nineteen ninety six, a flash of overconfidence and it's led to a fall that threatened his ability to walk, let alone climb again. He doesn't take this view and this feeling for granted. Right now, he's the highest person on the planet. I'm at Middleton and this is head game today Kenton call on his extraordinary
career and making his way to the top. Keentin Cool, it is an absolute pleasure to not only see you again, mate, but to have you this time on my podcast, because last time I saw you, I was on your podcast and I think it's a year and a half late.
But that's COVID time.
No, No, that was mental right, And now you're on my podcast head Game. So mate, it's great to see you again. Thanks ever so much for joining me. And I've got to say, mate, you know from day one when I met you, Kenton Coole is a cool guy. I'm just going to put that out there. You are pretty cool, Kenton.
I don't know if it lived up to the name, but the name is if the listeners don't know me, it is actually c O O Out. I mean, I know you wanted that for a stage name out, but you know it was already taken. You couldn't have it. It's my name.
And did that work with the Chickydezer when you were going through school and you know, were you popular with the women?
No?
Well I went to an all boys school, so that that wasn't much of a thing. So if anything, it was the negative is you think you're cool and you get your head plunged down a toilet and and everything else so, but but it works now because I work in the service industry and people remember that name. But yeah, growing up it was a little bit of a chalice.
Yeah I bet it was, Mate, but now missed the cool you know that's that's mate, Like you said, it's in the title right then, and having had the privilege to spend it some time, if you Mate, you're certainly a cool dude. But this is about you, Mate. You've had a phenomenal career and you continue to have a phenomenal career in the mountaineering world. You are one of one of, or if not probably the most recognized and best mountaineers in the world. And it's obviously taken a
lot of pain, sweating, tears and suffering. People see the summits, especially with mountaineering, and I don't want to, you know, get carried away with that cliche. You know, it's about the summer, what's underneath it? But and what sparked your ignited your passion for climbing as a youngster.
So I actually came to climbing relatively late. I mean, I see this, this whole next generation coming through, you know, underneath me, and you know, these guys and girls they've all started super young, you know, climbing up, climbing walls, perhaps getting out of the Alps. I realistically didn't start climbing till I was I was pretty much eighteen. But before that, and I think this is really important, before that, you know, I was a boy scout. I grew up
inside the M twenty five. But I was lucky enough to grow up on the corner of a farm field, and I had access to the outside, and all I wanted to do was to be outside all the time. Building dens like say, climbing walls, climbing buildings, falling out trees, climbing itself as we know it to be a sport for me did not exist. But that love of the outdoors, the love of adventure, the love of watching the sunset. When I knew I was meant to be back at
home having my supper, Mum's going, where is he? Your dinner's burning? The street lights are on, you should be back exactly Well, well, in actual fact, you know where I grew up, there were no street lights. Oh yeah, you know. I grew up in the inside the M twenty five. For those who don't know London, I mean it was on kind of the outskirts of London, but we had all these farm fields and it was just
incredible the access to just getting in the woods. And even when they were building the motorway, so the M twenty five was built when I was living there, we used to like break into the motorway and steal lamps of wood to build the dens, and dodge the big earth movers and watch these guys cut down the trees and all sort of things. So climbing came late. Yeah, But the love of adventure and just being outside and maybe bending the rules that was instilled into me from
quite a young age. And we're sat here today. You know, I'm talking to you in Dubai. I'm in the cotsworlds. We've got a computer and you know this is my phone and yeah, and you know, and these are dangerous things for the next generation. It's so easy to get sucked into this rather one. You know, that upbringing that I had of but we just didn't have it, did we.
So your parents almost kicked you out as well, didn't they. You know, it was more like, well, like just go out and play, you know, stop annoying us, you know, because we had to entertain ourselves. Back then, we had no technology, We had no TV, like you said, which I found fascinating. You just said, we knew nothing about the climbing world. There wasn't these big expeditions that were going on, or you know, you'd hear about the fascination
of Mount Everest. That's the only mountain you heard back in the day, and it would be just a myth, right, we'd never had that. Our parents would push us out. We had to use our imaginations, right.
