Jake Meyer - Mountaineer, Public Speaker, Presenter

Whiskey and Knives…

Jake — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:02:33 +0000

It seems like it’s been a frightfully busy couple of weeks since the last post. First there was 5 days at RMA Sandhurst (or HMP Sandbags as it’s sometimes known!) acting as a mentor for a civilian leadership challenge. It was great to be back at RMAS, this time with a pip on my chest, and not getting shouted at all of the time! I had a fantastic group of 8 who I looked after for 4 days whilst they underwent all sorts of leadership training and testing, such as planning exercises and command tasks.
There have also been a couple of lectures, including the Croydon College Graduation ceremony, where I spoke to about 1300 people in Fairfields Hall (my biggest audience ever!).
Had a wicked night in London last week going to the Chivas Regal Party in Marylebone to hear Nick and Giles English (of Bremont Watch Company) speak, and a tasting session of some rather delicious whiskey. As if this wasn’t enough, Simon (my Manager) and I then headed down Bond Street to the opening party for the new Victorinox flagship store (and in fact, the only one in Europe!). Had a great chat to Carl Elsener, the CEO of Victorinox about climbing in Switzerland! Not only were we bombarded with free drinks and chocolate penknives all night, but the goodie bags were rather generous as well!

Saskia and I went climbing in the Wye Valley on Saturday with Rupert Rosedale, my climbing teacher from school. Somehow we managed to get the weather spot on, and we all had a great day (although Saskia might beg to differ!). A lot of frantic polishing that evening then prepared me for the Rememberance Sunday Parade in Cirencester with my Squadron. Absolutely freezing (not much room for thermals under my service dress!), but again somehow managed to stay dry, and of course a little shivering is a small price to pay to be involved in such an important day.

October…

Jake — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:54:27 +0000

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last post - let me fill you in…

I’ve spoken at a number of schools including: Marlborough College (my old haunt!), St. Gabriels (Newbury), Benenden (Kent), Edgebaston Girl’s High School (Birmingham), Prince’s Mead School (WInchester), Tonbridge School (Kent) and Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital (Bristol). QEH was especially enjoyable, as it was their prize giving and speech day, and the event was held in the Wills Memorial Building at Bristol University - the same room in which I received my degree last year.

I also spoke at the Barbican centre for a big corporate event for a Multination Media Company, and have just returned from 5 days on board MV Ventura - the 115,000 ton P&O flagship. We spent a lovely day in Gibraltar, before returning to Southampton across a rather rough Bay of Biscay, and all I had to do is chat about my adventures. It really is a hard life!

Coupled with a fair amount of Army bits and pieces (and I’m off to Sandhurst for this week to train some civilians on a leadership course), it’s been frightfully busy, and the paperwork on my desk is growing at an alarming rate (bloody tax returns - need I say more!). However, quite a few interesting opportunities and projects on the horizon, and perhaps even Xmas is a rather nice warm place (free holiday/work!).

And they say that being an adventurer is easy… !

Prize giving at QEH in Bristol

The best day of my life…

Jake — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:48:57 +0000

Giles Vickers-Jones and Humfrey Hunter have just brought out a book called ‘The best day of my life’. This is a compilation of true short stories to inspire, move and entertain. I met Giles last year at an event in Surrey Quays and he asked me to contribute, which naturally I was thrilled to do, and I recieved a copy of it yesterday. It’s weird seeing my words in real text in a real book! Also, I’ve got a smashing picture in there as well. The book is full of great stories, by and complete mixture of celebs and everyday people, and it was wonderful to see that the entry after mine, is by my good friend Jamie Murray Wells - the boss of Glasses Direct.

September…

Jake — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:58:55 +0000

Last couple of weeks has been very busy for me. I’ve spent most of the time up in Otterburn with my TA Regiment on our annual camp, which was a great success. Lots of time in the field and a weeks worth of live firing meant that we were certainly kept busy! In amongst the fun I managed to get back down south for a few days to give a talk at a Help for Heroes event at the Military Corrective Training Centre in Colchester which managed to raise thousands of pounds for the charity. I also finally managed to go skydiving, and on the friday, lept out of a plane from 13,000ft and5 minutes later landed softly in a field full of cows! It was an incredible buzz, and now I can’t wait to do it again. Also managed to get to the Goodwood Revival in a 1920’s Bullnose Morris, which was another wonderful day out in our weird Indian Summer. This morning I spoke to 150 girls at St Gabriel’s School near Newbury, so hopefully I’ve inspired a few of them to get out and climb their own personal Everests. Marlborough College tomorrow, and the Benedon girls school in Kent on Wednesday. Phew… it’s almost like having a proper job, thank goodness my weekend starts on Thursday!

Swashbuckling adventures on the high seas…

Jake — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:18:55 +0000

Just got back from 5 days on Oceana, one of P&O’s cruise ships, where I gave a couple of talks to entertain the passengers. This was the second time I’ve done the cruise ships, and I have to say that I do really enjoy them. Last year a good friend and I spent 5 days on Arcadia sailing from Gibralter to Southampton, this time Saskia and I flew out and met the ship in Lisbon, and then came back via Brest and Cherbourg. It’s a great gig to do, the audiences are always incredibly welcoming and having a few days to relax, eat our own bodyweight and check oput some beautiful foreign ports is always an attractive option! It’s a hard life! Looking forward to going on Ventura in October with another friend.

