Unwavering determination
Lying in hospital, the doctors said Bear came within a ‘whisper’ of paralysis and that his long road to recovery excluded any physical activity for years to come. Bear was devastated. ”I remember lying there during those long 18 months of recovery; my dream of climbing Everest felt a million miles away…I remember looking at the pictures my late father had given me of Everest years earlier, and taking them down. I dismissed the dream as something childish…”Though he felt defeated at the time, Bear refused to give up on his ambitions and with his trademark determination and positivity, started walking within months. Two years later, at 23, Bear went on to climb Everest, setting a Guinness World Record for being the youngest Briton to summit this ominous mountain. “I came away from Everest a very grateful, pretty broken person, never wanting to return. Four of my teammates had been killed: two from falling and two from the cold. It’s a big bad mountain. I still feel that way.”