Yeah, to a certain extent. But then there were the books, and you know, for me, there was a couple of climbers in the UK, Sir Chris Bondingan and the late Great Doug Scott. They published these coffee table books, you know, the big A three types of style books or A four style books. And I remember getting Sir Chris Bondington's book a Mountaineer, I think it was called, or maybe Himalayan Climate one or the other and just flicking through it.
And yes there was Everest obviously, which captivates you. We all knew about Everest. We all learnt about sim Hillary Sherp pretending nineteen fifty three. You know, news breaking on the Queen's coronation. I mean, you just couldn't have make that up, could you. So we kind of knew about that a little bit. But then there's these other mountains like Shanga Bang or Counting Junger and Conger and just
the photography was amazing, but it felt untouchable. It felt like it was way beyond you know, but certainly my reach. It's like, well, how do you go from kicking football about in the backyard to climbing big mountains? It was a complete disconnect.
So kenon when did that transition come from, you know, you reading a book and ultimately you know, inspiring to be someone or inspiring to climb and looking at these mountains outside of Mount Everest, these these bigger mountains but also mountains in the in the UK. Did you first seek to climb in the UK then try and go bigger or what? What really sparked that thing to go, I'm going to tackle the big mountain.
Yeah, there was a very logical stepping stone, and you know, interestingly, the commercialism that goes with these big mountains these days, those stepping stones I kind of hacked. You know, people are bypassing the apprenticeship and going straight to the big mountains. Now, I'm not saying that that's right or that's wrong. It's just a very very different approach for me. Yeah, for me, it started with Andy Foux. There was this guy at school. His dad was just an outlier, you know. He was
a professional rally driver, Tony Foux. He drove for Team Mercedes. He tried the paris that are unsupported on a motorbike like three or four times. He would just disappear for weeks on end. And his son was Andy Foux, who was in my class at school. I think we might have been the same mass class or something. And they climbed, I mean they did all sorts of like amazing stuff. And Andy used to go down to the climbing wall.
And remember that back this would have been in the eighties, the climbing walls are not the climbing walls that we know today. There were very few and far between. And I just said to him one day, can I come with you? And He's like, yeah, of course, you can come along. And I just loved it. And yeah, I loved the movement. I loved the physicality of it. I
just loved the problem solving. And it very quickly snowballed from there, and then one day he said listen, because he could drive and I couldn't, he said, listen, We'll take my mum's car. And it was a Vauxhall Astra, this pretty pooky little thing, and we shot down to the South coast. We were stopped by the police. We slept in a public toilet overnight and we went climbing outside for the first time.
And that you were on an adventure.
Yeah, We're on the sea cliff and the waves are crashing in. I didn't know what I was doing. It got so scared. It's just like climbing up this thing, like throwing stuff over my shoulder. And I remember getting to the top of my first ever proper rock climb and there was a metal steak and I just remember putting my arms around it and it was, you know, as if it was like a newborn baby. It's like, oh my god, I'm safe. I'm not going to die after all. And then the adrenaline hits you and it
says like, oh my god, that was insane. I want more, I want more, I want more, and it just snowboard and it went went from the South Coast to Scotland. To the Peak District and then I finished my A levels. So I finished school and Andy, his brother Roger, and myself and another could made Chris. We just went to the European outs. We did not have a clue, we didn't know what we were doing. We made all the mistakes, but just had the best time ever. Yeah, and that
was it. That was a catalyst. That was like I love this. I want to do more of this.
