March 9, 2022 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:09:51
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out! | |
| The Joe Rogan Experience. | ||
| Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day. | ||
| Well, hey man, it's a pleasure to meet you. | ||
| Hey, good to meet you. | ||
| Are we starting? | ||
| Yeah, we're rolling, man. | ||
| I like it. | ||
| No messing around. | ||
| No messing around. | ||
| I found out about your documentary from my friend Cam Haynes. | ||
| He's the one who told me about it. | ||
| He texted me and he said, it's fucking incredible. | ||
| And Cam is... | ||
| He does a lot of ultra marathons and he does like those 240 mile runs, those kind of things. | ||
| So he's one of those guys that like he appreciates someone doing something completely insane. | ||
| And so he turned me on to it. | ||
| He had glowing recommendations. | ||
| So I had to... | ||
| I had to check it out. | ||
| It's incredible what you did. | ||
| The documentary is insane. | ||
| Well, I must say, thanks, Cam. | ||
| First things first. | ||
| And here we are. | ||
| Did you enjoy the film? | ||
| I did. | ||
| I enjoyed it very much. | ||
| It's incredibly impressive. | ||
| You just came here from England, right? | ||
| You were explaining to me why you're in England. | ||
| Yeah, so... | ||
| There is a big thing called the Kayakas. | ||
| Going back into 206 years ago, the British, when they were trying to run over the world, take over the world, the British umpire was in India. | ||
| And when they were in India, they were trying to take over Nepal as well because it's a neighboring country. | ||
| But, you know, they didn't have luck. | ||
| They didn't have a chance. | ||
| So, at that point, what did the British government said was, hey, you know, we'll not attack Nepal anymore. | ||
| But, you know what? | ||
| Is there any chance we can have, you know, all these, you know, brave guys, you know, fighting for us? | ||
| And at that point, the Prime Minister, the government of Nepal were really, you know, sick of, you know, this heavy force coming with the artilleries, you know, the big guns and... | ||
| And attacking. | ||
| So they were like, you know what? | ||
| Yeah, we're happy. | ||
| So they made some sort of a truce and then Nepal joined in with England. | ||
| Yes, yes. | ||
| So now it's 206 years and it's a big thing for us. | ||
| So I grew up dreaming to be a Gurkha. | ||
| So that was my childhood dream. | ||
| And just to give an example, Joe, when I went for the selection, there were like 32,000 people applying for it. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| And only 230 can make it. | ||
| So you can do the race, how tough it is. | ||
| But yeah, you know what? | ||
| A lot of people say like, Nims, you know, you are here and you are successful and all that. | ||
| But you know, my success is not a coincidence. | ||
| Going back where I was, you know, specifically, you know, coming from a really humbling background. | ||
| I forget everything. | ||
| We didn't even have, like, flip-flops. | ||
| You know, forget the food. | ||
| We didn't even have, like, to eat meat. | ||
| We had to wait for, like, a big festival, like Christmas. | ||
| So coming from that super poverty to where I am, you know, sometimes people say, oh, yeah, Nimsh is this and that, you know. | ||
| It took me 38 years to be where I am. | ||
| People in America that aren't aware of the real poverty in the world and, you know, what people like to call the 1%. | ||
| People always like to use that term. | ||
| But in America, the 1%, we think of like very, very wealthy people. | ||
| If you look at the 1% of the world, if you make $34,000, you're in the top 1% of the world, which is incredible. | ||
| I mean, it's a very small amount of money. | ||
| It's almost like, what is $34,000 in America technically? | ||
| Is it lower middle class? | ||
| Is it lower class? | ||
| I mean, you're struggling. | ||
| You're struggling in America if you make $34,000 a year. | ||
| Wow, but that is quite a lot of money for the rest of the world. | ||
| For the country and like Nepal specifically. | ||
| Yeah, so I was going back to this story, Joe. | ||
| May I finish it? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, please. | |
| What I believe in is making things happen. | ||
| There's no excuses, right? | ||
| So my two brothers were in the Gurkhas and once they joined the Gurkhas, they were like, you know what? | ||
| I want my sister and my brother to go to the boarding school. | ||
| So they sent us to boarding school. | ||
| And my brothers are like my father. | ||
| My elder brother is 18 and a half years older than me. | ||
| So, wow. | ||
| So in this school, we are not allowed to leave the compound. | ||
| But I really wanted to be in the Gurkha. | ||
| So when I was 15, 16 years old, I used to wake up at 1 o'clock at night. | ||
| And I used to go, like, you know, without permission. | ||
| I used to run 30 kilometers in the morning before, like, anybody finds out. | ||
| And I come and pretend like I'm waking from my bed and I still, you know, walk with toothbrush and toothpaste pretending I have never left the compound. | ||
| But I had to make it work because I knew that the selection is so tough. | ||
| How old were you when you were doing this? | ||
| I was 16. I started when I was 15, so a year of training like that. | ||
| And so you just had it in your head like, listen, I'm going to be in a Gurkha. | ||
| I'm going to be in a Gurkha. | ||
| I have to get in crazy shape. | ||
| So I'm going to work out when no one knows. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| Because, you know, if the teacher would find out that I have left the compound, mate, they in Nepal, they beat like, you know, they beat the hell out of you. | ||
| Really? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And was there any other way that you could train? | ||
| Is there any... | ||
| Look, not really, because, you know, you start your, like, you know, school, like, if you stay in the hostel, you know, from 7 o'clock in the morning, and you have to have your presence over there, and then you finish around 4 o'clock in the evening, So it's a really tight schedule. | ||
| You study about 14 different subjects. | ||
| So, yeah, there wasn't really a way and many of my friends wouldn't know and many of my friends wouldn't probably do that. | ||
| But I knew that I had to push extra and I had to break that rules and that normal rules and regulation of school. | ||
| To achieve my goal. | ||
| And in 2003, I managed to join the Garakas. | ||
| And from there, the story goes on. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| So that was 2003. And that's documented also in the film, where your rifle Got hit with a bullet. | ||
| Yeah, so I'll tell you that story. | ||
| So, in 2003, I was in the Gurkhas. | ||
| Then, you know, coming from Nepal, we never know about the Special Forces. | ||
| You know, so I joined in the Gurkhas, and then we started hearing about names, you know. | ||
| There's like, you know, a thing called, you know, UK Special Forces, like SAS. And SBS. So SAS is equivalent to Delta in U.S. military. | ||
| SBS is equivalent to SEAL Team 6 in U.S. military. | ||
| And then they were saying, you know what? | ||
| These guys are like the badass. | ||
| They're like the real James Bond. | ||
| And I was like hearing. | ||
| And at that point, honestly, I didn't even know what real James Bond was. | ||
| So I started obviously looking more into it, doing more research. | ||
|
unidentified
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Wow. | |
| And then I found about, you know, the special boat service, which is, I mentioned, you know, like equivalent to your SEAL Team 6. So they operate from air, water, you know, underwater and land, everything. | ||
| So I was like, yes, I want to be part of that cool group. | ||
| And when I first talk about it, you know, all my friends, including my seniors, including captains and even some of the... | ||
| The senior rank that I look up to, like, you know, where I was like, you know what, I want to be like those guys, you know, some inspiring figures. | ||
| And they were saying, Nims is impossible, because no one has ever made this, you know, in the history of the Gurkhas. | ||
| And I was like... | ||
| Really? | ||
| And I said to them, look, it's possible. | ||
| And they started making jokes out of me. | ||
| Then it comes to a certain point where you don't talk about it anymore. | ||
| You start doing things. | ||
| And I will tell you this training regime, Joe. | ||
| I used to wake up at 1 o'clock in the morning. | ||
| What time did you go to bed? | ||
| I'll tell you now, mate. | ||
| So 1 o'clock I wake up in the morning. | ||
| Then I carry 75 pounds in my back and I run 20 kilometers. | ||
| With 75 pounds on your back, you were running? | ||
| Running 20 kilometers. | ||
| Then, I arrived at the military barracks. | ||
| Then I start my normal military running. | ||
| That could be, you know, eight-mile run or, you know, oscel training or whatever that military, you know, physical training is. | ||
| I do that. | ||
| Then, because I was with the engineers, that means, you know, I was on this, you know, kind of like building any structure finisher. | ||
| So the whole day, we're like, you know, plastering the wall and doing that. | ||
| So it's full on labor work. | ||
| And in the evening, I run that 20 kilometers back again, clean fatigue. | ||
| So clean fatigue means no bargain, but I run that distance back again to my house. | ||
| Quick foot, I go to the gym, and then I cycle 64 kilometers on the push bike. | ||
| This is one day? | ||
| One day. | ||
| And then, and then, you know, coming from Nepal, it's a landlocked country. | ||
| I had never swim. | ||
| Swimming is my, like, weakest thing. | ||
| And I front crawl swim. | ||
| 100 land in 25 meter pool. | ||
| And I did like that for 6 months, 6 days. | ||
| I never said, oh, today, you know, it's raining. | ||
| I never said, today I'm tired. | ||
| I never said, today, you know, there's a snow outside. | ||
| Never. | ||
| And it was like that. | ||
| Where did you get that kind of determination? | ||
| Where do you think that came from? | ||
| You know, I truly believe that to break this barrier of, you know, a Gurkha, you know, to get into, I knew that I have to put more. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| The only big thing that the friends were saying was like, Nims, you know, it's not only about physical. | ||
| You need to have, you know, a great sense of humor. | ||
| You need to have, you know, common sense and all that. | ||
| So I was like, okay, then I start looking into English sense of humor. | ||
| And I was like, you know, so when you go in the selection, they will just like, the instructor, the DS we call it, directing staff would call it, hey, come here, fucking tell me a joke. | ||
| And the Nepalese joke is completely different to English sense of humor. | ||
| So every day I used to prepare different jokes. | ||
| And I used to go in front and I used to say like different jokes. | ||
| And this is how much I was prepared. | ||
| And this is how much I was willing to give. | ||
| And yeah, in 200 years of history, I've become the first Gurkha ever to pass the selection for SBS. That's amazing. | ||
| But what I'm getting at is like, when did you develop this kind of discipline and determination? | ||
| Is this something that you had from the time when you were a boy? | ||
| Do you know where this comes from? | ||
| It was very unusual. | ||
| What you're saying sounds so crazy. | ||
| I know you did it because I know you climbed the 14 peaks. | ||
| I know you did it. | ||
| By the way, that's the name of the documentary. | ||
| It's on Netflix. | ||
| It's amazing. | ||
| I can't recommend it enough. | ||
| It's really excellent. | ||
| But where did you get that kind of discipline and determination? | ||
| You know what, Joe? | ||
| I don't think it's a discipline. | ||
| It's a self-discipline. | ||
| And that's what it required to be where I am today. | ||
| But that is discipline. | ||
| That's what I'm saying. | ||
|
unidentified
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No, no. | |
| What I mean by that is, you know, like, yes, I like that you have to be disciplined. | ||
|
unidentified
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Right. | |
| For example, you know, if your parents is waking you up at 6 o'clock, you still wake up. | ||
| If you're in the ring or if you're training, you go and you still train, but your coach is there and all that. | ||
| That's not good enough. | ||
| You know, what I mean by self-discipline and equally with that, the self-motivation thing that I really believe was key in my part is being able to wake up when no one is looking at me, when no one is waking me up. | ||
| Being able to go and train when no one is looking at me. | ||
| So the self-motivation and that self-discipline is where I really started looking into and believing that NIMS, if you really want to do something in terms of breaking the boundaries and in terms of reaching your full potential, you have to be different. | ||
| And I started kind of planting that into my brain and this is how I have been where I am today. | ||
| So you just sort of willed yourself into the state of discipline, knowing that if you were going to achieve great things, you had to be able to work when no one was looking. | ||
| Exactly, exactly. | ||
| And so you just learned this as a boy? | ||
| You figured this out as a young man? | ||
| I think it was a kind of a development as a kid. | ||
| So when I was a kid, I wanted to be a GACA and then obviously that wasn't the same level of training as I did for when I went for the Special Forces selection. | ||
| But it's a like build up as I grew up through the age. | ||
| And I think it's that dream. | ||
| To be able to see yourself in that career stage. | ||
| So when I was in the Gurkha, I just dreamed to be... | ||
| When I was a kid, I wanted to be a Gurkha. | ||
| Then when I was a Gurkha, I wanted to be that Special Forces. | ||
| And you know what, Joe? | ||
| I never used to drink anything until I was 25 years old. | ||
| I was that much, you know, I was ambitious and motivated. | ||
| So when I passed the selection for SBS, I was like, you know what? | ||
| This is the biggest thing I could do in my life. | ||
| I'm a military guy and I'm going to drink. | ||
| And then obviously it went different. | ||
| I'm not alcoholic though. | ||
| So you started becoming a drinker after that? | ||
| Well, I started obviously celebrating differently and enjoying and all that. | ||
| Yeah, as you've seen on that movie on K2 and all that, I think which we will come a bit later on. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| Did you have any role models or anyone that you looked up to that was also disciplined when you were younger that you drew strength from? | ||
| Joe, look, I came from this background where we didn't even have a TV. You know, what we read in the book is limited text. | ||
| And it's all like, you know, that governmental text, you know, stuff. | ||
| But as I grew older, as I joined, you know, the Gurkhas, then Special Forces, they were like really... | ||
| Two people who I look up to, and the one was Muhammad Ali, and the second was Bruce Lee. | ||
| And then two people. | ||
| That's awesome. | ||
| And a lot of people say, Nims, you went into the mountaineering, you know, who inspired you? | ||
| And I was like, no one, because I didn't even thought I would go and climb until I was 30 years old. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So when you were young and you were running, when you were 16 years old, you'd get up at 1 o'clock in the morning, that was all just self-motivation? | ||
| 100%. | ||
| You didn't know anybody that was like you that did anything like that? | ||
|
unidentified
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No. | |
| That's amazing. | ||
| I just wanted to fulfill my dream to be a Gurkha. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And I think that was my motivation then. | ||
| It's incredible. | ||
| It's incredible that you had that much discipline early on. | ||
| And when I'm hearing about you running with 75 pounds on your back, all I'm thinking is like, how did you not destroy your knees? | ||
| Mate, there's only one superhuman. | ||
| That's right, he's standing in front of you, brother. | ||
|
unidentified
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That's a lot of weight to run 20 kilometers with. | |
| I think what it got me or what it balanced the whole thing was my swimming element because I used to swim, right? | ||
| And then even though my training was super intense and it's like, you know, the gravity, the friction part, but unknowingly I was doing, you know, 100 laps. | ||
| And I think because, you know, that is more for like flexibility and all this stuff. | ||
| So I think that just happened naturally. | ||
| Wow, that's incredible. | ||
| So, when did you decide that you were gonna do this 14 Peaks thing and then film this? | ||
| What was the moment where this idea came into your head? | ||
| So, Jode, obviously you asked me two questions. | ||
| Let me break down. | ||
| So, 2019, at this point, I served with the UK Special Forces for 10 years. | ||
| I've been around the world. | ||
| I have obviously done some crazy shit, you know, that people wouldn't probably see on the movies and all that. | ||
| So what happened in 2019 was... | ||
| I found the purpose. | ||
