UKC

It appears that Simon Yates and Mick Fowler have had an epic on their latest trip to the Himalayas. Apparently an abseil anchor failed and they had a bit of an epic getting back. Not seen it posted on here yet or perhaps I missed it.

In reply to Sean Kelly:

I caught Mick Fowler's post about it on his Instagram. Sounds like a very interesting trip!

"Memories this year include poisoning ourselves on freeze dried food, discovering much of our remaining food had gone off, reduced rations for 4 days, no food for 6 days, deep whiteout snow, no summit, a difficult retreat, a broken Abalakov screw, a failed abseil anchor, 5 broken ribs and 2 crushed vertebrae for Simon, much lost kit, 2 shelterless nights, one shared sleeping bag... and a painful walk-out assisted by a Tajikistan rescue team."

In reply to Sean Kelly:

Heard the r4 interview, it was quite good, no stupid questions from the interviewer etc... measured replies about how poor decisions when very tired and hungry can lead to errors. 

In reply to Sean Kelly:

There was a full article about it in the Times over the weekend.  Good write up and no sensationalism. 

Sounds a real epic and great they are both back safe

In reply to Sean Kelly:

Do you know what time it was on (approximately)? Would be good to listen but the previous schedule is in pretty big time chunks!

In reply to James Malloch: I am guessing g this was on the today program ? I would also like a rough idea of time . For anybody else if somebody gives me an idea of time I’ll try to post a link later unless the OP has time ?

In reply to James Malloch:

some time between 08:15 and 08:45am I think. I didn't look at the clock

In reply to Sean Kelly:

Full details here. An interesting report u like so.e of the media.

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/media/files/international/2023%20expeditions/Patkh...

In reply to Sean Kelly:

Refreshingly intelligent, though short, interview for a main news programme.

In reply to nathan79:

I think you've buried the lead there which has to be Mick's photo of his nalgene bottle filled with "liquid poo".

In reply to Sean Kelly:

Does anyone have any insight on the issue with the freeze dried meals? I use these fairly often and I've never had issues. I thought the point was that they can't spoil? Is it fat going rancid or what?

In reply to wjcdean:

Yeah, it might have been their and finally item. 

In reply to mike123:

Yup, last item on Today prog (25/09/2023). It was broadcast just before 9am so it is at the end of the programme at approx 3 hours in.

Try this link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qt6h

Well worth a listen IMO

In reply to Suncream:

I'd be sort of interested to here about how this can happen.  Only because it happened to me a few years ago! I was camping at the Culra bothy for a few nights and tucked into my freeze dried chicken korma, only to discovered it tasted like cleaning products, a bit 'bleachy'. I rather foolishly ploughed on as even though it was a pretty unpleasant experience I was hungry and didn't have much else and told myself that freeze dried meals couldn't possibly be off.  The next day I was S***ing through the eye of a needle as they say. 

In reply to Sceptical Bastard: thanks for that  . 02.55 in to be precise !

In reply to mike123: excellent to BS interview

In reply to Robert Durran: having been involved with a couple of climbing related news items in the national press it is a usefull metric of how much to trust  them . A story that you either know the facts or is about a subject that you know  quite a bit  about  .     If the coverage has the wiff of bs it probably is . I have a high opinion of the today program and I’m not at all surprised by this . Nor am I surprised that Simon would choose to go on there .

In reply to Suncream:

I'm interested in this as well. I had some Freeze dried up a mountain last week and it tasted of washing up liquid. It was 1 month past its date but I'd ignored that as I assumed not really a problem. 

Maybe I should chuck that big bag of uneaten Huel out :/

In reply to nathan79:

There's gotta be a good book in that. You reckon Simon knows any good writers?

In reply to Babika:

Interesting, the one that I ate that caused unpleasantness also tasted of washing up liquid. It's not a taste I'd associated with gone off food normally and I assumed some sort of freak contamination with cleaning products. But looks like not completely isolated.

In reply to Derry:

Joe Simpson, but it doesn’t merit a book, whereas Mick Fowlers achievements have.

In reply to Philb1950:

You may need to recalibrate your social media response filter, Phil! That probably didn't come across as you intended...

I'm looking forward to reading more about this in Mick and/or Simon's next book... 

b