Yeah. So that was sparked. And that was, like you said, it's addictive writer. You get into it. That adrenaline kicks in, you know. And what I love about what you just said was you know I'm alive. You know, you know because it is because ultimately, when you say problem solving, you mentioned the word problem solving, your problem solving to ultimately in that moment, even though you've got safety equipment on, and in that moment, you're you're problem solving with your life,
aren't you. You know, you're problem solving to get to the top, You're problem solving to get to the next, the next stage, and ultimately you're problem solving to keep yourself alive. On that mop face.
It it's one hundred percent. I mean, my first climate is a vs. You know, if American listeners is like, I don't know, five eight maybe. I mean, it's not hard, but you know, I just didn't know what it's doing. It's steep limestone. And I got about halfway up, and you put these little metal wedges into the rock to protect your so if you fall off, the ropes clipped. And I get about just over halfway and I'm getting tired and I'm trying to put one of these little
metal wedges in. I've got my hand in a crack every time I tak my hand out of like barn door about to fall off, and i can't get it in, and I've got to make that decision. I'm like, look at the floor, look at the rope, look at match ropes out, look at the top, and just think no. And this is that, you know, we're talking about problem solved in decision making. It's like, can I make it to the top without putting any more gear in before
I fall off? And if I fall off? And and he said afterwards it he was like, oh mate, what what were you doing? I was I was like running through how am I going to tell your mother that you created that you fell off? And hit the floor and you know, but but it's that key decision making. No, you know, I laugh about it now, but you're doing it almost instantaneously without even thinking about it. And that apprenticeship to be able to make those decisions, I think
is critical. And that's where maybe some of the modern generation of peak baggers, those who are just simply looking at climbing these peaks on big commercial strips, they don't go through that apprenticeship it. Yeah, so, and it's not right, it's not wrong. It's a different aspect of the sport. But that apprenticeship serves you so well in other stuff
that you do. Be it. You might be sat in the boardroom and you're trying to make a decision or something, or you're talking to somebody and you've got to make a quick, snapshot decision yourself. You can't chunk it to somebody else. You can't go to your boss and say what do you think about You've got to make that decision yourself. And for me, I learned that through climbing. Yeah, and that's a that's a critical life skill.
Yeah, absolutely, And I make you right there, Kenton, when you say you know it's different, it is different. But now going straight to the big mountains and people paying all this money to ultimately relinquish, which they do personal safety and personal responsibility. They think that when you know, the shit hits the fan and things go wrong, that yours, you've paid your sheirpers thousands and you paid the exhibition thousands,
that they're going to get you out of trouble. And they almost, you know, wipe their hands and go, you know, you get me out of this. I've paid you all this money to do it. And that's not the case, right because you get people that go up there and it's quite dangerous to be just wanting to hit those big summits. Like you said that apprenticeship sort of prepares you for the mountain life. There is a mountain life, and then there's these big expeditions that you go on.
And I believe and I've seen it on Everest, and I think that a lot of people do pay the big bucks and they do actually relinquish. Not all the people, but I've seen it happen where they go, right, you know, if something goes wrong, then I've paid all this money. You need to get me out of it.
Yeah, I mean, I think you're absolutely right, it's not everybody, but that personal responsibility. I mean, I'm a professional mountain guide. You know, I take people to Everest as well and look after them, and there is a you know, I'm essentially being paid to keep somebody safe. You know, that is the one part my job, keep somebody safe, bring them back through the front door at the end of the expedition. But at the same time, there is a
degree of responsibility to the client as well. And it doesn't matter that you climb in ben Nevis, Scarfel mont Blanc or Everest, there's got to be a degree of responsibility or accountability. Maybe yet the guide's going to do and the sherbet teams because the Sherpe teams, as you know, their epic you know, they're they're just on a different level.
I mean, we think we're pretty fit guys, but you know, put like twenty kilos on these guys and they're like mounting rockets and they're getting better and better and better about client care and knowing what the likes of you and I need on that mountain. You know, it'll be talking about Everest is incredible, But let's go back to
the you know, some of the clients. Is that sense of responsibility and to a certain tent etiquette as well, and that etique you learn from from the apprenticeship, know how you treat people in the mountains, how you conduct yourself.