| And look, just to even put things into perspective, at this point, I had served 16 years in the British military. | ||
| I had only six years left to get the full pension. | ||
| So, you know, if you look from the financial perspective, You know, I'm really there to get the full pension. | ||
| But then I got this idea, like the 14 picks. | ||
| So why I'm doing this? | ||
| So I had two purposes. | ||
| The first one was Look, it doesn't matter where you come from, what your background is, whatever that is, you can literally show the world nothing is impossible, no excuses. | ||
| And the second one was, look, the Nepalese climbing community, the Seripas, are the king of a thousand years, but we never had the right, you know, like, credits. | ||
| And I wanted to raise the name of the Nepalese climbers. | ||
| And those two purpose... | ||
| Gave me the strength. | ||
| So what happened after that was Straight away, I went to the HR. I put my resignation and people went mental. | ||
| They were like, you know, my brother is specifically like, Nims, you know what? | ||
| You're so selfish. | ||
| Because at this point, I used to send, you know, a chunk of my salary every month to my mom and dad. | ||
| I really believe that when our parents, you know, they look after us when we were like kids and vulnerable. | ||
| And as I give back to them, when they get older, they're also invulnerable, they cannot work and all that. | ||
| So I was always, you know, like sending them money. | ||
| So when I decided about this project, And when I put the resignation, I know that there's no money going to them. | ||
| My brother went really mentally, like, Nims, you know, you are the most strongest financial contributor in our family. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| None of the Gurkhas have ever been there. | ||
| You should complete your career. | ||
| And I was like, no, brother. | ||
| And we didn't talk for three months. | ||
| Me and my brother. | ||
| He's like my father. | ||
| He's the one who sent me to boarding school. | ||
| I'm gonna slow you down here. | ||
| So you had this idea and because of this idea you decided to resign? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| This idea of climbing the 14 peaks. | ||
| When it first came in your head, what was your goal? | ||
| It was just to elevate the Nepalese climbers? | ||
| Was it to raise money? | ||
| Was it to raise awareness? | ||
| No. | ||
| So it was again literally to show the world that nothing is impossible. | ||
| There's no excuses. | ||
| But that's not a career, right? | ||
| So you're quitting your career to show the world that nothing is impossible. | ||
| I didn't only quit my career, my brother. | ||
| I put everything on the line. | ||
| And I'll go in details what I mean by that. | ||
| So I resigned. | ||
| It was really tough. | ||
| Look, I came from this completely different role, Special Forces background. | ||
| I had never experience of doing the fundraising. | ||
| And when I first started talking about the project, people were like, names. | ||
| It's not possible. | ||
| So for those people who don't understand what I was trying to do was... | ||
| So there are 14 mountains in the world above 8,000 meters. | ||
| And 8,000 meters is the death zone peak. | ||
| And the fastest someone... | ||
| Excuse me, 8,000 meters is what? | ||
| It's a death zone. | ||
| Death zone. | ||
| So the reason why it's called death zone is... | ||
| From that altitude, nobody can survive. | ||
| The human body is literally dying. | ||
| So that's why it's called the Death Zone Peak, because all those 14 are above 1,000 meters. | ||
| So you can only be up there for a very small amount of time. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So the fastest time was... | ||
| A week short of eight years, to be precise. | ||
| It was seven years, 11 months, and 14 days. | ||
| And the guy who tried to break that record broke it only by one week. | ||
| So that was that. | ||
| And then I said, I'll do that in seven months. | ||
| And people were like... | ||
| No, it's impossible. | ||
| Again, you know, those guys who are listening, just to put this into simple perspective. | ||
| So if the record for full marathon is now two hours, what I was saying there then was, I'm going to do that in 10 minutes. | ||
| And that's why nobody believed in. | ||
| And Joe, it was crazy. | ||
| I used to wake up at like four o'clock, write the email, take early train to London, meet all the entrepreneurs, corporate organizers, and peace them, repeat the same thing, come back home, quick food. | ||
| Then I write again in the follow-up email, hey, nice to meet you today, and follow-up email. | ||
| Let me stop you there. | ||
| Hold on. | ||
| So you have this idea. | ||
| You don't have any experience in filmmaking. | ||
| You don't have any experience in the media. | ||
| You have no experience in doing anything in the public eye. | ||
| No. | ||
| Everything you've done has been just grinding as a Gurkha, grinding as a special forces operator. | ||
| This is what you're doing. | ||
| And then you just decide, I'm going to do this and I want to make a movie about it. | ||
| Who do you contact? | ||
| How do you even start that process? | ||
| It was tough. | ||
| The first thing was to get the money to go and climb. | ||
| How did you even know how much money you needed? | ||
| The high altitude mountaineering is quite expensive. | ||
| Let's say even if somebody wants to do this, the whole 14 peaks, it will roughly cost around 2 million. | ||
| Two million dollars. | ||
| Two million dollars. | ||
| And because I was going as a very bare minimum, because I don't need that much support, I put roughly under a million margin. | ||
| And you know what, brother? | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| There was no funding. | ||
| After one year of going everywhere, and then what I did, the first thing was, When you say go everywhere, how do you even start? | ||
| I don't have any experience in that, so I don't know. | ||
| Who would I contact to fund a giant project where I'm going to climb 14 peaks? | ||
| I'll just give you this example. | ||
| One of the examples was I wrote a handwritten letter to the owner of Virgin. | ||
| I googled it. | ||
| Richard Branson. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And I write that in a very long letter, full hand written, and I cover that and put those in his stamp so that it will get his attention and nothing came. | ||
| So I was just going after everything, anything, from outdoor companies Outdoor clothing. | ||
| And this is already after you'd already quit your job. | ||
| I have already quit. | ||
| So I have already made the decision. | ||
| And that's why it was so stressful because now all my family are suffering because of my decision. | ||
| My poor wife, she was like, you know. | ||
| And for the first time, you know, like... | ||
| I had to suffer through this kind of, you know, like, the stress. | ||
| Look, mate, you know, I have done HR. I have been deployed all over the world. | ||
| I have operated in very, like, that split-second kind of, you know, like, environment where your decision has to be, like, bummers. | ||
| And that doesn't stress me out. | ||
| But here, it was mental. | ||
| How were you making a living? | ||
| It was like that. | ||
| How were you making money? | ||
| So at this point, we didn't have money. | ||
| You had no money. | ||
| So how were you eating? | ||
| How were you paying your rent? | ||
| So whatever we had, a bit of saving and all that, it was there. | ||
| So you were burning through your savings while trying to achieve this goal. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| And so what was the first thing that hit that let you know that this is possible? | ||
| Because I believed in it. | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| That's not what I mean. | ||
| What was the first thing where someone said yes, where someone said, I'll give you money? | ||
| No, so what happened was the funding was really, really struggling. | ||
| And what I did was, you know what, people don't believe it because... | ||
| Of course, in their eyes, you know, like what even Red Bull says, it's like swimming to the moon. | ||
| You know, so even when they say things like that, so of course, you know, people were like, oh, it's too much stuff. | ||
| Then what I did was I remortgaged my house and put every money I can put into this project. | ||
| And that was like only like less than, I would say 7% of the whole funding. | ||
| And this is before anybody's contributed. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| So you have no investors? | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| You don't even have Netflix. | ||
| Forget Netflix. | ||
| And I'll come into that story later on, brother. | ||
| So at this point, and eventually I started doing GoFunding. | ||
| I had like no social media. | ||
| So in March 2019, when I resigned from the Special Forces, I had no idea. | ||
| But I didn't even have Facebook, Instagram, anything. | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| So I had to learn how to do this, all this hashtag and everything. | ||
| It would drive me nuts. | ||
| Do you do all your social media? | ||
| Now still, yes. | ||
| So you reached out to me from social media. | ||
| That's actually you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Because I never know. | ||
| That was me. | ||
| I never know because I think it might be some assistant somewhere, a PR team. | ||
| I have a team now, but I still do my thing because it's authentic. | ||
| I do too. | ||
| I do my thing too. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| So going back into that one, Joe, what I really believed in was... | ||
| Okay, people don't believe now, but if I start climbing this mountain in the manner and in the style that I said I would do it, it's going to be possible. | ||
| So I took the flight to Nepal with 15% of the funding. | ||
| Then there were a bit of like a small, like, you know, I would say sponsorship came in, a few money from GoFundMe. | ||
| And at that point, when I fly to Nepal, I had 15% of the total funding. | ||
| So the first mountain I choose was Annapurna. | ||
| So in Annapurna is like where every four climbers who try to climb, three dies trying. | ||
| So that was my first mountain. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| This was the first time ever in the history of my life. | ||
| Hold on. | ||
| You said every four climbers, three die? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Isn't it every four climbers, one die? | ||
| No, that's not on Annapurna. | ||
| Really? | ||
| This is Annapurna. | ||
| That's K2. So most people die. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jesus! | |
| So this is like... | ||
| So that's your first one? | ||
| First one, and this mountain... | ||
| So I guess if you were gonna die, you're gonna die quick. | ||
| Let's just get it over with. | ||
| That's so nuts! | ||
| Now what are they dying from? | ||
| Are they dying from... | ||
| From avalanches. | ||
| It's the mountain where you see avalanches crumbling every minute. | ||
| That is so crazy! | ||
| Every four climbers, three die? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That sounds so insane! | ||
| Mate, that's crazy, that mountain. | ||
| Jamie's looking it up right now. | ||
| He's freaking out too. | ||
| No one's quicker at looking shit up than Jamie, by the way. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| This mountain, the big thing what I was trying to say, Joe, was... | ||
| How do you spell that mountain? | ||
| It's Annapurna. | ||
| Annapurna. | ||
| Annapurna, yes. | ||
| So how many people have climbed it, all told? | ||
| I'm not going to lie. | ||
| I have no clue. | ||
| Here it goes. | ||
| 32%. | ||
| There have been fewer than 200 summits of the mountain. | ||
| And 61 people have lost their lives. | ||
| So it's not quite that much. | ||
| No, you know what? | ||
| Because I changed that statistics in 2019. When I went there and set the fixed lines with my team, more than, I think, 50 people submitted in 2019. Right, but here's the stat. | ||
| Every three people reach the top, one person dies. | ||
| So you got it reversed. | ||
| That makes more sense. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| It's close enough. | ||
| It's still very, very dangerous. | ||
| It's not like it's less impressive. | ||
| Okay, you know what, Joe? | ||
| I'm not going to argue on that. | ||
| It's fucking Jamie. | ||
| He's a wizard, I'm telling you. | ||
| In last two years, I think there are around 80 summits. | ||
| I can't believe there's one. | ||
| What the fuck is wrong with these people? | ||
| Stay home. | ||
| So that is insane though, that that many people die. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| This was probably the first time in my history where I was out of my shape. | ||
| Because every energy I had was on the computers writing email and I was... | ||
| Oh, you were out of shape. | ||
| As you see on the movie, I was 10 kg heavier. | ||
| I hadn't trained at all. | ||
| And I was like, you know what? | ||
| You have insane cardio. | ||
| That's one of the things from the movie that was so evident. | ||
| You have very, very unusual cardio. | ||
| Do you think that some of that is you're just gifted? | ||
| Do you think that's from the training that you had when you were a young boy? | ||
| Do you think you just made yourself have insane cardio from those runs you did when you were 16 years old? | ||
| Because when they were doing that VO2 max test on you, that's insane, man. | ||
| Your cardio is like elite of the elite. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I think it's that muscle memory, you know, where I have been training, you know, since I was a kid and, you know, like non-stop. | ||
| And obviously, which, you know, we discussed earlier. | ||
| I think that's what it made me who I am today. | ||
| You know, the hard work, the training and training and training. | ||
| But Joe, you know, like, a lot of people think probably, you know, like, oh, yeah, Nims is from Nepal, he's from the mountains, and he climbed all this peak. | ||
| You know, I grew up in the most flat and the hottest part of Nepal. | ||
| How flat is it? | ||
| What's the altitude there? | ||
| It's almost like, you know, sea level, and it is like probably 40, 45 degrees hot Celsius. | ||
| Oh, that's very hot. | ||
| That's very hot. | ||
| Even the flies would die on the road. | ||
| Yeah, what is 45 degrees Celsius? | ||
| That's like 100 and... | ||
| Google it, buddy. | ||
| I want to say that's like 110. Thank you. | ||
| Is it higher? | ||
| Yeah, 113. 113? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh my God! | |
| It's crazy, mate. | ||
| And it's that hot. | ||
| Sometimes, you know, those... | ||
| And it's like sea level. | ||
| One of the things they were saying about the Sherpas is that they're so adapted to that area... | ||
| Environment, yeah. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| To altitude. | ||
| It's literally changed their genetics. | ||
| There's this... | ||
| They did this study on some of the Sherpas that assist the people on Mount Everest in particular. | ||
| And they said that they're so extraordinary... | ||
| That they were studying them. | ||
| They were saying it's literally had an effect on their DNA. Like living there and doing that and that this expression of being in that place, being in that environment has just made them just incredible specimens. | ||
| Yeah, I think that makes sense because it's like you're adapting, right? | ||
| The human beings. | ||
| We have been able to survive since in our existence. | ||
| It's pretty incredible. | ||
| And the dinosaurs haven't done because they can't adapt. | ||
| And if you live on that altitude, yes, that's correct. | ||
| I think the dinosaurs probably were adapting, but a lot of other shit went down. | ||
| I think it's like the dinosaurs were lazy. | ||
| They didn't train hard enough. | ||
| I think there was like a big rock that had something to do with that, but it's still extraordinary that, you know, like there was this thing about these Sherpas where they were able to do things with no oxygen, that where the people that had tried to go there, that's like, there's so much recreational climbing, particularly in Everest, and you documented that in that crazy photo. | ||
| We actually showed that photo the other day on the podcast. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Where it shows you and this insane line of people trying to get to the top. | ||
| It seems like that had to be the weirdest of the climbs. | ||
| Was that the weirdest one? | ||
| Can I tell you something, Joe? | ||
| I think I did even send you a message in anger like, Joe, you have posted my picture without credits. | ||
| That was a long time ago. | ||
| And you were like, sorry bro, it was from New York. | ||
| And I was like, yeah, but you know. | ||
| It was from the New York Times. | ||
| Yeah, yeah, New York Times. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| So there's one credit. | ||
| Or there's one photo rather. | ||
| Like that is crazy that they do it that way. | ||
| Like how many people is that? | ||
| It looks like a hundred people. | ||
| Yeah, so the one that I took is the other one on the right. | ||
| Yeah, that's the one that we showed. | ||
| Like that picture, how many humans is that? | ||
| So I think probably around, I would say 100 plus. | ||
| So if one of those guys falls, does everybody go like a pile of dominoes? | ||
| That's not good, right? | ||
