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FILM SPECIAL FEATURE
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
rally because they saw that it
was bringing a lot to our lives.
But it did seem unlikely that it
would ever happen, so we also
had people that where like,
“They‘re being dumb, why are
they wasting their lives on this,
on this giant climb that’s never
going to happen?”
I felt it most intensely from the
people that were encouraging.
And family and friends were
really a huge part of that.
Your climb attracted a huge
media interest. How bizarre did
it feel to have cameras on you
and people watching you all
over the globe while you are
challenging yourself with the
climb of a lifetime?
The media circus was one of
the weirdest things that has
happened to me. I’ve never
been someone who was hugely
comfortable being a public
person and suddenly I was like
really a public person.
Which was cool in a way
because it sort of validated the
obsession – we thought it was
cool for all these years but a lot
of other people just thought
it was crazy. But the fact that
everybody was so inspired,
was really great to see. Going
on every television network in
the US, and a lot of other ones
around the world, still felt quite
bizarre.
How did you find out that
the captor from Kyrgyzstan
survived?
We escaped from Kyrgyzstan by
me pushing our one remaining
captor at that time off a cliff
and us running for it. So, I left
Kyrgyzstan thinking I‘d killed
somebody. About 3 months
after we got home, a reporter
found out that the guy survived
and had been captured by
the Kyrgyz’s Military and was
imprisoned.
When they told me that he
had lived, I couldn’t believe it.
But we were able to validate
the news, and in a way it was
a relief. I was pretty broken
up about the fact that I had
thought that I’d killed somebody
so the fact that he didn’t die
definitely helped. I think what
was the hardest for me, was the
fact that I had it within me to kill
somebody.
I mean, it’s easy to think of the
rebels as being the enemy but
in a lot of ways I just saw them
as being a victim of their own
circumstances. Like, who‘s to
say that if I didn’t grow up in
their world I wouldn’t be doing
the same thing?