In the right You've hit the nail on the head there. Mountain etique is it teaches you to how to how to be a mountaineer, how to act like a mountaineer, how to you know, respect the mountains.
And how to be around and how to respect others on the mountains. If you're on summit day on everest and you see those long lines, no one wants to be stuck in those lines, but there are ways and means you can overtake and get round people. And you might tap somebody on the shoulder and say, hey, we're
moving faster than you can. We come past you. And on every it's more often than not you get like a blank face and someone says no, and you're like, hmm, well, I'm not going to stand in this line and wait to get dead. I want to come past you. So yeah, you tap them on the shoulder again and say hey, listen, we're still moving faster than you can. We come past and they're like no, and in the end you're like, you just muscle past them, which in itself is not
mountain etticu. Yeah, and we learn all this, yeah, climbing in the Alps, climbing on mountains like a mounte Horn or Mont Blanc or you know, smaller peaks, and it's just ingrained in us now in the same way that you serve an apprenticeship in anything generally that you do, if you're work in finance or if you're working pharmaceuticals
or whatever it is that you're do. Like you and you didn't go straight into the special forces, Yeah, you done your time learning what you need to do, learning how you conduct yourself before you get to those higher levels. And it's exactly the same. So it's there is no hack that, there's no hack to experience.
You had a tragic fallback in nineteen ninety six, right, where were you and how did that happen? And you know what was going through head at the time.
I mean it is a cliche, but what a great life lesson. So it was a week before I've been beging on this epic expedition to Pakistan to climb the Ogre and I was in North Wales, it was a great drizzly day. I didn't really feel the motivation to get out and climb. We were just there to collect some sponsorship kit and and the people that I was with there were like, hey, let's go into the slate quarries of North Wales. So they all dis used slate mines and you know there's quite hard climbing in there.
So we go in there, and I reluctantly went along because my ego was getting in my way of my decision making. I'm like, well, okay, if these guys are going, I'm going to go. If they're going to climb hard, I'm going to climb hard. And mate of mine jumped on a relatively hard route and okay, so I jump on the one to the left, and you know, I broke a hold off. I wasn't that high. Slate is a very friable rock. That's where we have it on
our roofs. You know, it cleaves quite easily, and putting on its hole, I've got no gear in common thread here is and there's no gear when I go climbing and I break the hold off and bang, I just hit the floor and yeah, I ended up what four just over four weeks in hospital, three operations, three and a half months in a wheelchair. How high were you fifteen feet?
Ye? Still, but you peeled you proper peeled off, did you?
I fell off and the landing surface was just covered in these little flakes of slate, So it's like hitting concrete. And because it happened like that, there's no kind of parachute role also to speak, there's no shock absorbing. I fell off unexpectedly, and then before I know it, bang, and I got up and I made about three steps and just collapsed again. I didn't walk for four months.
Was there time to panic? Was there time? Or did you just before you know you've hit the deck and and you're.
Because where I was climbing wasn't actually that hard. I tried to get a little bit of gear in. It didn't fit, and you know I made we're talking about snap decisions. I made decisions. I don't need it. You know, this is easy. I'll get up to that bit up there. And then because I broke the hole, it was totally unexpected, totally entertainous. It wasn't like I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this. Watch me and you jump off. It was like bang, yeah, do.
You remember waking up in hospital?
Well, so I spent a couple of hours at the bottom of the climb while everybody was trying to sort out and get an ambulance in, and you know, and then I got carried down. It was quite heroic from those around me. I get carried down and then get handed over to the paramedics who then put me into the into the into the ambulance and it was so funny.
So my friends carried me all the way down and it was like down these little steep paths and you know, I'm howling, and they get me down and hand me over to the paramedics who immediately smashed my legs into the side of the ambulance. It's like, oh Jesus, Chris, I.