| Well, the thing is, nobody's going to fall. | ||
| Nobody. | ||
| Listen, people fall. | ||
| Joe, can I put things into perspective? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Please do. | |
| And I think it's my chance to correct this story. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So, you know, when that picture came out, I heard a lot of negativity around the world. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| The human beings, we are so, so negative. | ||
| And I think even in the workspace, nowadays, specifically because of that picture, if some of the work colleagues summit Everest, we'll say, oh, now you know what Everest is like, you know, every turist going summit. | ||
| But let me give you this example, everyone who's listening to this, you know, podcast. | ||
| There are more than 2,000 people running London Marathon. | ||
| But just because that number is high, will that marathon be easy? | ||
| No. | ||
| So it still is Everest. | ||
| It's still tough. | ||
| Now moving into this specific story, what happened was 2019, it was unfortunately only one day where we had the good weather. | ||
| So there was a window of opportunity that everybody had to capitalize on. | ||
| Yes, everybody had to go. | ||
| And look, you know, imagine... | ||
| So that's unusual is what you're saying. | ||
| That's very unusual. | ||
| So imagine, like, if you're on Everest Base Camp, you know, staying at 5,400 meters altitude for two months, and you have to train. | ||
| To be able to go and summit, as in like the acclimatization. | ||
| So you have to go to Cam 1, you sleep. | ||
| You have to go to Cam 2, you sleep. | ||
| Touch Cam 3, get back down. | ||
| And that takes five weeks. | ||
| And then now you wait for the summit weather window. | ||
| And if there's like one summit opportunity, Ladies and gentlemen, look, not every people who go on Everest are rich. | ||
| You know, people sometimes put whole of their savings into Everest because it's a very expensive expedition. | ||
| People take loans like what I did in 2016. So people want to get that opportunity. | ||
| And that's why it was particularly in 2019 that happened. | ||
| But nobody really died of that. | ||
| But obviously the big newspaper wanted to sell their headlines. | ||
| So they were saying, oh, all this and that. | ||
| All this and that. | ||
| But that photo is crazy. | ||
| It is. | ||
| I mean, if you're just a person looking at that, I know you took it. | ||
| We talked about it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| But if you look at that photo, I mean, that is an insane image. | ||
| There it is, New York Times, 2019, May. | ||
| So when you were there and you took that photo, you had to know that that's incredibly unusual, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| So what was the negativity? | ||
| People were saying that too many people are going to Everest? | ||
| Too many people on Everest and all of this stuff. | ||
| That criticism has existed for years, particularly because of the human feces that's left up there, right? | ||
| There's a lot of human waste that's left up on the mountain, along with bodies, right? | ||
| They leave the bodies up there, which is kind of crazy. | ||
| I had a bit about that back in the day. | ||
| To that note, Zoe, I have announced the Big Mountain Cleanup Project. | ||
| So we cleaned Manaslu last year in September. | ||
| It's a thousand meter peak. | ||
| This year, we're going to go and clean all the rubbish from Gamfo, which is at the death zone. | ||
| It's at a thousand meters. | ||
| So there are loads of rubbish. | ||
| So you're going to go to clean the rubbish at the death zone? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| How much time can you spend at the death zone before you, you know, die? | ||
| For me, I can live there, Joe. | ||
| You can live there? | ||
| Yeah, it's NIMS die. | ||
| So most people, forget about you Superman, but most people, how much time can they spend at the dead zone? | ||
| So it all depends. | ||
| Sometimes people literally die because if they haven't climatized properly, but you can't really live there, Joe. | ||
| You are literally dying. | ||
| You have to see, like for example, the decision, how I can explain to everybody is like, it's like you're drowning in the sea. | ||
| Like everybody's in a survival situation. | ||
| But some of us who can outperform that, we can see, as soon as I get there, I can say, okay, he's in his limit, he's in our limit. | ||
| So I can see from that big overarching umbrella point of view. | ||
| Yeah, because it's the element. | ||
| It's like really thin air. | ||
| Well, you talked about it in the film where you got cerebral edema from being at altitude and you were having hallucinations. | ||
| So that's what starts? | ||
| Is that what starts the process of people dying? | ||
| Is that like the beginning stages of it? | ||
| Yeah, so I think that's a bit later. | ||
| So how it happens is, so the one that you talk about is, we call it HACE. That's High Altitude Cerebral Edema. | ||
| So that means you develop a fluid in your brain, and then after that, of course, the brain doesn't work properly. | ||
| How long does it take for you to recover from that? | ||
| You have to go down as quickly as possible. | ||
| While you're still alive. | ||
| The faster you go down, there's more chances of survival. | ||
| And the only cure for that is to go down. | ||
| And so is it just a factor of how much time you spent at that high altitude? | ||
| Is that what gave you haste? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And for my story, it was different. | ||
| Because on Annapurna, we had summited. | ||
| We got back down. | ||
| And we're supposed to go and climb Daulagri. | ||
| So the second mountain on my list. | ||
| The weather was perfect. | ||
| I was meant to go there. | ||
| But then I called this message saying, Hey Nims, Dr. Chin is alive above Camp 4. So... | ||
| Say that again? | ||
| So Dr. Chin, he was, you know... | ||
| There was a guy that was stuck up. | ||
| That was a guy that was stuck up. | ||
| Right, and that's in the film. | ||
| That's in the film. | ||
| So, look, I have never left anyone behind in my career in the Special Forces and in the Gurkhas. | ||
| And I know for this project, I had put everything down on the line. | ||
| But I knew that, you know, I was in my ability to go and save him. | ||
| So I put, again, I put all of my missile into Riks again. | ||
| So me and my team went, we rescued him, and we took him to the hospital. | ||
| But because of that, we missed the good weather in Dhawlagri. | ||
| So normally I climb one 8,000-meter peak in 18 hours. | ||
| Dhawlagri, it took us five days. | ||
| We didn't sleep at all. | ||
| We're like, keep pushing, and you can see on the film as well. | ||
| The weather was terrible. | ||
| And after the summit of Daulagri, we got back to Kathmandu, and there was one Chinese billionaire who said, Nims, I might go and climb Kanchanjangha, which is my third mountain. | ||
| So he was like, would you guide me? | ||
| And I was like, okay, because we didn't have the money. | ||
| Can I stop you? | ||
| Because we're going too far. | ||
| I want to go back to Hays. | ||
| Yeah, so I'm gonna tell you that. | ||
| So he said like, okay, can you guide me? | ||
| And I was like, okay, so we didn't have the money. | ||
| So I said, okay, I can guide you. | ||
| So, you know, obviously, all my Chinese friends, they started bringing these drinks, and we partied till 6 o'clock. | ||
| Now, day 5 plus, I haven't slept. | ||
| At 6 o'clock, he bailed out. | ||
| So then I'm going into this... | ||
| So he decided not to climb? | ||
| Not to go. | ||
| So I had to go anyway. | ||
| He was drinking with you? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| I was drinking. | ||
| And so, you know, fully hungover, I went to the airport and I had to go to Kanchenjunga. | ||
| And we climbed Kanchenjunga. | ||
| That was probably one of the craziest, you know. | ||
| It was so cold, like so sleepy. | ||
| We used to put snow in our armpit, you know, slap ourselves, all that. | ||
| So to get into your point, so I haven't slept for six days. | ||
| Summited, got back down and at 8,450 meters, we found a climber. | ||
| He was out of his oxygen. | ||
| So I got my oxygen out and I give him immediately the oxygen. | ||
| So I'm now out of oxygen, okay? | ||
| So just to put into the science here, Normally you climb without oxygen when you are acclimatized. | ||
| I was never acclimatized to that altitude. | ||
| So let's say on Everest or even in K2, you have to sleep at CAMFO without oxygen so that your body is acclimatized, you are building more red blood cells. | ||
| I didn't have done that. | ||
| So giving my oxygen, I knew that I could do it, but I knew it was a very, very high risk. | ||
| So I gave him my oxygen and we started bringing him down. | ||
| Then another hundred meter down, we found another guy. | ||
| Oh, Jesus. | ||
| So we started bringing these two people down. | ||
| And then there were people at CAM4, more than I think 60 people at CAM4, who went to like Summit Pus, like going from CAM1 they sleep, CAM2 they sleep, CAM3 they sleep, CAM4 they sleep, Summit and then back to CAM4. And they were not in the situation like us at all. | ||
| You know, our story is completely different. | ||
| It's like fast track, we haven't slept for six days and all that. | ||
| I went onto the radio and I begged for help. | ||
| Is there any chance can somebody bring us the oxygen? | ||
| And nobody came, man. | ||
| And it came to that point where people started turning their radio off. | ||
| They just let you die up there? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Is that just because it's so dangerous that they weren't willing to risk their lives? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| So, and I could get it. | ||
| Look, I'm not here to blame anybody, but, you know, a lot of people say, you know, like, yeah, they're badass and all that. | ||
| They can talk in the social media, but they all were at CAMFO. You know, they were earlier, they were well-rested, and they could come and help in another sense. | ||
| How far was the trek to get to you? | ||
| So, to come up with oxygen, I would say three hours. | ||
| That's it? | ||
| Three hours. | ||
| And they wouldn't do it? | ||
| Nobody would come. | ||
| Did you talk to them when you came down? | ||
| Nah. | ||
| Fuck you, right? | ||
| Yeah, it was mental. | ||
| So at that point, what happened was one of my brother, Gesman Tamang, team member, he started getting frostbite. | ||
| So I had to send him down. | ||
| So now it's me and Mi'kmaq David. | ||
| How do you tell when someone's getting frostbite? | ||
| It's so cold that, you know, you can't even, like, feel your toes. | ||
| Right? | ||
| So I had to send him down because otherwise I was going to have more casualty. | ||
| Then, Mikma David, who is my right-hand man, is like, Nim's brother, you know, I think I'm having haste as well. | ||
| I cannot even, like, think properly. | ||
| And I was like, fuck. | ||
| So I sent him back down. | ||
| So now it's me and then these two guys. | ||
| So we're like bringing him down and then... | ||
| Are these two guys mobile? | ||
| Can they walk? | ||
| No, we're dragging them, brother. | ||
| So one of the guy, before I sent Mi'kmaq, he died in our arms. | ||
| The oxygen finished? | ||
| Literally 15 minutes later he died and that was terrible because we put so much energy and it wreaked our life to bring him down and he passed away. | ||
| He passed away and then here's you, no oxygen. | ||
| No oxygen for like almost now 11 hours and then and then now I got this guy and this is when you know like I started seeing things, like, you know, like, you know, in the book, Beyond Possible, I have mentioned, like, you know, I thought he was a yeti. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So I was really scared. | ||
| So I was doing that, like, and he's still trying to function. | ||
| Come on, Nims, you know. | ||
| So I was looking for my, even, exit route. | ||
| How can I run away if he comes and attacks and all that? | ||
| So that's like, you know... | ||
| So you really thought it was a yeti? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| I was very scared. | ||
| I was like, you know... | ||
| What did you see when you were hallucinating? | ||
| Mate, it was like a big, you know, like... | ||
| Giant hairy thing? | ||
| Giant like thing, you know, like where you imagine, right? | ||
| Do you think that that's what the Yeti is? | ||
| That it's people with high altitude sickness and they see these things? | ||
| I really don't. | ||
| I can't comment for others, but... | ||
| But doesn't that make sense? | ||
| Because you saw it and you had high altitude sickness. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| So that was crazy, man. | ||
| And yeah, eventually now getting into your question, did I speak to anybody? | ||
| No. | ||
| I had enough with those people. | ||
| I got to base camp. | ||
| Out of four people, we helped to survive on that day. | ||
| And I went to Everest. | ||
| So two survived and two died? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Jesus. | ||
| So, but you're still determined to do this. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And then, yeah, I went to Everest and then... | ||
| Did you ever think of doing it with like less people so that you don't have to be involved with other people that could trip you up like that? | ||
| But you can't stop people going on the mountain, right? | ||
| It's the nature. | ||
| Right. | ||
| There's no time where you could just... | ||
| No timing, nothing and all that. | ||
| You know, you just deal with how it comes. | ||
| Right. | ||
| And there's always people trying to summit. | ||
| Always, always. | ||
| Yeah, all day long, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Every day of the year. | |
| Every season, every season. | ||
| So people climb Everest in spring season because that's where the weather is really good. | ||
| Then they climb K2 in summer, that's when the weather in Pakistan is good. | ||
| And there's like a season where the weather is good and there's always people climbing. | ||
| Do people try to climb it out of season? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| They climb it when the weather's bad? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Is it a cheaper vacation? | ||
| It's a bit more cheaper. | ||
| Yeah, you nailed it there, man. | ||
| So, at this point, when you first started doing this, when you first climbed the first two peaks, did you have funding by then? | ||
| Did you know that you didn't? | ||
| Every time, you know, I go to OnePig, we summit, and then there's a GoFundMe page, and then people are sharing, and, you know, a good friend of mine, you know, who was in a program called SES Who Does Win, he started posting and supporting, and then people giving £20, £30, and eventually, as soon as I climb one mountain, there will be money for her to climb the second mountain. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| Look, the whole thing here was I wasn't only climbing this mountain, but I was managing my social media. | ||
| I was doing the fundraising. | ||
| I was managing the team dynamics. | ||
| I was doing the logistics. | ||
| So as soon as I'm on this one, I have to think about what's happening on another mountain. | ||
| And the big thing here is the flaming of the project, which I'll come into a bit later. | ||
| The what of the project? | ||
| The flaming. | ||
| Filming. | ||
| Yeah, thank you. | ||
| You know, with that thick accent. | ||
| I thought you were saying flaming. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, you know, look... | |
| When I was a kid, we didn't even have a TV in the house. | ||
| As a kid, I used to go around to neighbor's house to watch the television and they would say, hey, get lost. | ||
| But from that point, today, I produce the biggest mountaineering film ever in the history. | ||
| So what I'm doing right now is not only about climbing. | ||
| Climbing is the easiest thing I have done. | ||
| So the whole of the 14 peaks It was my vision. | ||
| It was my idea. | ||
| We didn't even have the production crew. | ||
| I was climbing and flying the drone at the same point. | ||
| I was making sure that the teams were in the right place to capture the content. | ||
| All of this. | ||
| So again, you know, brother, nothing is impossible. | ||
| So that's the thing. | ||
| And the question that you asked me before, when did Netflix came in? | ||
| So when I finished the whole of the project, I had about more than 100 hours of footage in a hard drive. | ||
| Before I went to Nepal, at the start of the project, I had pieced this to everybody. | ||
| Can you film this? | ||
| Nobody. | ||
| So when I come with a hard drive, I was in different parts of the table, and we did a big, I would say, kind of like oxen who would come and produce this movie. | ||
| Out of, you know, four or five people, I decided to go with Noah because I felt like they were the right partners. | ||
| And then Noah put this together. | ||
| We had an amazing director in the Torquil Jones, you know, I think. | ||
| And it's also his baby, looking through 100 hours of footage and then stitching them. | ||
| Then Jimmy Chin, you know, from Free Solo, he came in. | ||
| So it's his wife, you know, Chai. | ||
| And then we sold it to Netflix. | ||
| So Jimmy, is his name Jimmy Chin? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Did he produce Free Solo? | ||
| He was EP. Oh, wow. | ||
