Mud Sweat & Tears - Bear Grylls [82]
I wondered what on earth had I let myself in for.
CHAPTER 75
I made it home in one piece, aware that however fit I was, I needed to be fitter still.
Everest would demand it and reward it.
Every moment I had was spent training and climbing in the mountains: Wales, the Lake District and the Highlands of Scotland.
That New Year I was invited to stay with one of my old school buddies, Sam Sykes, at his house on the far north-western coast of Sutherland, in Scotland.
It is as wild and rugged a place as anywhere on earth, and I love it there.
It also happens to boast one of my favourite mountains in the world, Ben Loyal, a pinnacle of rock and steep heather that overlooks a spectacular estuary. So I did not need much encouraging to go up to Sam’s and climb.
This time up there, I was to meet the lady who would change my life for ever; and I was woefully ill-prepared for the occasion.
I headed up north primarily to train and climb. Sam told me he had some other friends coming up for New Year. I would like them, he assured me.
Great. As long as they don’t distract me from training, I thought to myself. I had never felt more distant from falling in love. I was a man on a mission. Everest was only two months away.
Falling in love was way off my radar.
One of Sam’s friends was this young girl called Shara. As gentle as a lamb, beautiful and funny – and she seemed to look at me so warmly.
There was something about this girl. She just seemed to shine in all she did. And I was totally smitten, at once.
All I seemed to want to do was hang out with her, drink tea, chat and go for nice walks.
I tried to fight the feeling by loading up my backpack with rocks and heavy books, then going off climbing on my own. But all I could think about was this beautiful, blonde girl who laughed, in the most adorable way, at how ridiculous it was to carry Shakespeare up a mountain.
I could sense already that this was going to be a massive distraction, but somehow, at the same time, nothing else seemed to matter. I found myself wanting to be with this girl all the time.
On the third day, I asked if she would like to climb Ben Loyal with me – with anyone else who fancied coming along. None of the guys wanted to join me and I ended up with a group of three girls, including Shara. Hmm.
We spent two hours crossing the marshy moon-grass to reach the foot of the mountain, before starting up the steep slope towards the summit ridge. It was fairly sheer, but essentially we were still going the ‘easy’ way.
Within two hundred feet, half of the girls were looking pretty beat.
I figured that having slogged across the marsh for so long, we should definitely do some of the climb. After all, that was the fun bit.
They all agreed and we continued up steadily.
Before the slope eases at the top, though, there is a section where the heather becomes quite exposed. It is only a short, few hundred feet, and I wrongly figured the girls would enjoy a safe, steep scramble which didn’t require any ropes. Plus the views were amazing out to sea.
But things didn’t quite go to plan.
The first panicked whimper seemed to set off a cacophony of cheeps, as, one by one, the girls began to voice their fears. It is funny how quickly everyone can go from being totally fine to totally not-fine, very fast, once one person starts to panic.
Then the tears started.
Nightmare.
I ended up literally having to shadow the three girls who were worst struck by this fear, one by one down the slope. I had to stand behind them, hands on top of their hands, and help them move one step at a time, planting their feet exactly where I did, to shield them from the drop.
The point of this story is that the only girl who was super-cool through the whole mission was Shara, who steadily plodded up, and then just as steadily plodded down beside me, as I tried to help the others.
Now I was really smitten.
A cool head under pressure is truly irresistible to me, and if I hadn’t been totally besotted before, then our mountain experience