Twin peak dream
OUR EVEREST CHALLENGE WITH BEN FOGLE & VICTORIA PENDLETON
ITV, 9pm
THIS athletic pair have already faced their fair share of tough physical challenges.
Track cyclist Victoria has won nine world titles and two Olympic gold medals (and made it to week eight on Strictly).
And adventurer Ben has rowed across the Atlantic and run to the South Pole (and, allegedly, was once spiked with LSD down the pub). But now they’re setting their sights even higher, literally, by aiming to climb the world’s tallest mountain. Although it soon becomes clear that really Everest is Ben’s dream.
One he’s had since boyhood, and has evidently been a bit obsessed by. He even calls the mountain “she” and “her”.
Anyway... it’s taken two years of training to get them to the point where they’re ready to start the difficult ascent. Everest is 8,848 metres high and packed with lethal terrain – huge crevasses, incredible variations in temperature and regular avalanches. And while 4,000 people might have made it to the summit since the first recorded climb by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, 300 have also been killed in the attempt.
Both Ben and Victoria are super fit, but they’re still taking no chances and start with shorts climbs from base camp and down again to help their bodies acclimatise to the thin air.
But as a series of disasters start to befall the pair and their crew, it looks seriously doubtful whether Ben will get the chance to fulfil his dream.