Think they might have done that. Burbers made to go use silly son.
Yeah, yeah, possibly. And then I got carded off the bank at hospital and spent time there and then ended up back down near home. So it was a bilateral cocaine and fracture. So I so the little hillbone that comes out if you think of your skeleton foot, there's a little bit that comes out of the back and that's your hilbone right at the back. And I broke the I think the right one was in fourteen pieces and the left one was in seven or.
Eight pieces, so he shattered both.
I shattered both of them. And one of the consultants said, no, you're really unlucky to damage them so badly from such a short fall. But you know, and this is where we have to focus on the positives in life, he said, But yes, this is by way, but by father worst bilateral cocaine. In fact, I've ever seen without blown out
knees hips and broken back. So just count yourself lucky. Yeah, you're really unlucky that you've hurt yourself so badly from such a little thought, but you're really lucky that you've not got broken back. And then you've got a choice again, you know you do you focus on the ah, man, I'm really unlucky, this is really shit, or do your focus on the positives. And that's a conscious choice that we have. And I found myself in that pit of
kind of negative despair. One of the consultants came in and said, right, I'm going to operate on you tomorrow, and my immediate thoughts when can I climb and he just laughed and said, you're never climbing again. You're never going to walk without stick. Yeah, And that spiled me into that pit. But then about ten days later, another consult John Handley, he said, I'm going to rebuild your foot to the best of my ability, and what you do after that is down to you and no one else.
If you put the time and effort in, you will walk. You will. And he said, I'm not gonna say you're going to climb, but it's down to you and how much energy and bocus you put into your rehab. Yeah. And those two different approaches from those from those two different consultants, that was the tipping point from being in the pit of despair and self woe is me to all of a sudden, actually I can do this and I will do this and I want to do this. And that was really powerful. That was for me. And
I only realized this years later. Yeah, of course, not at the time. Yeah, not at the time.
The penny finally drops, doesn't it. When you do something you look back and you go wow, if I hadn't That's why I ask you in those moments, you know where your head was at and your mindset. But it's so important for people to realize that we have a choice.
I mean, for a while it was awful. Yeah, we have the choice. And you know, the other really powerful thing is is like negative motivation. And by this, I mean, what do you stand to lose? And when that first consultant said to me, you're never going to climb again, I saw my community as I knew it because I was so involved with climbing everything. My girlfriend climbed, all my buddies climb, My whole cohort were climbers. And I stood to lose my community as I knew it, and
that really scared me. And that was a huge motivator because I didn't want to lose that. I thought I was going to lose my community. I've got nothing, and that that was one of the big driving forces. That was I'm going to get on those parallel bars as soon as I can. I'm going to do those extra hyder sessions. I was going to go to the gym in the hospital and yes, pump weights, do the pull downs, do the there's certain exercises I could do build my core so that when I could get back on my feet.
Recovery is going to be that much quicker.
This is why I really wanted to touch on this because it's fascinating because, like you said, we have a choice, we have a we have a mindset as well. You know, do we do we go down the negative mindset of you know, being the victim, or do we do we really you know, stand up and fight for what we believe in, where we want to be, where we think we should be in life. And yours was on the mountains. Now, what was your first mountain after your injury that you
climbed and do you remember it? And was that was that a moment where you thought, you know what, I'm back on track now?
Well, I suppose there's two things. One is I got back into rock climbing, so that's something I could do as as soon as I could. I was actually standing in a wheelchair and I used to take myself down to climbing war in London. That was really steep and I could I'm up just literally just toe dapping, so just putting a little bit of weight through my feet, you know, and then I'll be lowered straight back down into the wheelchair. So you know, I got back into that quite quickly.
That's hardcore.
