Top 10 Expedition Highs

1. Lying beneath the stars in the Inylchek Valley, my first night out on my first big expedition
2. Cresting the final hill after 18 months’ preparation and 14 hours of cycling, swimming and running, to see a huge crowd gathered outside Thom’s house to mark our arrival
3. Reassembling my bike outside Stansted airport Arrivals to finish the cycle home that I’d started at the top of Norway
4. Boarding the Canmar Pride Europe-bound container ship at Montreal docks after driving 3,000 miles in three days from San Francisco (read more)
5. Simultaneously imbibing traditional lemonade, strawberry milk shake, an electrolyte replacement drink and cold mineral water in a petrol station forecourt at the end of three parched days crossing the Wahiba desert
6. Standing at over 5000-metres at the top of  Cerro San Francisco on my first day’s climbing in the Bolivian Quimsa-Cruz (the previous year’s expedition had brought zero summits)
7. The 530th ascent and final lap of honour up the RGS staircase with my work mates in tow to mark me having run to the height of Everest in five days at work
8. Slipping into an ice cube filled bath tub at the end of the day having run 45 miles from Zone 6 to Zone 6 on the Central Line
9. Being granted free access to food in a Kyrgyz market after four weeks of strict rations (I couldn’t stop eating for several months)
10. Waking up on the top of Glyder Fawr in Snowdonia to a perfectly tranquil and solitary sun rise after my first bivouac

What are your expedition highs?

(And lows?)