A wake up call for participants, perhaps, more than country.

Whilst at university in 2003, myself and two friends travelled to the Kyrgyz Tien-Shan mountains. We hiked up and camped on the Inylchek Glacier at the base of Khan Tengri (6,995m) where we made two unsuccessful attempts on a first British ascent of Peak Gorky (6,050m).

This was my first adventure. My first expedition, my first time outside of Europe and only the third time I’d put on a pair of crampons.

And it was a complete failure.

We didn’t summit any mountains – stopped, instead, by food poisoning, a temperamental stove and a large lump of ice in the wrong place. We almost died on several occasions – a night spent sitting upright on a 45-degree snow slope, a slip on a rather steep bit of ice and a glissade that went horribly wrong. And we got our food calculations a wee bit wrong to the extent that I had to use my pen knife to divide and share a last remaining boiled sweet on our way to base camp.

In short, it was fantastic.

Those four weeks in the Tien Shan mountains remain some of the best of my life and there is little doubt that I would not be here today, doing what I’m doing now if it was not for this one eye opening trip.

My continued thanks go to UCL Expedition & Travel Committee for giving us the faith and support to take this first, important step.