| He was EP on our own film. | ||
| That movie's incredible, too. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So they all came in later on. | ||
| Oh, I see. | ||
| So this was after the footage had already been shot? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Right. | ||
| So this is after you'd completed all the peaks? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So you just had someone film it and you figured, we'll just edit this later. | ||
| Not someone, brother. | ||
| We filmed by ourselves. | ||
| Myself, my team. | ||
| Because I knew that this thing has got multi-layers of motivating factors. | ||
| A lot of people who want to go into the filming industry and all said, okay, because I didn't have this camera. | ||
| I didn't have this. | ||
| I didn't have Discovery, Netflix, or Crew signing this. | ||
| No, you can make things happen. | ||
| You just like... | ||
| It was really hard work when you are climbing in this like vertical slope and you are flying the drone and you know like climbing at the same point but I knew that I had to do this. | ||
| Even another tough thing was like you know the the sort with my mom when she was in hospital. | ||
| It was crazy because you are like saying hey guys we need to have the camera okay because but you don't feel natural because It's like acting, right? | ||
| But it's not acting. | ||
| I have never been in that part, but I was like, oh, it was so awkward, but I had to do it. | ||
| So I said, you know guys, let's get the camera out. | ||
| Whatever happens, let's shoot it. | ||
| Yeah, that's a real problem with like, anytime you're trying to document reality and you have a camera, the camera just naturally changes the way people behave because they're aware that someone's watching. | ||
| Yeah, and you know, for me, like, you know, we had that and there's no cut and all that. | ||
| It's just, you just film the whole thing. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Like how you are doing right now. | ||
| It's natural, right? | ||
| We are not doing the acting and all that. | ||
| So it's natural. | ||
| Everything is all good. | ||
| But that's because I do it every day. | ||
| If I did it just once, I would be thinking, how do I act natural? | ||
| You know, when you get accustomed to it. | ||
| So do you think you were accustomed to the filming after a while? | ||
| Or you could just be yourself because the cameras were on you so often? | ||
| No, look, the big thing was I knew that this has to be documented and I knew it has to have its authenticity. | ||
| And that's why, you know, like from speaking with the sponsors, putting GoPro over there, to like, you know, filming all my tour. | ||
| And honestly, Joe, we haven't even used, like, most of the footage because it's very, like, full-on, 109 minutes of, like, punchy, like, in a movie. | ||
| So there's so much. | ||
| It seems like Netflix could make an accompaniment program where you could have a whole series. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yeah, easily. | |
| Because if you have hundreds of hours of footage, I think that would be really good. | ||
| And then we can go into in-depth, the whole thing. | ||
| Yeah, they should do that. | ||
| They should do that. | ||
| I mean, you have the footage. | ||
| Okay, Netflix, you are listening to this. | ||
| Make it happen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Netflix! | |
| Holla at your boy. | ||
| Holla at your boy. | ||
| Let's get it done. | ||
| It just seems like, you know, for a series, that's a no-brainer. | ||
| You know, to do an in-depth look at each individual climb. | ||
| You have 14 different mountains. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, that totally makes sense. | ||
| And they're always looking for content. | ||
| Yeah, and also the part with the mom, you know. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You know, my mom is like, you know, she was everything for me. | ||
| And you know what, Joe? | ||
| The biggest thing was... | ||
| Look, my mom got very ill, and she was living in a city room in Kathmandu. | ||
| My dad was in Chitwan, where I'm from, and they were apart for almost two years. | ||
| And I announced this project, and I was like, oh my God, and then when can I put them together in the same roof? | ||
| And that was my mission. | ||
| But I really, truly believe that for this bigger... | ||
| purpose, bigger goal, we all had to sacrifice. | ||
| Not only I sacrificed, my wife sacrificed and my brothers. | ||
| Everybody went through it, but we are making the difference. | ||
| Well, the film has been a huge success, right? | ||
| I mean, so many people have seen it. | ||
| You must have motivated countless amounts of people to do things that they probably never thought they could do before. | ||
| Yeah, it was the must-watch documentary on Netflix. | ||
| We are number seven competing with even Dwayne Johnson on that week. | ||
| Competing with The Rock. | ||
| Yeah, with The Rock. | ||
| Hey, Rock, listen, bro. | ||
| But yeah, it was extremely, I would say, a bit of overwhelming to see the response. | ||
| You know, I get so many messages like, you know what, Nims, I was about to take my life. | ||
| But when I saw that movie, I was like, wow, my life is nothing in comparison to what this guy went. | ||
| And it's changing a lot of people's way of thinking as well. | ||
| I'm happy. | ||
| That's beautiful. | ||
| There is something about watching people accomplish amazing things that does change your perspective. | ||
| It really does work. | ||
| There's a lot of motivational people online, but they don't necessarily do much. | ||
| The real motivation comes from watching people do the impossible, like you, or watching Alex Honnold in Free Solo, or watching David Goggins. | ||
| Someone who's actually doing something is what really motivates people. | ||
| Talk is great. | ||
| It's exciting. | ||
| Sometimes enthusiastic and energetic people can motivate people just by words. | ||
| But the real motivation comes from watching other people do things and knowing that it's possible to push beyond the boundaries that you think exist. | ||
| Because David Goggins has a great quote. | ||
| He says, most people quit at 40%. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You know, and I think he's right. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| Did you see my quote, what I said? | ||
| What did you say? | ||
| It's completely made up. | ||
| So it was on K2 when I was there. | ||
| And what I said was, when you think you're fully fucked, you're only 45% fucked. | ||
| That's great. | ||
| That's perfect. | ||
| That's right up there with what Goggins said. | ||
| But it's people like you and him that have done insane things that have that ability to express this because it's not just talk. | ||
| You've actually done it. | ||
| And that's the difference between, I mean, I don't want to call anybody out, but certain motivational speakers that they give these big tours and they talk in front of large groups of people, you can accomplish your goals, you can follow your dreams, but what are they doing? | ||
| For it to really resonate with a person, it takes someone like you that's actually done something spectacular. | ||
| Man, that means a lot coming from you, Joe. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So, over the course of the many months that you did this film, when you were close, was there ever a moment where you had to realize, like, we're almost there. | ||
| Like, we actually are doing this. | ||
| Because what you set out to do, if you brought that, I'm not in the climbing world, but from what I've read, if you brought that idea to anybody, they'd tell you to go fuck yourself. | ||
| They'd be like, that is the craziest idea ever. | ||
| You're going to do how many peaks? | ||
| Fourteen? | ||
| In how long? | ||
| Seven months? | ||
| Do you know what you're saying? | ||
| You're saying you're going to do one every two weeks. | ||
| That's what you're saying. | ||
| That's so stupid. | ||
| People will be like, get the fuck out of my office. | ||
| You can't do that. | ||
| You didn't even say, I'll do it all in a year, which would be crazy. | ||
| Or I'll do it all in two years. | ||
| Still crazy. | ||
| Three years. | ||
| Fucking crazy. | ||
| What was the world record before that? | ||
| Eleven years? | ||
| No, nearly eight years. | ||
| Eight years. | ||
| Okay, sorry. | ||
| Eight years. | ||
| So if you decide to do it in four, People would go, pretty impressive. | ||
| You're like, no, no, no. | ||
| Seven months. | ||
| And that was the missing statement. | ||
| And Joe, I think even if I had passed that by one day, I would have repeated. | ||
| How did you get that number in your head? | ||
| How did you get the seven months in your head? | ||
| Look, when I did the full planning, I knew that this could be done in four months. | ||
| Four months? | ||
| Yeah, but I knew that I had no money. | ||
| So if you had more money, you would have done it in four months? | ||
| Maybe less than that. | ||
| Oh, Jesus Christ. | ||
| So, you know... | ||
| That's like, you do like one of those every couple of days? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Like, that's so crazy. | ||
| And, you know, like, to answer your question, you know, I climb Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, the world's first, fourth, and fifth highest mountain in 48 hours. | ||
| How many mountains did you climb in 48 hours? | ||
| Everest, Lodze, Makalu, the world's first, fourth, and fifth highest mountain in 48 hours. | ||
| You climbed three peaks in 48 hours? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So, yes, I could have done that in less than four months. | ||
| Holy shit! | ||
| But I knew that, you know, I had to put, you know, first factor into the planning. | ||
| I know there was no funding. | ||
| I know that there will be a big bureaucracy, the politics, all that involved. | ||
| And you see in the movie, you know, like the whole thing, what I had to do in order to get the permission from China was next level. | ||
| What are you eating when you're doing this? | ||
| I just eat like Nepalese food, you know, it's rice, you know, vegetable and then meat curry. | ||
| And if I go up, what I do is I just fry some chicken and have my, you know, like, you know, fried egg rice. | ||
| I carry something heavy, but I carry up and then warm them up and I eat that. | ||
| You must be starving. | ||
| I mean, the amount of calories you're burning doing that must be insane. | ||
| But you know what, Joe? | ||
| You know, I carry only just to give, like, it's the training again, the mentality. | ||
| So when I climb one 8,000-meter peak, I carry one liter of thermos, hot water though. | ||
| One liter? | ||
| One liter. | ||
| And when I summit and get back down, I would only drink half a liter of that thermos. | ||
| I always stay reserved, but I think it's the mindset, it's the training. | ||
| You know, you don't go so fast as well, so you are like super out of breath and you are dehydrating. | ||
| You know, every my pace is calculated. | ||
| And we know with the hot water, what I used to do is going into very basic, I scoop the cold snow, put the hot water and that, you know, that one liter can be like three liters, right? | ||
| I drink that and I always like preserve, you know, because in mountains, anything could happen. | ||
| You may be stuck for three days and if you just don't plan and start rustling and all those having that You know, survival kind of mentality, you will just be dead. | ||
| Do you carry anything with you, like a burner stove so you could melt ice or something to drink? | ||
| No, not on a thousand meters. | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| It's already too heavy. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You know, everything over there is, is it nice to have or is it must have? | ||
| If it's must have, then you take it. | ||
| If it's nice to have, you don't, because it's too crazy. | ||
| And just to put things into perspective, if you are on, like, even, let's say, climbing Everest, you are a thousand meter peak. | ||
| Just to get your gloves out, open your jeeper, take the iPhone out and take a picture, that's like dragging a car at sea level. | ||
| And hence why people don't have many pictures because it's so much tiring. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| It's multiplied by that much element. | ||
| So you're just eating whatever food they have in the area. | ||
| Are you trying to supplement yourself with vitamins or anything? | ||
| Is there anything that helps you? | ||
| I'm going to be honest with you. | ||
| I have never taken any supplements or anything in my whole life. | ||
| No vitamins? | ||
| Nothing? | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Even when I was training for these special forces to do all these things. | ||
| Just eating and working out? | ||
| Just eating. | ||
| I eat what I want and I just train hard. | ||
| So, is there anything that they say you should or shouldn't do when you're in that environment? | ||
| Like, I would think alcohol would be a terrible idea, right? | ||
| Because it would dehydrate you, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But you still drink alcohol up there. | ||
| Yeah, I do. | ||
| I do, you know, because... | ||
| But, you know, my rule is... | ||
| The moment I drink alcohol and I cannot perform, that's the end of it. | ||
| You can go and have fun. | ||
| Whatever you do in life, of course you can go, but as long as you don't mess up your missing plan, that is good enough. | ||
| Dehydration is a real issue though, right? | ||
| Yeah, it can be. | ||
| So do you take electrolytes or anything? | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| I just drink water. | ||
| Just drink water. | ||
| And how do you know whether you're dehydrated? | ||
| Because that's one of the things they say about people when they're at high altitude is they don't recognize that they're dehydrated and it becomes an issue. | ||
| I think many people who are probably at that survival stage wouldn't know, but I'm in full control, so I kind of know if I'm dehydrated and all that, and I kind of look into very details. | ||
| Hence why I keep saying, a small thing matters on the big mountains. | ||
| It's looking into really smaller things, and there's a saying like, It's not the rock that wears you out. | ||
| It's the small pebble in your shoes. | ||
| I think that's from Muhammad Ali, I think. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is that what he said? | |
| Yeah, that's what he said. | ||
| There's little things that fail you over there, not the big things. | ||
| I pay attention on little things. | ||
| So once you filmed this, so you went through the entire 14 Peaks, you did it, you got it done. | ||
| Once you filmed it, how long did it take before you brought it to Netflix? | ||
| And did you bring it to other places like Amazon or HBO or anything like that? | ||
| So, again, yes we did. | ||
| There was a big competition between Netflix and Disney+. | ||
| I don't know if I'm allowed to see it, I'm going to see it anyway. | ||
| But for me, money has never been my priority in my life. | ||
| Otherwise, I would never be able to quit my Special Forces career, sell my house, and go and do this. | ||
| And even though the money offered by Disney was way higher, we decided to go with Netflix because I really felt like the movie 14 Peaks would change so many people's lives in a positive way. | ||
| And the whole idea here is... | ||
| It's not about climbing mountains, really, Joe. | ||
| It's about, you know, we all have our own mountains to climb in life, you know, how we climb them. | ||
| And that is the baseline of this whole story. | ||
| So you just went with Netflix because it has a broader audience. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| How much bigger is Netflix's audience than Disney Plus? | ||
| Disney Plus is pretty huge. | ||
| Yeah, it's huge. | ||
| But I think, you know, for me, I really wanted to reach out the world and, you know, get this story out. | ||
| So... | ||
| Yeah, I think, you know, the whole 14 picks was obviously available in all its country. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I think Netflix has got 180 million subscribers. | ||
| It was translated in 31 different languages. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| So people can, you know, like, listen into different languages. | ||
| Do you know how many people have seen it? | ||
| Did they tell you? | ||
| Well, they didn't tell me the figure, but they said it was the most worst documentary, and I was like, okay. | ||
| That's what they do, man. | ||
| They did that with my comedy specials. | ||
| They don't tell you shit. | ||
| Yeah, they just say, you're doing great. | ||
| You're doing great. | ||
| What does that mean? | ||
| Nothing, you're just doing great. | ||
| Like, how great? | ||
| Really great? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What the fuck does that mean? | |
| They don't tell you. | ||
| Well, it's a smart business model, really, because they don't have to. | ||
| Why should they tell you? | ||
| Yeah, so that was the whole purpose, and I'm glad... | ||
| It obviously worked. | ||
| But you know what, Joe? | ||
| Not really, mate. | ||
| I think, again, at the end of the movie, you have seen if this was done by any European, Western climbers, or even American, look, I'm not racist, but then this would have been 10 times bigger. | ||
| No, I don't think that's... | ||
| Hold on. | ||
| Listen, man. | ||
| Your film is huge. | ||
