A 59-year-old Phuket resident is ready to tackle Europe's highest mountain -- and then maybe Everest
As he heaves off his 40-kilogram bag and glances at his watch, Bird scolds himself for finishing his training hike in under an hour.
“I need to slow down – I’m going to buy ankle weights today. That will stop me running,” the 10-year Phuket resident says.
In the 30-degree heat atop one of Phuket’s highest peaks, Bird shivers. He knows he has a monolithic challenge ahead: a climb 14 times the height of the 350-metre Nakkerd Hill – and a great deal colder.
Mont Blanc bestrides the French-Italian border and each year claims the lives of at least a dozen climbers trying to reach the 4,810-metre summit.
Bird insists he’ll be well prepared for the task, despite having only three years’ climbing experience – gained 40 years ago in his native England.
He’ll tackle Blanc with fellow Brit Harry Taylor, a former Special Air Service soldier who in 1988 became the first man to traverse the Pinnacles, on the Northeast Ridge of Mount Everest.
“Climbing at five kilometres above sea level in crampons in sub-zero temperatures will be extremely demanding for Les,” Taylor warns.
The pair plan to take the Peuterey Integral route, one of the longest and most difficult routes in the Alps, where wind speed can reach 75mph and temperatures drop to minus 20.
Bird will arrive in Chamonix Valley a month before the July 4 climb and undergo mountain training, including “avalanche awareness” and sliding down slopes at speed.
“Altitude sickness, hypothermia and exhaustion are all dangers, but slipping is my biggest fear,” he says. “Even experienced climbers have slipped on Mont Blanc and been unable to stop. They fall to their deaths in crevasses.”
It will take the duo eight days to reach the summit. Over the first three they’ll make increasingly higher ascents and then come back down, getting their lungs used to the thin air.
On Day 4 they intend to reach 4,000 metres and spend the night before descending.
And on the sixth day they’re aiming for the 4,810-metre summit, where they’ll plant the Thai flag and wait for dawn to begin their descent.
As Bird stoops into a dilapidated classroom in Phuket Town, 40 little faces look up, mouths agape. At six feet four inches he’s a giant to the students under the care of the Child Watch Phuket Foundation.
The classroom is a stone’s throw from Phuket Provincial Prison, where most of these children’s parents are detained.
Through his Mont Blanc challenge, Les hopes to raise Bt1 million for the foundation, which since 1998 has helped more than 1,500 youngsters with scholarships, day care and shelter.
“Fanatical” is how Bird describes his Alpine training regime. On Mondays he swims four kilometres from Bang Tao Beach to Koh Waeo Island. Three times a week he cycles 125km wearing a weight belt. He does three-hour runs and full-day hikes. He takes pleasure in pain.
“My friends stopped training with me years ago – they say I’m no fun,” he chuckles.
Bird has competed in seven Ironman competitions around the world over the past 10 years – marathon swimming, cycling and running – and placed first in Singapore last year among entrants in their 50s.
He moved to Phuket a week prior to his 50th birthday, and a few days before the Laguna Phuket Triathalon, which he naturally entered.
But even super-fit Bird knows his Alpine climb demands a different style of training. “A person can be a world-class athlete at sea level but become a vegetable at 4,000 metres,” he acknowledges.
Why does he put himself through such anguish?
“I have to do it. I don’t want to look back in five years and realise I missed my window.”
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Bank on Bird
Help Les Bird raise Bt 1million for Child Watch Phuket (ChildWatchPhuket.org) with a donation. The bank account receiving the money is called “ALPS-CHILDWATCH Fundraising”
Account No: 8190174339
Bank Name: Krung Thai
Bank Branch: Rassada Road
Swift No: KRTHTHBK