Mate, that is hardcore, but you say that, But I didn't want to lose a community. I just wanted to be around, you know, my friends, my cohort, that those people that sort of elevated me, you know. And if you can't go to the climbing wall, if you can't climb, well, now your friends will come out and see you. But at the weekends there or on a Wednesday night, they're all down the climbing wall, and that's where I wanted
to be. I wanted to be among those people that uplifted me and supported me as much as I could. So my first proper foray back into the big mountains, it was a dear friend of mine, Alan Powell, had this idea of a new winter line in the Alms, and you know, we went down and we started to climb on Christmas Day and it was a hard rou It took us, I know that three or four days. I forget now, and the story behind it is all a bit of an epic. But we managed to do it.
And that was my first real reintroduction into the mountains and it kind of proved to myself that yeah, I had to approach things in a slightly different way. I had given myself more time to do the walk ins to get to the bottom. I would always have problems moving away from a bla. So you strap yourself to the mountain and you wait there for what can be hours, where your mate goes up and places all the ropes and things like that, and moving away would be hard
because my ankles or my would seize up. So those first movements were very clunky, but you learn to adapt to what you have. And that was wow, I can do this and I will do this, and that was the green light and it just started to snowball from there.
When did Mount Everest first come into your mind? When do you think, right, I'm going to I'm going to take on there, I'm going to stand on the apex of the world.
Not for a long time. I mean it was late two thousand and three and so so after the accident, what I did, when I realized I could do again, you know, I just was consuming climbing, That's all I did. I was working on building sites and I was just doing multiple expeditions, you know, to Greenland, to the Himalayas,
to Pakistan. I just couldn't get enough of it. And it was on the back of a quite a groundbreaking expedition to Nepal in two thousand and three, and we with the three of us, and we climbed this big new route. I think it was the second or third descent of Annapurna three, so just under eight thousand meters. We were on it for ten days. We ran out food, we ran out of fuel, and you know, it took it took all of us to a super dark place
and it actually it was really interesting. It actually affected our friendships because we went so deep that when we came out of it, we had issues sort of connecting with one another again because we all had our own journey in the darkness. And that was that was quite enlightening on how relationships can be affected by personal journeys. Even though we were three of us together and in theory going through the same journey, it was very very different for three of us. Anyway, we got quite a
lot of the claim for that. And on the back of that, one of the British guiding companies who was already working for hung me up and he just said, would you entertain going to ever it's for us? And I had to think about it for about a nanosecond, and I just said yes, And that was the starting starting point of it. I mean, Everest had been beyond my financial capability, and to be honest, it was something which didn't interest me because it wasn't technical hard climbing.
It was just never in my wheelhouse. And then it became so obvious that, you know, show me one climber who can, honestly, hand on heart say that at some stage in their career or their life they haven't thought about going to Everest. And that was probably November December two thousand and three, and I found myself on the mountain for the first time spring two thousand and four, feeling very out of my depth, not quite knowing how
it all works. Having a great Surdar is like the head Shirpo kind of tells you how it all works. And I loved it. I absolutely adored it, and I just wanted more.
And what was that first time standing on the summit? Take me back to that day, because of course you remember it. What was going through your head and how are you feeling emotionally?
It was a little bit more complicated than simply get in there and I'm there with a client. We got We've got sherpas around us. But back then now what we had to do was the rope was only fixed to the balcony, and whoever went first the first team had to fix the rest of the rope from the balcony to the summit. And we were the first bloody team to go. And it's like Jesus, So, you know, we're laying all this robe and we're having to fix
the rope and you're trying to look after a client. Anyway, we get above the hilly step and the summit is just there. It's like, we're going to do this. This is like off the chants. And suddenly I kind of look around and the sherpa who I'm with, he slowed up, and I found myself on my own. There He's only like twenty thirty yards behind me, and he had deliberately slowed up to give me the opportunity of my first summit on my own. And I can never thank him
enough for that. It was such a beautiful thing to do for somebody else. So in two thousand and four, I was the first a summit and I get there and I just can't believe it. Now I start looking around and you've been there you know what it's like. I mean people say, explain that you can't describe the view. I mean, it's just and it's so crystal clear. The sky is so dark blue. I mean you are nearly nine thousand meters above sea level. This is where airliners fly.