| Do you know how many people... | ||
| Yes, listen to me. | ||
| Do you know how many people have talked to me about it? | ||
| People know that I love extraordinary accomplishments. | ||
| I've had so many people contact me about this. | ||
| So many friends that talked about it and said how incredible it is. | ||
| I don't think that would have been any different. | ||
| I think it's probably better that you're you because you don't come from some sort of a media environment. | ||
| You're not like a Bear Grylls or someone like that who's like a media star. | ||
| You're just a guy with an amazing past who's genuine. | ||
| Listen, I think it's perfect. | ||
| I don't think it would have been bigger. | ||
| Come on, son. | ||
| I don't think it would have been bigger if it was a white guy or an Asian guy or a guy from anywhere else. | ||
| What you did is you, and I think it's amazing. | ||
| And it's also amazing because your mindset is not something you can replicate in a lot of people. | ||
| I think you either have that mindset or you don't. | ||
| I don't think you could choose to have that mindset and make a film like that because you've had this mindset since you were a small boy. | ||
| That mindset is not something you could just easily cultivate. | ||
| So I don't think there's a lot of people like you out there, you know? | ||
| But the thing is, Joe, like... | ||
| Some of the things that you can train, for example, you know, I always, you know, believe in the positivity and the impact is so huge. | ||
| And sometimes a bit of negative can cost your life. | ||
| And let me give you this example. | ||
| I was in Everest in 2017. I was in process of, you know, breaking the world records. | ||
| And I submitted Everest. | ||
| I got back down to Camp 4 on Lhotse. | ||
| Now I'm supposed to climb Lhotse and then I found out my oxygen was stolen. | ||
| Someone stole your oxygen. | ||
| From your camp? | ||
| Yeah, from where we had stored it. | ||
| So the fact there is my oxygen is stolen. | ||
| That's the reality. | ||
| Okay, but then a lot of people probably go mental saying that, you know what, fuck. | ||
| My oxygen is stolen. | ||
| They go out of the mine and they lose it and then they blame that and they go down because that's the only way to do it. | ||
| And I was like, no, how can I change the tide? | ||
| How can I? And what I really did at that point was, I said to myself, Nims, your oxygen wasn't stolen. | ||
| It was used by somebody else to rescue somebody. | ||
| So it was used to save his life. | ||
| And I completely believe in that lie. | ||
| And it's a lie. | ||
| But I have to believe in that by myself. | ||
| And I was like, okay. | ||
| So because of that, my oxygen, someone is alive and his family can see him. | ||
| And I got that energy. | ||
| And I went and saw me that lotse and got back down, brother. | ||
| So you lied to yourself. | ||
| I lied to myself, but I had to believe in that. | ||
| That's a great way to do it. | ||
| That's very wise. | ||
| Sometimes you have to lie to yourself and you got to believe in the positivity even though it's not and then you believe. | ||
| What you believe is your God. | ||
| How could someone steal your oxygen? | ||
| What a dirty person. | ||
| Yeah, but it happens brother. | ||
| I think they might be in that survival situation where they didn't have the option and when it comes into the stage of survival, Again, I give example of drowning in the sea because a lot of people understand. | ||
| It doesn't matter if your girlfriend or wife, you know, drowning next to you, you'll grab them and try to survive. | ||
| So that's the situation, I think. | ||
| Yeah, people get desperate. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And, you know, who knows? | ||
| Maybe they're extremely poor. | ||
| One of the things about Everest is that this is one negative thing that people say. | ||
| That it's like a rich man's goal. | ||
| That they want to be bragging at a cocktail party about summoning Everest. | ||
| And that really it's the Sherpas that are doing all the work. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So even there, Joe, sorry I interrupted. | ||
| There's two things. | ||
| Again, it's what the media says, right? | ||
| The media has got so much power these days and it could be completely wrong. | ||
| And no, Everest is not for every rich people. | ||
| No. | ||
| Because let's give my own example. | ||
| Did I have money to climb all these things? | ||
| No. | ||
| Everything in life. | ||
| Look, either you become so good If you are so good at it, you don't even need that much money to climb Everest. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| Because you don't need such a support. | ||
| Right. | ||
| But, if you are not that, if you don't have time to do that, and, you know, if you have been working hard in your own world, in your work, and you have saved that money, you can go and climb with the support. | ||
| So, I take things completely in a different way, because even now people will say, oh, if I had the money, I would have climbed 14 peaks. | ||
| I'm like, bullshit. | ||
| I didn't even have the money. | ||
| So there's no excuses. | ||
| So I think everything in life, whatever you want to do, has got two angles. | ||
| Either you invest your career in that, you build up, you become so good, so you can do without bare minimum, or you're working in some industry, but you're saving up to do. | ||
| For me, let's say, for example, if Albert Einstein wanted to go and climb Everest, I would say, of course, because he can experience that. | ||
| Depends on how old he is. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| What's the oldest guy that's ever climbed it? | ||
| 82. 82? | ||
| 82. So the big thing here is, you know, it's adventure, Joe. | ||
| What I really believe is a lot of people, like, they all have rights to the adventure. | ||
| And people don't really come and climb Everest or any 1,000-meter peak to be another nymphs die or another, like, you know, the legend. | ||
| But they come. | ||
| To experience something. | ||
| It's like running a marathon. | ||
| People run a marathon because from that journey, they take something away in their life. | ||
| And then whatever they are doing, like a corporate role or business, they say, you know what? | ||
| I ran that whole marathon even I was in agony. | ||
| I was in pain. | ||
| I can do this job. | ||
| So I climbed this Everest when it was so tough, but now I can do this thing. | ||
| So they climb for that experience, for that mindset to develop into different things. | ||
| And again, you choose, right? | ||
| You pick and choose. | ||
| Okay, if I want to go to space, well, either, you know, I be a scientist by myself, or I have the money, I use other people to the advantage and I go. | ||
| Right? | ||
| But it's about the experience. | ||
| And I think we humans should be more open to be helping each other and then cut all this negative away and try to see from their perspective before making the judgment or before making any calls. | ||
| Well, you're saying that because you're a winner. | ||
| And see, you gotta realize that haters are all losers. | ||
| And the people that are negative and they're constantly looking for a negative angle, most of them are failures. | ||
| But they find a reason to disparage people's success. | ||
| So if it's a bunch of rich people that are climbing Mount Everest, They decide to just shit on these rich people that are climbing Mount Everest. | ||
| Because it's an easy way to find a negative angle on what's a positive accomplishment. | ||
| But from their perspective, one thing that I do agree with them is that it is... | ||
| It's very unfortunate that the amount of human waste that's left behind this disgusting amount of human shit is left up there because they just leave it up there and they leave a lot of their trash up there they leave the bodies up there so from their perspective there is There's value to the fact that even though they write these articles shitting on these people, no pun intended, it at least brings attention to the fact that that is an issue. | ||
| Okay, yes, correct. | ||
| So that's an issue. | ||
| It shouldn't be the primary concern. | ||
| We are there to solve that issue now. | ||
| That is amazing that you're going to do that. | ||
| Right now I have been announced as a goodwill ambassador for Nepal tourism. | ||
| So hopefully we can, you know, implement that kind of, you know, rule. | ||
| So, look, when I announced the Big Mountain cleanup project, I thought, you know, few corporates organized and would support it. | ||
| And there wasn't. | ||
| So I put my own money, right? | ||
| And then what I believe is, yes, sometimes you have to start by yourself. | ||
| It's okay. | ||
| So there wasn't like big, you know, corporate industry or all these people came and said, Nims, you know what? | ||
| You announced the big mountain cleanup project. | ||
| We are part of this outdoor industry. | ||
| We are part of this. | ||
| We can support you to bring all those robbies. | ||
| No, not any big major donations. | ||
| Well, maybe they don't know about it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hopefully after listening to Joe's podcast, they'll find out. | |
| How would they be able to contribute if, say, REI wanted to get involved or Yeti Coolers or something like that? | ||
| Okay, so just go into Nimstai Foundation and it will be there. | ||
| Yeah, Jamie's pulled it up because he's the fucking best! | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Big Mountain Cleanup, committing to restore, respect, and protect. | ||
| So this is you up there, and is that garbage that's behind you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What is that? | |
| Yeah, that's the garbage behind me. | ||
| That's on K2. That is a mountain of garbage? | ||
| All that stuff to the left of you, all that colorful stuff? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's all garbage? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| How much garbage is up there? | ||
| Quite a lot, Joe. | ||
| So this year, I think we managed to get around... | ||
| Can we play that film? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's play the film. | |
| Yeah, let's play it. | ||
| Let's play it. | ||
| Oh, hi. | ||
| Look at you, you handsome devil. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How the global warming and the climate change has affected the whole of the planet. | |
| For me, being as a mountaineer, I would like to highlight what's actually happening on the big mountains. | ||
| You need a better sound guy. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So if the temperature keeps rising like this with the global warming, eventually this glacier will collapse. | |
| And if that happens, the whole of the valley is going to get wiped out. | ||
| And it's just a matter of time. | ||
| You know, let's be proactive. | ||
| Let's do whatever we can in order to save this disaster. | ||
| Did you have your microphone under your clothes or something? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, you're right. | |
| I should have done it better. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Maybe you should stop this over, pretend you're outside. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm playing my part. | |
| with my upcoming project called the Big Mountain Cleanup Project where we'll be cleaning up all the mountains starting with Manasso in September, Everest in the spring next year that's 2022. I'm a Babylon Towards the end of autumn in 2022 again and K2 a year after. | ||
| I absolutely believe that this decade is hugely important for us in order to protect our planet or our home. | ||
| That's beautiful that you're doing this. | ||
| Now, let me ask you this. | ||
| What about the bodies? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So... | |
| Because there's a lot of bodies up there, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Especially Everest. | |
| Not like so many bodies, though. | ||
| Like, most of the bodies have been brought down. | ||
| They have? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| Oh, when did this happen? | ||
| Every season, you know? | ||
| Oh. | ||
| But there's still a lot that's left up there. | ||
| Isn't there, like, some of the first climbers that ever tried to do it, they're still up there? | ||
| Yeah, but some of the bodies, you cannot find them because, you know, every year it's snowing and some of the body goes into crevasse like deep, you know, so you wouldn't find. | ||
| But some of the bodies that you see, most of the body that you can see are brought down. | ||
| I wrote a piece about this a long time ago because they had photos of the very first guy that died up there. | ||
| And, you know, his face down, his skin is white, it looks like marble. | ||
| It's crazy. | ||
| Yeah, you know. | ||
| Do you remember the first time you saw a body up there? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| It was on Daulagri, so it was my first 8,000 meter peak. | ||
| And there was a dead bird right on the summit. | ||
| Whoa. | ||
| So you got to the top and there's a dead guy up there. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Do they know who the dead guy is? | ||
| No, we really don't know. | ||
| So no one knows? | ||
| No one knows, I think. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So just some guy who died. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Some people who pushed too much beyond their limitations and couldn't make it down. | ||
| Like, you know, like that story which I wrote on Beyond Possible on Kansanjunga. | ||
| This guy was clearly out of his death. | ||
| And I said, hey, brother, you need to turn around. | ||
| And he said, no, my only way is up. | ||
| When you're on that line to Everest, and there's 100 plus people in that line, what if someone has to take a shit? | ||
| Well, I think that's a very good question. | ||
| But I think at that point, the human body is so much into that survival element. | ||
| You just shut down. | ||
| People don't like, you know, don't feel it. | ||
| But if they feel it, even like there are little rocks where they can crab and go and go behind the rocks. | ||
| But it's a line of people. | ||
| So do you cut the line? | ||
| I think at that point... | ||
| Do you get back in? | ||
| They let you back in? | ||
| Hey, that's my spot. | ||
| I had to take a shit. | ||
| I think at that point, if people want to have a shit, because it's not that really fast moving line, Joe, because people take one step and they wait for like three, four minutes to get another breath back. | ||
| And everybody's doing that. | ||
| And everybody's doing that. | ||
| So it's not like really QQ. And I think some of the people actually might like it because they don't have to push so hard. | ||
| They're like, okay, this guy's in front of me. | ||
| So he takes one step, rest three, four minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| And then get another one. | ||
| That's literally towards the summit bit because it's so much thinner. | ||
| It's almost 9,000 meters. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's very high. | ||
| That's very high. | ||
| And are most people at that peak, when they're that high up, people that aren't like yourself, are they using oxygen to do that? | ||
| Yeah, most of them are on oxygen. | ||
| So they have a tank that's with them? | ||
| They have a tank. | ||
| So, you know, obviously the Sherpa would carry the spare tank. | ||
| And the Sherpa doesn't even need oxygen. | ||
| Well, it all depends upon how we are climbing. | ||
| If we are guiding and all we take the oxygen because we cannot jeopardize, you know, the client's life. | ||
| Just, you know, you want to be a hero. | ||
| But yeah, you know, we can climb without oxygen and few people can do it if they're trained for that. | ||
| So, is Everest the most popular of all the summits? | ||
| I think it's the most popular, but, you know, there's another mountain called K2. Yeah, I've heard of that. | ||
| Which is, you know, quite hard mountain. | ||
| They call that K2 as a savage mountain. | ||
| And I think, though, if you heard that story or not, you know, last year we, you know, So K2 was the only mountain in the world above 8,000 meter peak. | ||
| No one had submitted in winter. | ||
| So all other 13 were submitted in winter and K2 was the last challenge. | ||
| And yeah, we went. | ||
| We went over there. | ||
| So you did it just because it's hard? | ||
| No, I think at that point, being brutally honest, I didn't even want to go on K2 that year because I knew that the movie was coming and I was planning, okay, you know, when the movie comes, I'll have more reach out, I'll get more sponsorship, that means more money, and I can look after my family. | ||
| But then it was a huge race. | ||
| Every climber's from all over the world. | ||
| So this was 46 expeditions going on K2 winter to race. | ||
| And I was like, hey Nims, you know, you said you are never about money and all that. | ||
| Now you need to go. | ||
| And the reason why I went and made that quick decision was, look, we as a Nepalese climbers, brother, we have got 8,000-meter peak in Nepal. | ||
| It's our playground. | ||
| And none of them were submitted in, like, none of us have submitted in winter. | ||
| Not because we couldn't do it. | ||
| We didn't know the value of submitting in winter. | ||
| We had no idea, like, by submitting in winter is such a big thing. | ||
| So then we obviously started figuring out, okay, it's the greatest, the last mountaineering challenge remaining. | ||
