Bear Grylls

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Bear Grylls : biography

7 June 1974 –

In 2004, Grylls was awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve, 25/06/2012 www.royalnavy.mod.uk

Other pursuits

Everest

On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved a childhood dream by summit Mount Everest, a mere 18 months after breaking three vertebrae in a parachuting accident. At 23, he was at the time among the youngest people to have achieved this feat. There is some controversy around whether he was, as claimed, the youngest Briton to have done so, as he was preceded by James Allen—an Australian climber with dual British citizenship who reached the summit in 1995.Summit Magazine No. 40, Winter 2005, page 12 The record was subsequently surpassed by Jake Meyer and then Rob Gauntlett summiting at age 19.

Circumnavigation of the UK

In 2000 Grylls led the team to circumnavigate the UK on a personal water craft, taking about 30 days, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He also rowed naked for 22 miles in a homemade bathtub along the Thames to raise funds for a friend who lost his legs in a climbing accident.Blundell, Joanna, Telegraph.co.uk, 7 April 2003

Crossing the North Atlantic

Three years later, he led a team of five, including his childhood friend, SAS colleague, and Mount Everest climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite, on the unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat. Suffering weeks of frozen spray and icebergs, battling force 8 gale winds, hypothermia, and storms in an eleven-metre-long boat through some of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world including the Labrador Sea, the Denmark Strait, and the stretch made famous by The Perfect Storm, Grylls and his team were just barely able to finish the journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to John o’ Groats, Scotland.

Paramotoring over Angel Falls

In 2005, Grylls led the team ever to attempt to paramotor over the remote jungle plateau of the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the world’s highest uninterrupted waterfall. The team was attempting to reach the highest, most remote tepuis.

Dinner party at altitude

In 2005, alongside the balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal, leader of the Royal Navy Freefall Parachute Display Team, Grylls created a world record for the highest open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot-air balloon at , dressed in full mess dress and oxygen masks. To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps. This was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and The Prince’s Trust.

Paramotoring over the Himalayas

In 2007, Grylls embarked on a record-setting Parajet paramotor in Himalayas near Mount Everest. He took off from , 8 miles south of the mountain. Grylls reported looking down on the summit during his ascent and coping with temperatures of . He endured dangerously low oxygen levels and eventually reached , almost higher than the previous record of . The feat was filmed for Discovery Channel worldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK.Grylls, Bear, Telegraph.co.uk 19 May 2007 While Grylls initially planned to cross over Everest itself, the permit was only to fly to the south of Everest, and he did not traverse Everest out of risk of violating Chinese airspace.Martin, Nicole, Telegraph.co.uk 16 May 2007

The expedition evoked some controversy. Grylls initially reported on his blog to have broken a new world record by flying over Mount Everest, when in fact – though reaching a height greater than Everest – he did not actually fly over the top of the mountain but was in fact some miles away from it. Some explorers have cast doubts on the veracity of other aspects of the flight, such as its purportedly record-setting height, which would have put him into the "death zone" where the amount of oxygen in the air is insufficient to sustain human life.

Journey Antarctica 2008

In 2008, Grylls lead a team of four to climb one of the most remote unclimbed peaks in the world in Antarctica. This was raising funds for Global Angels kids charity and awareness for the potential of alternative energies. During this mission the team also aimed to explore the coast of Antarctica by inflatable boat and jetski, part powered by bioethanol, and then to travel across some of the vast ice desert by wind-powered kite-ski and electric powered paramotor. However, the expedition was cut short after Grylls suffered a broken shoulder while kite skiing across a stretch of ice. Travelling at speeds up to 50 km/h (30 mph), a ski caught on the ice, launching him in the air and breaking his shoulder when he came down. He had to be medically evacuated. JourneyAntarctica2008.com, 6 December 2008