I mean, Jesus, it's just blow my mind. And then Pemma comes up and you know, and there's hugs, and I'm quite an emotional dude, and there's like layers of tears and uh, you know, gott to ring my mom. I gotta ring my mom and dad and get the SAP phone out and plug the number in. And Mom picks up the phone and yeah, I don't know, it's like nine o'clock in the morning in the porch. It's like four o'clock in the morning in the UK or something like that. And she's like, oh, who is it.
And Jesus know who's going to ring at four o'clock in the morning, And like, Mom, Mum, it's me. It's me. It's me. And she's like, oh, hi, dear, how are you all right? Yeah? Yeah, I'm great, I'm great. Listen mum, And then she how is that chest infection? Oh? Yeah, yeah, it's pretty good, you know. It's the Yeah, yeah, I'm feeling in bed as you're now. Where are you right, my mama? Mom? Top of the world. It's amazing. I can see for miles. This is great.
That's nice there. Now listen, your dad couldn't sleep, so he's going to walk the dog. Maybe you can call back in half an hour.
And just totally brought back down to earth by your mum.
Yeah exactly.
And yeah, and I, ma'am, I don't think I can. Maybe I can call back from the top cab. Well, your dad would really appreciate it. Call maybe chat later now keep warm. It's like you have put the phone down. And I just thought, yeah, that wouldn't happen.
To like beg girls, what it I mean, that's like yeah, but that didn't detract from it. And then they're sitting there and I just thought, I got to use this opportunity because I may never be back here, so I've got to soak it in. And I've got to look around and see what mountains are out there that look amazing. And I could climb and look at it's one mountain
down there. And when I say down there is like properly down there and I'm looking at Wow, Jesus, that's how my dad Lamb and I climbed down my Dablin back in two thousand or two thousand and one. I thought, wow, that's a beautiful mountain, and I thought, that's two thousand meters two vertical kilometers underneath me. And when I climb down my dablam in two thousand, people check the base gap.
It dominates. It's this mountain that's right up there. And then it hit me how high we actually were, eight thousand, eight hundred and forty eight meters above sea level. Just unbelievable. So then that's my memory of standing on the summit
for the first time. It's just being blown away by the insignificance of who we are and what we do, and no matter how much we try, our their mass to screw this planet up with you and I don't care if there's naysayers out there with global warming and climate change and stuff like that, but we are having an effect on our planet. And stood there feeling so insignificant, just looking around and seeing the wonder of what lay beneath me was so humbling. It was just incredible and
absolutely incredible. I'm sure, in the same way that you felt that on the mountains that you climb.
Yeah, I felt that on k too, because it was the reverse of my Everest climb. But the reason why I ask you why you felt what you felt on your first summit of Everest is because it was obviously phenomenal because it led you to go back seventeen more times. You have summited Everest eighteen times, Kenton. That's surely that's a record.
I mean a lot of people say, oh, well, that's a record, and it's not really a record when you look at some of the sherpers. I mean, it's a non SHERPA record for what that's worth. But I think it was Kinny An, the the ultra Runner, the sky Runner, the Pyrenean like legend. No. And he said just a few years ago that the records don't really have a belonging in the mountains. And the reason why I said
that is because the mountains are constantly changing. It's not like if you run one hundred meters, it's always a set distance on a set track with a set wind speed, and if the windspeed becomes too great, then the records not not validated. And if you then you know, overlay that into the mountains. The mountains are never the same. It's impossible. So so he argues that the records in the mountains are meaningless, and I think is absolutely is absolutely right, And we see a lot of record chases
these days in the mountains. They want to be the first. It's all Bulgearian on a pogo stick, you know, And that's absolutely groovy for the individual. And if that's what you to do, more power to you.