| So we went over there. | ||
| And yeah, and then it was done in a style like... | ||
| Now when you do that, say if you're going to summit K2 in winter, do you have to be very careful with weather reports? | ||
| Do you have to have updated satellite images of what storms are moving through? | ||
| How do you do that? | ||
| 100%. | ||
| I think we have that video on K2 winter. | ||
| If you go on to the NIMSDA, it's a project. | ||
| You can find out. | ||
| So there's a K2 and that goes into more detail. | ||
| And I think if people are looking at it, we can send it to you. | ||
| How much colder is it in the winter? | ||
| Minus 65 degrees Celsius. | ||
| Oh! | ||
| And it's like, like, like, who we can win. | ||
| You know what we're wearing, Joe? | ||
| We were like, you know, the base layer, then we'll wear like mid layer, then we were like another jacket, down jacket, then we were another down jacket, and then big summit suit. | ||
| So your kit and equipment is probably around, I would say, 15 kg. | ||
| And, and there was... | ||
| So that's like 35 pounds or something like that? | ||
| Yeah, and that's what, and that's why... | ||
| That's just clothes. | ||
| Yeah, I think all previous 45 expeditions, the highest, one of the world's best climbers, you name it, their reach was 7,400 meters. | ||
| So no one could even go beyond that. | ||
| Where did you get to? | ||
| Okay, brother. | ||
| To the summit, of course. | ||
| To the summit. | ||
| And the summit is where? | ||
| 1,600 meters. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Plus. | ||
| So everyone else got to 7,000 plus and they're like, that's a wrap. | ||
| Yeah, all 45 expeditions before. | ||
| And what we did was... | ||
| So you were the first? | ||
| We were the first. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| And why I say we is, Joe, in every mountaineering history, like most of the time, it's one person submitting, right? | ||
| So this, my team, the whole K-2 winter expedition was paid by me. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
| Not this one. | ||
| It's on the project. | ||
| Yeah, that's the one. | ||
| Minus 65 degrees Celsius. | ||
| Yeah, this is the one, buddy. | ||
| Which is... | ||
| Minus 40 degrees Celsius is the same Fahrenheit as it is Celsius. | ||
| Look at this. | ||
| Hurricane winds. | ||
| Oh, my God. | ||
| And then you got a ladder. | ||
| K2 winter, the greatest, the hardest, the last. | ||
| Now, when you've done this, Nims, you're in a strange situation. | ||
| You've done something extraordinary. | ||
| You made a huge film that millions of people have seen. | ||
| It's got an extraordinary amount of attention. | ||
| Are you in a position now where you feel obligated to do another crazy thing? | ||
| No. | ||
| I have always been myself and at the end of the movie you see like, you know, I haven't even started it, brother. | ||
| But that's what I'm saying. | ||
| You got a lot to do. | ||
| So you're gonna do some other crazy shit? | ||
| A lot of them, Joe. | ||
| A lot of them? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Is it all gonna be climbing? | ||
| No. | ||
| What are you gonna do now? | ||
| I think probably have to stay tuned, brother. | ||
| Stay tuned. | ||
| Come on. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Give people a preview. | ||
| What are you thinking of doing? | ||
| It's like achieving my own new possible and again in extreme sport is where I live. | ||
| So once you've accomplished something like this and then you get done with doing press for it and then it gets very popular, Do you then sit around and think about what your next goals are? | ||
| Do you wait for your goals to just pop into your head and come to you? | ||
| Yeah, I wait for it to pop and it just comes in. | ||
| That's why I said when I first talk about this project, people say, okay, it's impossible. | ||
| There's nothing bigger than this. | ||
| Of course there is bigger than this. | ||
| It's like... | ||
| When, you know, first, Neil Armstrong went to the moon, they were like, oh, it's not possible. | ||
| He went to the moon and now people are going to Mars and all that, you know, planets. | ||
| So there's always bigger things to do. | ||
| No one's gone to Mars, though, dude. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Really? | |
| No one's gone to the moon since 1972. But they have gone there, though. | ||
| It's done, though. | ||
| It's possible. | ||
| It's done, though. | ||
| It's possible. | ||
| Yeah, and I think on K2, I want to finish that story. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| It was 65 degrees below Celsius. | ||
| Yeah, and then at that point, what I said to my team members was like, guys, at that point, a lot of people were dying because of the pandemic and so many crises. | ||
| I said to them, guys, we are from Nepal, very poor country, but let's send a message of unification. | ||
| And what I said to them was like, Every time in the history of mountain, there's always one person summiting. | ||
| There's only one. | ||
| Even though I was the expert leader, all my surplus were getting paid from the money that I was getting for my sponsorship and all that. | ||
| I could have been the first, but I didn't want that. | ||
| So I said, 10 of us will summit together singing the national anthem of Nepal. | ||
| And everybody looked at me, Nimzda, you're fucking serious. | ||
| How are you going to sing when you can't breathe? | ||
| Hey. | ||
| And I will answer that question as well, Joe. | ||
| Did you record the singing? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Can I see it? | ||
| Is it online? | ||
| Yes, it's online. | ||
| All right, we got to see that. | ||
| K2 winter, the Nepalese, you know. | ||
| And yeah, you know, Joe, so we pushed it on and just five meters from the summit, we stopped. | ||
| I was controlling everything because I was like, you know, if just somebody guys run at the front and the whole plan is this stuff. | ||
| So I was holding, like, you know, making sure I was at the front. | ||
| So I controlled the show. | ||
| So we wait everybody to come together. | ||
| And then, you know, like, then we hug each other. | ||
| And last five meters, we walk together singing the national anthem. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| That was the most satisfying and most like, you know, I would say the happiest moment of my life. | ||
| Because everybody was feeling the equal. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I would like you to notice over there. | |
| So that's me with that oxygen over there. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| The one with the red summit suit next to this cameraman. | ||
| I'll come into that in a bit. | ||
| Oh my god. | ||
| So here you see, the view is insane. | ||
| Yes, my brother. | ||
| That view is insane. | ||
| So this is the peak right here? | ||
| Yeah, that's the summit. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| And that's how many feet? | ||
| That's 8,600. | ||
| Help me, please. | ||
| 8,600 meters. | ||
| A meter is roughly three feet, right? | ||
| Oh my god. | ||
| Does that guy have frostbite on his face? | ||
| Is that what that is? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah. | |
| You say yeah, yeah, like no big deal. | ||
| He's gonna lose his face. | ||
| What happens? | ||
| It's a frost nip, so. | ||
| Oh. | ||
| Frost nip can be treated. | ||
| So the frost nip is the early stage of frostbite. | ||
| Show that guy's face, Jamie. | ||
| Yeah, right there. | ||
| That looks serious. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's just frost nip? | ||
| Frost nip, yeah. | ||
| Does that leave a scar? | ||
| A little bit, but that will go away with time. | ||
| It looks like his face has fallen off. | ||
| That looks like, doesn't it? | ||
| Yeah, that doesn't look good, right? | ||
| Jamie wants to, he told me before this he wants to climb with you. | ||
| Jamie, you should come. | ||
| I got a lot of shows to produce here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Unless we're going up there together. | |
| Oh, man. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, we should. | |
| I'll make it happen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Fuck that. | |
| Trust me. | ||
| Yeah, good for you. | ||
| Man, you know what? | ||
| This is exactly what I used to think before. | ||
| Oh, this is what exactly I'm telling you right now. | ||
| Fuck that. | ||
| Before 30 years old, you know, because, you know, going into Special Forces selection, carrying those big backpacks, running everywhere, I hated the hills. | ||
| I hated the mountain. | ||
| I was like, I never want to go and do this. | ||
| But when I was serving around the world, people keep asking me, hey, where are you from? | ||
| And I said, I'm from Nepal. | ||
| And they were like, okay, where is Nepal? | ||
| I said, do you know Mount Everest? | ||
| And they were like, okay, have you seen it? | ||
| And I was sick of saying no. | ||
| And that's the only reason I went to Everest Base Camp, to see the Everest. | ||
| And that changed my whole life. | ||
| You never know until you try, honestly. | ||
| I'm sure. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| You said come. | ||
| You know what that means? | ||
| I'll never know. | ||
| Yes, you said come. | ||
| Because I'm not doing that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Come on. | |
| No. | ||
| Hey. | ||
| Thanks for the offer. | ||
| I really appreciate it. | ||
| It's very kind of you, but I'm so not into that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| I love mountains. | ||
| I love being in the mountains, but... | ||
| That is... | ||
| No, but different. | ||
| That's, you know, like, I really want you to come, Zoom. | ||
| I'm sure you do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's not going to happen. | |
| Because it will be different, honestly. | ||
| You got to let it go. | ||
| You got to let that go. | ||
| Oh, my God. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Listen, I have shows to produce. | |
| Look, that could be you. | ||
| Right there. | ||
| Oh, it could be me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Survey says... | ||
| So what are you doing now? | ||
| What do you do with your time now that you've done this? | ||
| You retired from the military. | ||
| You put this Netflix documentary out. | ||
| Did you make good money from the Netflix thing to the point where you can kind of relax for a little bit? | ||
| Not really, mate. | ||
| So what I'm doing right now is I'm guiding 10 months on the mountain. | ||
| Really? | ||
| Yeah, I've got this company called Elite Expert. | ||
| So you personally guide people? | ||
| I personally guide people. | ||
| How many people want to go with you? | ||
| That must be like a big line. | ||
| Well, I think just not that huge number, to be honest. | ||
| But this year, I'm taking really some cool people. | ||
| So I'm guiding the Princess of Qatar. | ||
| The princess of Qatar is going to take a walk up Everest? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| Sea is the most strongest climber, guideways, I have ever climbed in my life. | ||
| Ever? | ||
| Sea is badass. | ||
| Honestly, brother, I wouldn't have said it. | ||
| Really? | ||
| Sea is that fit. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| We're in Antarctica, and then there were some guys who have climbed 14 peaks and all these. | ||
| And when they saw her carrying her own tent, dragging everything. | ||
| Because I want her to be credible. | ||
| This is where we're training. | ||
| And then people were like, mental. | ||
| And she climbed Manaslu, a thousand meter peak without oxygen. | ||
| Really? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| What's the numbers of people that do Everest a year? | ||
| Like how many people do Everest every year? | ||
| It depends, buddy. | ||
| So I think with 300 like I would say the clients and maybe like 400 to 500 like the share parts. | ||
| So just around 800 people in a good season. | ||
| 800 people? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's pretty low compared to the whole world. | ||
| It's very low. | ||
| Like in Mont Blanc like 20,000 people somebody in a season plus. | ||
| And how many people die on Everest every year? | ||
| Five to six people. | ||
| That's not that many when you think of how scary it is. | ||
| Nowadays because there's big safety and a lot of very competent guide and all that. | ||
| And you know what, Joe? | ||
| I'm going to tell you the statistics. | ||
| People have tried 14 times to climb one 8000 meter peak and they haven't still been able to do it. | ||
| Do you know what my track record is? | ||
| I have led 26 8000 meter peak expedition and I have never failed any of those. | ||
| Never failed. | ||
| And not only that, when I say failed, as in like in terms of reaching to the summit and bringing everyone back down exactly where they left. | ||
| No like toes missing, no fingers cutting down. | ||
| Maybe a bit fitter and that's my track record. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No one has that. | |
| How have you been able to do that? | ||
| I think it's with the very, like, in detail planning, being able to see what things come ahead. | ||
| All that, you know, planning first factors I learned from the Special Forces, and equally being very strong at the altitude, I think. | ||
| If you have someone that you're going to take to the top of the mountain, how do you ensure that they're fit enough to accomplish it? | ||
| I truly believe that anybody can climb. | ||
| It's the matter of how you do it. | ||
| So, for example, so... | ||
| Let's say a person who had never climbed anything comes to me. | ||
| I'll take them to Akankagua, which is 7,000 meter peak. | ||
| It's like really trekking peak, right? | ||
| Not technical. | ||
| And in this expedition, they learn about how they feel, how they adapt with altitude, because different people adapt differently. | ||
| Just to put into breaking down into perspective, for example, If you like, let's say you are reaching to the base camp, and for some people it can take let's say 12 days or 13 days. | ||
| But if you just follow that crowd even though you are struggling, That could jeopardize the whole thing. | ||
| But in another perspective, if you slow down by a day, you could be completely fine. | ||
| So it's all about like different people is different. | ||
| And then obviously, I take them to Manaslu, a thousand meter peak. | ||
| That's where, you know, they learn a bit more and then they go in Everest. | ||
| So it's with now like innovation, you know, technology and like with the science that, you know, how we know how the people, you know, adapt differently and all that is possible. | ||
| So they don't even have to be necessarily very fit? | ||
| I would say they have to be okay fit. | ||
| Not like super, super fit though. | ||
| Because, you know, you could be like, again, you could be Usain Bolt at sea level. | ||
| That means nothing at altitude. | ||
| Because over there you are like, you are walking very slowly. | ||
| You cannot go fast. | ||
| Would you recommend someone do something like, I know they have these tents that people sleep in. | ||
| So a lot of people do that, but it's good to have it, but it's not a replacement for the altitude. | ||
| Because when you actually go and do the trekking, the acclimatizing, you spend 24 hours, right? | ||
| You put that tent in your house, maybe you sleep five hours even or less. | ||
| And that is not the substitute for climbing. | ||
| How long does it take for a human body to adapt to that kind of altitude? | ||
| It all depends. | ||
| For me, I can go and I can probably climb a thousand meter peak within 10 days without any acclimatization, any prior acclimatization. | ||
| Some people take two and a half months. | ||
| So it all depends. | ||
| So some people that are going to do that, they will go and what will they do to get prepared for something that's going to take two and a half months for them to acclimate? | ||
| So what they do is, okay, they come to Nepal. | ||
| Two days we'll be in Kathmandu. | ||
| Then we fly to Lukla. | ||
| So that's where, you know, you start the trekking. | ||
| And it's like a beautiful, really nice, beautiful trekking. | ||
| So you probably walk five, six hours in a day. | ||
| So you have a breakfast, you know, you carry pity like light, have a lunch, and you go into the tea houses, you sleep over there. | ||
| And next day, again, you walk another five hours, exactly the same routine. | ||
| So you're building yourself up. | ||
| You're building up slowly. | ||
| And once you get to the base camp, you stay there for five days because, you know, you are building the red blood cells. | ||
| You do, like, small, like, acclimatizing hike, nothing crazy. | ||
| And after five days, what you do is... | ||
| You go to cam 1, you sleep over there. | ||
| This is the first one, you know. | ||
| And then if you feel good, you go to cam 2. If you don't, you sleep there for another day. | ||
| And then you go to cam 2 eventually. | ||
| If you feel good, again, you go and touch cam 3 and calm down. | ||
| If you're not feeling good, I keep them for extra day. | ||
| Because it's like building the red blood cells acclimatize. | ||
| Is there a way to check? | ||
| It's how you feel? | ||
| Yeah, how you feel. | ||
| As long as all my clients are honest, I tailor-feed everything. | ||
| You've got to be careful with really tough people then, right? | ||
