In this week’s episode of 6 Degrees from Jamie and Spencer, they’re joined by Bear Grylls who speaks candidly about the death of Spencer’s brother Mike on Mount Everest and becoming a mentor to Spencer throughout the ordeal.
Spencer tells Bear about reading his book when he was about ten and remembers the bit about Mike at the end and says: “That’s when you kind of appeared as a figure in my life.”
Bear replied: “He [Mike] was on the mountain the year after I was there, and I always feel it’s his record. I remember I was the youngest Brit at the time, and I feel he paid the ultimate price with his life up there. It really rocked me at the time.”
He goes on to explain how it shook him as dark side of high-altitude mountaineering and how it affected his confidence afterwards.
“I’ve felt your brother on my shoulder often,” Bear says to Spencer, “And I just want to say you’re amazing. You’ve had a really hard journey and I think you’ve faced it with courage, and I think Mike would be proud of you,” he adds.
Still talking about what happened to Mike on Everest, he explains that he knows how it came about because he was in a similar situation too when he was there: “I know exactly what he’d have been feeling there. And my heart breaks again for you with that. I just wanna say I’m always here for you, I feel your brother on your shoulder cheering you on, super proud of everything you’re doing!”
Jamie talks about watching Running Wild and ways to have a ‘number two’ when out in the wild.
Bear jokes: “Out of everything it comes back to how you take a crap in the wild!”
He also tells the story of how one of the guests they took on Running Wild saw the scar on his chest and asked if he’d got it from a crocodile or a shark – he didn’t, it was much less dramatic than that and you can hear all about it when you listen to the podcast on BBC Sounds!