But that's everywhere, I think, and I've seen it as well, and that's you know, that's the thing that it's evident on the mountains, on the bigger mountains, on the commercial mountains. You know, people want to be the first expedition to get up there to say that they're the first exit. People want to be the first ones to fix. People want to be the first ones to be that Like you said that the Bulgarian poso sticker who's done the
backflip on whatever it may be. It's getting to a stage where one is I think is overcrowded in the mountains, but two, it has become extremely dangerous for those who actually want to climb, who are there for the right reasons.
Yeah, and mostly, if not all, those records are meaningless, and the only record that really means anything, I think on the mountain is the first ascent who climbed the mountain first tending and here to be back in fifty three, and then potentially the first ascent of a specific route on the mountain, because that's important, you know, who opened
up the new routes. But yeah, exactly was the oldest, the youngest, the fastest, the that's kind of irrelevant because I mean, yes, perhaps it's meaningful to the individual, but in the wider context of the sport, it means nothing. You know. Okay, so you're the first ball gearing on a pogo stick, more power to you, but actually, who cares.
Let's talk K two briefly, because you're touring around the UK soon.
When your film's coming out soon, is it not? I'm waiting for.
What documentari is coming out on Channel seven.
Briefly, I mean, I know, I know we up against it with time, but just briefly, maybe you should explain to the audience about K two, just very very briefly, what was your experience there?
Yeah, for K two, for me, it was a lot more technical. You know, it's a lot more. I think, a lot more dangerous because as you know, you've got the camps, all the lines, you've got to camp one, Camp two, camp, you know, any of the Mainly the rock full was absolutely leaf along K two. The more people you have on the mountain, the more rockful there is because of people climbing in front of you.
But but the trek to get there, I mean it's just off the charts. I mean the bratora glass.
I mentioned it in my documentary. It is the most brutal I've done it in three and a half days because you know, we were just we just bypassed all them, you know. And I tell you what, it was the most brutal base camp trek that I've ever done, you know, talk about you know there are the tracks were being swept away by the glacier water. You know that when the sun was shining, we were going, oh no, because we knew we're in for hard days, so we'd leave nice and early.
But is it sensational? I mean it's such a core dynamic plot Pakistan.
It's almost untouched as well. You know, do you want a base camp trek? There was nothing, you know, we were just you'll see for the document. We were just by ourselves, myself and one sherpa and that was it, you know, no one to be seen of it was.
It was phenomenal.
And then the climb itself. Yeah, what I loved about the climb is it was so outside of my technical I really had to think about it because you know, you're hitting the pyramid, you're hitting the chimney, you've got the bottleneck where you dig where you are, you're digging in and you know, and I was frantically digging in like a nutter. But what a climb mat I really really enjoyed it. It tested me beyond and it made me realize how how untechnical I was. You know, I
thought that, you know, I went through mountain trus. I thought done my apprenticeship, you know, climbing mountains when I was young, Snowden, et cetera, ben Nevis. All through the military, I was mountain troop danak On Caagua, Dan Alberiz. Do you know, I thought, you know, a smaller, smaller, smaller apprenticeship. But it didn't, it didn't really you know. Then obviously Everest and K two, the K two CA. You know, I wish I would have done a bit more because I could have enjoyed it a lot more.
I loved my trip there. I went there at twenty one, and I just adored it because there weren't that many people then were coming out of COVID. There's only about three teams on the mountain and it was everything I ever hoped for, was that expedition. It was just beautiful and wonderful.
Listen, thank you ever so much, mate, phenomenal individual. Like I said, I've had the privilege of spending time with you and being with you mate, and yeah, you're certainly the mystical that is in your surname. But listen, mate, thank you so much, and us no, it's a pleasure man. My guest today was Kenton Cool. To find out more about Kenton ted tokentoncool dot com and make sure you check out his podcast, Cool Conversations. Thanks for listening to
this episode of Headgame. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend. I'm at Middleton. I'll see you again next time.