| Yeah, and you know what? | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| Tough people are the ones who struggle. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Because there's so much egos and they want to do it and they are not as fast as they are on sea level. | ||
| So this is where you have to take a chill pill and let it adapt. | ||
| That has to be very hard because a lot of the people that are willing to do something like that are very tough to begin with. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And that's when it hits it. | ||
| And yeah, once you touch Camp 3, you come down to base camp, and now you wait for the weather window. | ||
| And if there's a good weather window, this time now, you can go directly to Camp 2. And you'll be even quicker, because you're acclimatized. | ||
| Then you go to Camp 3. From Camp 3, we put on oxygen. | ||
| And then, obviously, you go to Camp 4. And Camp 4, on Everest, depending on how fast you are, I kind of decide who goes at what time. | ||
| So if you're slower, we send it 9 o'clock. | ||
| If you're faster, we send it like 1 a.m. | ||
| in the morning. | ||
| So, everybody will summit around 7 o'clock in the morning and they come down. | ||
| So, the whole process from flying to Nepal to summiting Everest, how much time is average? | ||
| Two months. | ||
| Two months? | ||
| Two months. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| So, we're definitely not going, Jamie. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| I can take people in a month. | ||
| Yeah, I don't have a month, bro. | ||
| I don't even know a week. | ||
| Jesus, I know. | ||
| That's crazy. | ||
| But you can always make that time. | ||
| Hey, you're right. | ||
| I heard that. | ||
| I heard that before. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We can do it. | |
| You can do it, buddy. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| So, that's amazing that that many people have that kind of time to spend months acclimatizing. | ||
| You know what? | ||
| It's not that. | ||
| It's like making time for yourself. | ||
| Because some of the people who are coming are literally like billionaires and some are very busy people. | ||
| Well, it's got to be a life goal for them, right? | ||
| Yeah, it has to be something where, you know, they are doing that for a reason, either to get the experience to move on and take away from that experience to whatever they're going to achieve in life. | ||
| Yeah, it's the adventure. | ||
| You know, adventure is the biggest healer of any problems we have in life. | ||
| Yeah? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Adventurers? | ||
| Yeah, 100%. | ||
| How so? | ||
| I think because that's when... | ||
| Look, a lot of people say, Nims, you know, why you climb and all that. | ||
| A few reasons, you know. | ||
| One, I climb, you know, so that I'm alive because I love putting myself into the ricks where... | ||
| I care about living and not just existing, right? | ||
| And like in other normal terms, you know, why adventure like and I say why it heals everything is because when you get into those mountains, things are very simpler. | ||
| You know, all these things that we worry about, you know, paying the mortgage or, you know, like entertaining this guy or making everybody happy, all those problems we have from the society, they all get dropped down because you are at that element of, I would say, not survival, but in that adventure field where nothing really matters. | ||
| Like, you know, for example, if you are doing a A fast four miler. | ||
| You're not going to think about all those things. | ||
| You are thinking about how you keep up the pace to meet that mission. | ||
| And that's what it is. | ||
| And I think it's a great thing to do. | ||
| Well, I can imagine that the difficulty of it, the power of just being out there in that insanely beautiful environment, it's very hard to think about all the nonsense of the world. | ||
| It kind of puts things into perspective. | ||
| Massively. | ||
| Massively. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But you know why I first started climbing Zoo? | ||
| You know, like being the first Gurkha in SBS, you know, passing it in the first time and serving around the world for 10 years, doing crazy shit, you know. | ||
| And you think you're invincible. | ||
| You really think you're invincible, you know, from this stuff that you have done. | ||
| And when I first went to the mountain, it really made me feel humble. | ||
| The nature was like, you know what, it put me back into my shoes and elements. | ||
| Then I really started loving that and I started finding the joy in putting myself into this self-voluntary torture. | ||
| And then obviously with that I found the bigger purpose and this is where I am. | ||
| And the key message in everything what I've done and what I say to people is, Look, whatever you do in life, follow your passion. | ||
| Because if you follow your passion, like when I did in Gurkha, it was my passion. | ||
| When I did in SBS, it's a passion because you put so much extra hours on this work. | ||
| And then if that's a work that you don't love, it's not a passion, you will go mental, you will go crazy. | ||
| So when you follow your passion, you know, extra work is not extra hours because you are enjoying it. | ||
| And that extra hours is like extra training. | ||
| And when you put so much extra training than the rest of the people, you, of course, become the best of who you are. | ||
| And with that being the best means, you know, of course there's then different source of income because you are the elite of that thing and the money that all these things will follow. | ||
| I know you're speaking to a lot of ultra performers out there. | ||
| You're speaking to people that do have that mindset and they do want to accomplish things. | ||
| For some people it's just hard to get those first few steps going to achieve a goal and to follow a dream. | ||
| What you're saying, I 100% believe that If you find your passion, you're not working. | ||
| You're loving it. | ||
| It's not like a job that you dread where you show up every day. | ||
| It's just a matter of finding that thing. | ||
| For a lot of people, it's very difficult to find that thing. | ||
| So that's why, Luke, it's one life. | ||
| So you got to go and try different things. | ||
| Otherwise, you're not living it. | ||
| Why are you scared of taking that risk, quitting from that job or whatever that is, and then go and do it? | ||
| Because it's one life. | ||
| What worse can happen? | ||
| I'm with you. | ||
| I agree with you 100%. | ||
| But for a lot of people, it's very difficult to get moving. | ||
| You know what? | ||
| To a lot of people who are listening to this today, make that commitment. | ||
| And you never know. | ||
| You know what? | ||
| At the worst situation, you will probably lose that job. | ||
| Hey, come on. | ||
| That's not the end of it. | ||
| That's not really the end of it. | ||
| And for those people who doesn't really know the difference between living and existing, guys, look, start living. | ||
| And once you make those commitments, and nothing comes without any risk. | ||
| You have to take that risk to a step of that job that you are not liking or that career that you are not enjoying. | ||
| And then do other things. | ||
| That's the thing. | ||
| So many people are not willing to take a risk. | ||
| The risk seems too dangerous. | ||
| It seems too... | ||
| Fraught with peril and there's no definite like what you did when you retired from the military you you had no safety net and for some people that's Terrifying they live for a safety net. | ||
| They want a nice 401k retirement plan. | ||
| Oh my god. | ||
| They want Yeah. | ||
| You are right. | ||
| You know, like with this, like in a movie, if I had to go through like, let's say, bigger production team, it would have never been signed because they were like, oh, it's such a huge risk. | ||
| Right, right, right. | ||
| All that, right? | ||
| Because it's crazy, but you know, you make things happen and we all are different. | ||
| And again, going into that perspective, what you said, you know, When I sold my house and gave up my prestige career in the Special Forces, all that pension, you know, my best thing was, you know what? | ||
| The worst thing is, what could happen? | ||
| I can leave off my tent. | ||
| And even I said to my wife, you know, let's, we're going to leave, you know, start from the tent. | ||
| Your wife was probably like, what? | ||
| What? | ||
| A tent. | ||
| Yeah, and then you grow again. | ||
| You grow again. | ||
| And there's always a time. | ||
| You can do that. | ||
| That is absolutely possible. | ||
| But for most people, when they've achieved a certain amount of success, the idea of going backwards is terrifying to them, right? | ||
| Yeah, that's why you need to find the purpose. | ||
| And that purpose, like, you know, because when I say that I climb without sleeping for six days, it's like, hey, why? | ||
| Because I had the purpose. | ||
| Honestly, I used to slap my face. | ||
| I used to think about all these motivating factors. | ||
| Then you break it down and I used to put snow under my armpit. | ||
| But then it's the purpose. | ||
| The snow under the armpit is to wake you up? | ||
| Is that what that's for? | ||
| Just because it's like freezing cold. | ||
| And then even that is so, like, you are so tired that as soon as you stop, you'll fall asleep. | ||
| And you're like, oh my god, I may fall down. | ||
| And then you're like, start slapping in your face. | ||
| And then, yeah, you know, it's just like, you know, funny things, what I used to think was like, yeah, Nims, you know, you feel like in downtown in a club. | ||
| And you are like drinking and you are dancing and even it's like two o'clock in the morning you would still dance and you know and you are not even achieving anything but now you are here in the greatest mission and you want to sleep you know all these multi layers of like motivating factors you know and also like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel you know like I always knew like I had to finish this project and yeah. | ||
| What was it like when you stepped foot on the top of the last summit? | ||
| But as soon as I went there, I was like, okay, it's the last project, last mountain. | ||
| I still haven't done it. | ||
| I need to get back down safely. | ||
| This is when things could like go wrong. | ||
| So don't be too cocky. | ||
| Straight away, I went into like, you know, that need. | ||
| And the big thing was, you know, I call my mom from the summit and I say, hey mom, you know. | ||
| You have cell phone service at the summit? | ||
| Satellite. | ||
| Satellite phone. | ||
| And I call her and I say, remember that project I was doing? | ||
| And she's like, yeah. | ||
| And it's like, it's over mom. | ||
| I just have to get down safely. | ||
| And that was, I remember that phase, brother. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| That'd be pretty incredible. | ||
| Yeah, I think, look, let me put it this way. | ||
| During the first phase, when I finished it, the big sponsors started coming in. | ||
| A few hotels in Kathmandu and all they get in touch and they were like looking after my free stay and all that. | ||
| In one of the hotels, I took my mom and I asked for the mineral water. | ||
| And my mom told me, son, can you afford this? | ||
| And I said, mom, you know, nowadays, for staying in this hotel, these people not only give me a free stay, they are supporting by paying a bit of money into the project. | ||
| And she's like, bullshit. | ||
| Don't try to fool me. | ||
| And she never had the idea. | ||
| She didn't believe you? | ||
| She never had the idea what I was doing. | ||
| And then... | ||
| And literally when I finished the whole 14 picks, I made her fly at the border, which you see on the film as well. | ||
| And that was... | ||
| And she still didn't know it, but then when the helicopter came and landed at the Kathmandu airport... | ||
| And there was, like, British ambassador coming in, like, Range Rover with the flag of Nepal and United Kingdom. | ||
| And then as we get out of the gate, there was, like, whole of the band, you know, like, playing. | ||
| And then mom probably saw, okay, this is what, you know, our son had done. | ||
| That had to be amazing to make your mother so proud. | ||
| Yeah, man. | ||
| And the big thing here, what I really felt, where I was really upset was, I told you earlier, like, my dad was in Chitwan, my mom was in Kathmandu living in this small room, and I wanted to put them together. | ||
| And after I finished the project, Honestly, the bank, they trust me and they give me like loan and everything and it was around 600k. | ||
| I bought a really nice house in Kathmandu. | ||
| It was all like made and I was trying to put my mom and dad together and I remember it was 26th of February when I went to move my both parents. | ||
| My mom passed away two hours before I landed and that was when I really felt like Time, you know, it never waits for anybody. | ||
| And that was when I felt like that's the only mission I felt in my life. | ||
| No, that's not a failure. | ||
| That's just life. | ||
| You know, it's like, you know, but hey, hey, I hope, you know, you know, I still kind of like satisfy myself saying that, okay, at least you witnessed the airport stuff, the, you know, welcoming and all that, the positive experience. | ||
| No, that's very positive. | ||
| I mean, she saw you accomplish something that's incredible. | ||
| And we all die, brother. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| We all die. | ||
| That's something that's, I think, the hardest for people to recognize, the people that are scared to take chances, that are scared to live a risky life and to do something outside of a boring job that they hate. | ||
| They forget that as well. | ||
| They forget. | ||
| We forget that we go one day. | ||
| While we are living every hour, every minute in that work or in that things that you are not loving, it's not good for your health, certainly for your mental health, and it's not good in terms of you living. | ||
| It's not good for your spirit. | ||
| You are just existing. | ||
| You're not growing. | ||
| You want some of that? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| The thing about life is that you can grow and become a better version. | ||
| Cheers, brother. | ||
| Cheers, my man. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| - Thank you. - You can become a better version of who you are. - 100%. - I mean, we're all, look, I'm a way better person than I was decades ago. | ||
| I'm better at life. | ||
| I'm better at managing myself. | ||
| I'm better at doing things. | ||
| I'm better at getting things done. | ||
| And it's because of all the various difficult things that I've done over that time. | ||
| Some people, unfortunately, don't get to experience what that feels like because they don't test themselves enough. | ||
| They don't reach for things. | ||
| They don't stress their system and try things out and find out where their boundaries are. | ||
| And Joe, if I may, did you thought that you would do this kind of podcast before you started? | ||
| And how did these things come for you? | ||
| This is just keeping going. | ||
| I don't know what it is, honestly. | ||
| I mean, people want to ask me as if I had some lofty goal to be the number one podcast in the world. | ||
| No! | ||
| I had no goals. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| When I first finished this mission, all my friends were like, Nims, you got to go to Joe Rogan and all that. | ||
| And I was like, wow, okay. | ||
| And then, of course, I Googled and found out. | ||
| But again, for you, it seems like You're loving this. | ||
| You're enjoying it. | ||
| I love it. | ||
| And that's the whole thing, you know, what we are trying to say to all these people who are listening is simply follow your passion. | ||
| Well, what I've gotten out of this podcast that I didn't necessarily think that I wanted in my life, it just sort of happened. | ||
| Was an education in communicating with extraordinary people. | ||
| And when someone like you, like when I reached out to you, it's like when we started setting this up, I was like, that is exactly the type of person I want to talk to. | ||
| When Cam told me about you, and then when you reached out to me on Instagram, and then I reached out to you, and we started figuring out how to do this and coordinate and make it happen... | ||
| I was like, this is exactly the type of person I want to talk to. | ||
| That's what this podcast is about. | ||
| There's so many interesting and extraordinary people out there in the world, and so few people have access to them. | ||
| But through this podcast, I have been like an antenna for all these folks. | ||
| I've been able to broadcast all the thoughts and ideas of extraordinary people, so so many people get to think the way a person like you thinks. | ||
| Or all these other interesting people that I've had on. | ||
| A lot of people even in Nepal listen to you. | ||
| Yeah, it's crazy. | ||
| It's crazy. | ||
| You probably wouldn't have thought, but yeah, a lot of people in Nepal. | ||
| It's number one in 93 countries. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| It's nuts. | ||
| Well done, brother. | ||
| Well done. | ||
| That's awesome. | ||
| The thing is, it's like it wasn't on purpose. | ||
| There was no... | ||
| I still can't believe it. | ||
| It doesn't make any sense to me. | ||
| All I do is just still do what I've always done. | ||
| I enjoy talking to interesting people. | ||
