THE CRAZY LIFE OF ADVENTURER NIALL
CYCLING along one of the highest roads in the world, manhauling across the Greenland ice cap and rowing across the Atlantic Ocean – welcome to the world of adventurer Niall McCann.
For the 35-year-old biologist, adventure is in his blood – his grandfather Pat Baird was an explorer who led the first expedition to the Cumberland Peninsular on Baffin Island in Canada, having the Baird Peninsula named after him.
His parents were also biologists and keen travellers, too, so it was only a matter of time before Niall started his own love affair with adventure and exploration.
The first “serious adventure” that Niall, of Rumney, Cardiff, embarked on was his trip to the Himalayas, where he cycled across the Khunjerab pass – a total of 1,500 miles.
He said: “I had just finished my A-levels and all my mates went off to Magaluf but I fled to the Himalayas.
“I received my results by email in the Karakoram mountains in Pakistan.
“It was in the middle of nowhere and it was the thing that confirmed to me that I wanted to do this with my life.”
After a second trip to the Himalayas, where Niall cycled along one of the highest paths in the world, the Khardung La, he also went on to spend 17 days canoeing along the Yukon River in Canada, and took part in multiple rock-climbing expeditions to the USA and Europe.
In 2009 Niall and his friend Murray Smith manhauled across the Greenland Icecap where, he said, they faced temperatures of -42⁰C.
But Niall considers his biggest achievement to be his crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, along with friend James Burge.
Setting off from the Canary Islands, the pair rowed over nine weeks to reach Antigua, in the Caribbean, on the other side of the ocean.
Niall said: “It’s hard to get a bigger challenge than spending over two months in a small shaky box and not seeing land.
“It was a really good thing for me. I had taken a career break from biology and I was feeling dissatisfied with myself for that choice, so I needed a big challenge to give integrity and vitality to my life.
“It was pretty damn tough. That boat was going for 24 hours a day. We rowed for hour on and hour off so the longest rest you have is an hour and the longest you can sleep for is 48 minutes.
“When the weather got more rough we made that routine even harder. We would row for an hour by ourselves, row an hour together and one of us would rest for an hour so that was two hours on and one hour off.
“It was a draining challenge. It felt unbelievable when we finished and my whole body was tingling with endorphins. I was walking on a crisp of air for the next two weeks.
“We didn’t know for certain whether we’d survive, so there was some relief when we finished.”
Niall suffered a dramatic setback last year when he shattered his spine while speed-flying near Pen y Fan and crashing into a cliff face.
He broke five vertebrae in his spine and underwent two operations to repair his back, but he was told he would need a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
However, following a stint at the University Hospital of Wales’ trauma unit, followed by rehabilitation at University Hospital Llandough, Niall stood up just 19 days after the accident.
He is still recovering from the collision now, but in August he was strong enough to walk back up Pen Y Fan.
Niall said: “I saw that as a watershed moment, of getting to a level of independence again. I was, and still am, disabled but I was able to walk at a pace that most people are able to walk at.
“Since December I have been back at the gym and I do a lot of travelling in work so I have just come back home from South Africa and Zimbabwe.
“I still cannot run because I don’t have the strength in my calves. I have got lots of other issues but I am not letting it get in the way of my life and I am still enjoying recovery and I have not yet reached a plateau.”
Despite his injuries, Niall is now hoping to slowly but surely think about what adventures he can do in the future.
“It’s difficult to know how much I’ll be able to recover and how much I’ll be able to do.
“I don’t know whether I’ll get back into hard mountaineering but I have set myself a challenge this year to climb a significant mountain.
“I know that I will be pushing the limits of my recovery but I will still continue to live a life more adventurous than 95% of people on earth, and for that I am lucky.”