| I'm fascinated by the way people live their lives and the way they think about things and the knowledge that they've acquired and the way they've developed their discipline and their intellect. | ||
| That's just always been me, though. | ||
| I've always been fascinated by people and how their minds work. | ||
| And I think because that's who you are and you try to get that eagerness, that keenness. | ||
| I think that's when you can get the great content of the people. | ||
| You also get better at podcasting as a conversation and a lot of people are just not that good at having conversations. | ||
| It's tricky to manage. | ||
| I mean, I'm sure you've talked to people that aren't good at talking. | ||
| It's uncomfortable sometimes. | ||
| It's clunky. | ||
| It's kind of a weird art form. | ||
| When I talk to someone who's a really good conversationalist, it's very thrilling. | ||
| It's exciting. | ||
| It's like, wow, this is a very enjoyable conversation. | ||
| I really like it. | ||
| And that's something that I think people have, for whatever reason, not thought of as a skill or as a craft or as an art. | ||
| But I guess it is. | ||
| And I found out about it by accident. | ||
| I mean, I found out about the fact that it's a skill by accident. | ||
| You take the information out and you just hold that in a conversation. | ||
| And, Joe, you know, The big thing, you know, when I really decided to come over here, and look, I'm so honest, I was like, you know what? | ||
| This guy is fucking true. | ||
| I spoke with Cinemassist to David Goggins as well, and he's like, yeah, this guy is amazing. | ||
| I was like, yeah, you know. | ||
| But it's been a super busy time, and I was so happy. | ||
| I'm sure. | ||
| Again, like you said, you know, my key messaging was there's no excuse in life, right? | ||
| We all can make excuse and say, okay, wish I had that. | ||
| Had I been that, these people have been like, no, you know, like, As I said, you know, coming from barefoot, not even having a 10p in my pocket, you know, forget all that. | ||
| Today, you know, whatever angle you look, you know, I'm not only, you know, have this kind of, like, successful, like, career and documentary, you know. | ||
| Today, if money is something that attracts to you, yes, I'm already a millionaire. | ||
| So there's no excuse in anything in life. | ||
| But the key here is follow your passion. | ||
| Yeah, that really is the key. | ||
| Find a thing that you love to do. | ||
| Don't necessarily think just about money because if you have a lot of money but you're miserable, you fucked up. | ||
| Yeah, massively. | ||
| You want to do what you enjoy doing and if you do what you enjoy doing and you excel at it and you become excellent, you will make money. | ||
| Yeah, because you are putting so many hours into it naturally, and it's that natural training, right? | ||
| And also, a lot of people also ask me, Nims, you had so much trouble going into this one, the whole of the project. | ||
| And how you made this possible. | ||
| And one thing which I must give credit is, you know, the United Kingdom Special Forces. | ||
| So the key point here is the centrality of the mission. | ||
| And those people who have read the book and who have watched the movie, obviously you saw me where I was shot by a sniper. | ||
| Right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And then obviously I fell down from this two-story building. | ||
| We talked about that at the very beginning. | ||
| So the sniper bullet hit your rifle butt right next to your neck. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So I was in prone position laying in the ground. | ||
| I was spinning in the right in front. | ||
| And then like somebody from this angle, the sniper. | ||
| Because, you know, like I asked my other colleagues, like, you know, the local special forces to come on this roof to have this all-around defense. | ||
| But it was so hard, you know, the bullets were flying everywhere. | ||
| So those guys got scared and I had to go up in order to pin that enemy position so that, you know, my other assault force can go and take over. | ||
| So I went up to facilitate that. | ||
| And then, yeah, next thing I was in the ground and obviously I was bleeding from my face. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And first thing was, I was like, oh, names... | |
| They say you don't feel the pain when you are short. | ||
| So I checked my jaw and it was there. | ||
| But what people didn't see here going back into the point centrality of the mission is what I did after that. | ||
| So of course my long barrel weapon is not in use anymore. | ||
| I was asked to leave the fight and go in the cash back in a helicopter to a bigger hospital. | ||
| Then I said no. | ||
| And then the reason why I said no was the centrality of the mission. | ||
| This is like, you know, I'm getting my pistol out. | ||
| I fought for like six hours just with pistol. | ||
| And why again? | ||
| Because I really think that The mission statement is the mission statement. | ||
| So if I go there just because I can't go, it's like there's one less special forces operator in the ground. | ||
| There's one less set of, you know, envisage in the ground. | ||
| There's one less set of, you know, like weapon in the ground. | ||
| And with that, you know, I may lose my friends because there's not like 360 protection. | ||
| It's not the full fighting scale. | ||
| So was the rifle destroyed? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| And I was given my friends a weapon. | ||
| So that weapon, when I received after six hours, wasn't even zeroed to my eye. | ||
| And I still remember, man, I was like trying to shoot and I miss it. | ||
| I was like, oh, it's not my weapon. | ||
| And I had to adjust on the ground and keep doing. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But again, you know, that's the reason why I keep fighting is like the mission statement. | ||
| So in 14 picks mission... | ||
| There were a lot of troubles. | ||
| Like, you know, the biggest painful was to me when your own people kind of, you know, like make the mickey out of you and they say negative things. | ||
| So I was in this evolution of raising the funding, Joe, and I went there and then it's all the Gurkha community and some of them Just said, yeah, you know what? | ||
| This guy is just doing for his fucking name and fame and he doesn't want to do it. | ||
| He just want to climb a mountain and he's doing that. | ||
| But they didn't really knew what I was really doing. | ||
| But it touched me because I'm also human, right? | ||
| And I was driving back on M3 motorway and I had tears in my eyes and I was like crying out loud. | ||
| Because at this point I was bursting, you know, because I had given up this prestige career, I had given up my job, I have sold my house, pension, everything and I'm trying to do this good thing and people are like, my own people are saying that it's a bit too much. | ||
| So I was like bursting in tears and I pulled my car in a lay-by off the motorway and And I was like, okay, now what can I think? | ||
| And I was like, you know what, Nims, you said that this project is never about you. | ||
| You said that you wanted to change the world for the better purpose. | ||
| You said that you want to completely paradigm shift in perception of human potential. | ||
| You said that you're going to give justice to the Nepalese climbing community. | ||
| Come on, how you feel, it doesn't matter. | ||
| So that's the centrality of the mission. | ||
| And I wipe up my tears and I drop down. | ||
| 18 months later, I will tell you this. | ||
| The Gurkhas didn't have equal rights, equal pension in the British military, even though we have served for so many years. | ||
| So the Gurkhas have got more VC. Victoria Cross is the highest awarded bravery medal you can get. | ||
| The Gurkha Regiment has got more than any other regiment. | ||
| We still didn't have the Ecole pension. | ||
| So then there was a campaign by our own people, the Gurkhas, the retired, you know, Gurkhas like fighting on number 10 on the parliament saying that, hey, we need the Ecole pension. | ||
| And even to have the debate on Parliament, you need to have 100,000 of Paterson signed. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| So, they have done everything they could and they had only 23,000 Paterson signed. | ||
| I took over in a week, I made that 100k. | ||
| And it's a bigger impact, bigger reason. | ||
| And that's from the small perspective. | ||
| And when people say negative to me in my life, Joe, what I say is like, you know what, that's all they can think of. | ||
| Because Well, you know, nobody wants to be bad. | ||
| Nobody wants to be that, you know, like negative person. | ||
| Maybe he's saying that because that is what he's limited to or she's limited to. | ||
| I'm there who I can think bigger. | ||
| I'm there because I can, you know, I have this different mindset. | ||
| So forget that. | ||
| So I keep those things to the side and I move forward. | ||
| But again, things, you know, When I say the bigger purpose, bigger reason, I use the power of social media for the right cause. | ||
| Again, I see how it is. | ||
| There's a quote. | ||
| I think it's Mark Twain. | ||
| He said, throughout history, great spirits have encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I might be paraphrasing. | ||
| I might have fucked it up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is Albert Einstein. | |
| Oh, is it really? | ||
| Oh, there you go. | ||
| Is that what he says? | ||
| Did I say it right? | ||
| Great spirits have always faced violent opposition from mediocre minds. | ||
| Albert Einstein. | ||
| I thought it was Mark Twain. | ||
| But there is something to that, man. | ||
| Do you know what crabs in a bucket are? | ||
| Do you know that expression? | ||
| No. | ||
| If you put a bunch of crabs in a bucket, some crabs will try to get out of the bucket, and as they're trying to climb, the other crabs will pull them down. | ||
| And that's what it is. | ||
| It's some people that live these timid existences, that live these timid lives and don't take chances and don't... | ||
| They don't try to leave a mark. | ||
| They don't try to do anything extraordinary. | ||
| They get upset when other people do. | ||
| Some people get upset at other people's success. | ||
| Other people celebrate other people's success. | ||
| This is the difference in a lot of folks. | ||
| Some people will try to find the negative in people. | ||
| Other people will try to find the positive in people. | ||
| Like what you did when someone stole your oxygen. | ||
| Even though you were lying to yourself, you decided to frame it in a positive way that someone is going to go home to their family, save someone's life with that oxygen. | ||
| There's patterns of thinking, and some people, they are a prisoner to their own pattern of thinking, and they don't even realize it. | ||
| And maybe they do, maybe they know somewhere subconsciously that what they're doing is detrimental to their own existence. | ||
| But they can't help themselves, and then they lash out at other folks. | ||
| They try to find external reasons for why they're unhappy, external reasons why they're bitter. | ||
| So they look to other people that are successful, and they try to find the worst aspects of those people. | ||
| Oh, Nims is just doing it for himself. | ||
| He just wants attention. | ||
| And now, now that you've already done it, and now that you're You have a gigantic documentary on Netflix, and now that you're here on this podcast, now that the world is getting to hear your story, now they must be very angry! | ||
| Why though? | ||
| Why can't people change this? | ||
| There's a lesson in there for everyone else. | ||
| Those people, whether they realize it or not, their failure to reason correctly, to think well in a positive manner, they're a lesson for other people. | ||
| The observers on the outside get to look at these bitter fools and go, oh, I see what you're doing. | ||
| I see what you're doing. | ||
| I see what you're doing. | ||
| There's so many people like that, Nims. | ||
| You know what I really believe in is also we're human beings. | ||
| Nobody's perfect. | ||
| You tell me anyone who's perfect. | ||
| Let's say from Albert Einstein to Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, all these greatest people, you name it. | ||
| There's always people criticizing. | ||
| There's always people, right? | ||
| But why is that? | ||
| You know, guys, can we not be like a bit open-minded? | ||
| Now we are at this century, I think we need to... | ||
| No, you can. | ||
| You can and powerful people can and positive people can. | ||
| But there's always going to be negative people. | ||
| There's always going to be weak people. | ||
| It's just nature, man. | ||
| You see it in chickens. | ||
| It's a pecking order. | ||
| There's a weak chicken, the other one's like... | ||
| They start pecking at the chicken. | ||
| It's just natural. | ||
| There's some people that just can't help lash out at other people and what they fail to realize is the energy that they spend attacking another person is energy they could have spent elevating their own life. | ||
| Exactly, exactly brother. | ||
| They're stealing from themselves without even realizing it. | ||
| Mate, you hit the nail on the head there. | ||
| That's what it is, man. | ||
| Why are you focusing on dragging other people It's spending so much of your energy, time and everything when you can actually do good thing for yourself and you can be that another happy person. | ||
| Because they're trapped in a pattern of thinking where they feel that if someone is excelling past their own personal limitations or past their own personal success, they feel bad because they feel jealous and they feel envious. | ||
| So what they do is they lash out at that person and they try to find something negative about them. | ||
| It's so common. | ||
| It's so normal but it's really they're stealing from themselves because your time and your energy is so valuable and time that you spend worrying about what other people are accomplishing instead of what I like to do is I'm friends with a lot of these people like David Goggins and Cam Haynes and now I'm friends with you and people that do extraordinary things. | ||
| They're fuel. | ||
| They're energy. | ||
| They give you something. | ||
| By being around these people, you realize that so many accomplishments are possible that people never attempt because the human condition, the human spirit is limitless. | ||
| There's so much a person can do. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| And if you spend your time criticizing, you spend your time trying to find the holes, instead of recognizing... | ||
| Focusing in your... | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I like to compliment people I don't even like. | ||
| It's an exercise. | ||
| People I think are shitty people, but they do amazing things. | ||
| I like to compliment their amazing aspects. | ||
| And just acknowledge the fact that they're cunts, but say, even that, look at all the good stuff that guy's done. | ||
| He's pretty impressive. | ||
| There's value in that. | ||
| There's value also for you as a person that you can put aside jealousy and your petty envy and recognize that other people's success does not equal your failure. | ||
| And that you can benefit from other people's success because it elevates your own ideas of what's possible. | ||
| Mate, you smashed it. | ||
| And you know what, Joe? | ||
| The big thing, what I also realize is once you become successful, The enemies are not from the outside. | ||
| The enemies are like from that circle who you have been with. | ||
| Yes! | ||
| Because those are the people who cannot be you but they think they can be you. | ||
| And those people started dragging because they have been hanging around with you and they have known you and they don't realize like how much of hard work and the things that you have put together. | ||
| They don't see that. | ||
| They don't care. | ||
| They're like, oh yeah, I've been with this guy. | ||
| I know him. | ||
| I spend now. | ||
| He's that successful guy. | ||
| And yes, I could be that. | ||
| And those are also the people. | ||
| But the whole point here is, guys, there's so much negativity in this world. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| Don't even focus on that. | ||
| You know, there's a very famous quote saying that if you are moving from A to B and there are loads of dogs who are barking at you, if you start throwing every dog that is barking at you, you'll never reach your destination. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| So let them bark. | ||
| Let them bark. | ||
| You go towards your mission. | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| Let them bark. | ||
| We should end with that. | ||
| My brother, thank you very much for coming here. | ||
| I really, really appreciate you. | ||
| It's been an honor and a pleasure to meet you. | ||
| The documentary is 14 Peaks. | ||
| It's on Netflix right now, and it's extraordinary. | ||
| It really is. | ||
| Thank you, brother. | ||
| It means a lot. | ||
| I can't wait to see you again when you do something else crazy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| Very soon then, my brother. | ||
| Very soon. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Well, you're always welcome. | ||
| Open invitation. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, brother. | |
| Bye, everybody. |
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