Relatively chilled out week this week, battling my way through a rather long ‘to-do’ list at the moment, catching up with last week’s stuff, as well as bits that seem to be left over from the expedition! Lecture in Swindon on Friday, and then off up to Otterburn for 2 weeks of annual camp with the TA… fun fun fun!

Ireland and a parachuting non-starter.

Jake — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:07:20 +0000

Saskia and I went over to Northern Ireland for a great party this weekend, but also managed to get up to the Giant’s Causeway on Sunday afternoon. Northern Ireland’s top tourist attraction was certainly busy on a slightly overcast bank holiday, but it is an incredible sight and we were really pleased that we made the effort to get up and see it whilst we were over.

Today was spent sitting in the canteen at Netheravon Airfield eating rounds of bacon sandwiches and drinking multiple cups of tea. We were waiting to try and do a tandem parachute jump, which I had won at a charity auction before the expedition, but unfortunately the cloud cover was too heavy and low, and after 5 hours our patience had worn out and we sacked it in. A great pity, especially considering how some of the family had seriously psyched themselves up (Mum had raised over £500), but we’ve already booked ourselves in for another attempt in 4 weeks time. Fingers crossed for weather then!

The boy is back in town…

Jake — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:28:34 +0000

Just arrived back from my latest adventure to the Tien Shan mountain range in Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan. Pretty bushed, still a little jetlagged and suffering from a severe case of Almaty food poisoning - not pretty, I can assure you!

It was an amazing trip and an incredible adventure, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to summit our main goal, Khan Tengri (7010m) due to bad weather. After 5 days trapped in a storm at 6000m with food having run out and running out of time on the mountain itself we decided to pack it in and bug out. We were some of the lucky ones; a Polish climbed came down the day after us with very bad frostbite, and there had been several fatalities on the mountain. We did however summit Peitka (or Chapaeva North) which is nearly 6200m, twice!

Shocking to find out about the K2 tragedy when we returned - especially prevalent to me as I was so nearly there this year… a very lucky escape perhaps. Still looking at getting out there for summer 2010, but in the mean time, my heart goes out to the family and friends of those involved in this year’s terrible events.

I’ll put some more information up in the ‘expeditions’ section when I get a chance…

Next exped…

Jake — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:50:28 +0000

My busy last few weeks have made me rather oblivious to the fact that I am going on an expedition the day after tomorrow! I am off for a month to Kyrgyzstan and Kazahkstan to the Tein Shan mountain range. The expedition will be split into two parts, the first will be 2 weeks spent in th Kyrgyzstan attempting to climb some unclimbed peaks and get some first ascents. The second part will be an attempt to climb Khan Tengri, the highest mountian in Kazahkstan. With it’s summit glacier, Khan Tengri rises to 7010m (22,999ft), and is one of the 5 ‘Snow Leopard’ mountains in the former Soviet Union. Other than sorting out paperwork from the last couple of weeks, today will be spent packing all my kit - nothing like last minute to keep you motivated! When I got back from Greece last night I discovered 2 rather large boxes of new kit from Mountain Hardwear and Black Diamond, full of ultra-light shiny new kit - thanks guys! I’ll try and email when we get to Almaty on Saturday night, but no promises! There’ll probably just have to be one extra large post when I return! Peace y’all, have a great summer xx

South Inylchek Base Camp, at 4,000 m on the glacier’s southern moraine, looking northwest to Pik Chapaeva and Khan Tengri in the distance.

Assault courses, Greece and Channel 5…

Jake — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:23:52 +0000

Goodness, I’ve hardly had time to catch my breath recently! Last F was spent giving a speech at the prize-giving awards of Manningtree High School in Essex. Very long day by the time I’d got all the way over there, and then all the way back, but great fun. Spent the morning with some Year 7s creating a mountaineering inspired assault course - complete with loads of imaginary crevasses and other obstacles. I hope they enjoyed it - certainly better than being made to run round the althletics track!

Late Saturday night I headed out to Patmos, one of the Greek Islands, for a couple of days to see Saskia and her parents. Long journey out there - although made a little easier by having a powernap and breakfast in the ‘Everest’ cafe in Kos! Unfortunately, came within a hairs breath of Kalymnos, arguably the Mediterranean’s finest DWS location, but couldn’t stop! Lovely few days in the sun, somehow didn’t get burnt - but building up a good base for the rest of the summer! Arrived back late last night in time to watch myself on Channel 5 (another repeat of the 50 greatest disaster movies). Cue a number of texts and phone calls from friends who obviously have nothing better to do then sit in front of the TV for 4 hours watching chumps like me pontificating about things we really know nothing about!

Who ya’ gonna’ call…

Jake — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:13:03 +0000

Wow - almost feel like I’ve had a proper job with the amount of work that I’ve had on for the last week! First of all, last Saturday I presented the awards at the Devon Young Achievers Awards Ceremony in Exeter. It was a great event which recognised the personal struggles of some amazing teenagers in Devon. It was an honour to be involved in the day, although I must admit that I thought that all of the nominees deserved to win! On Monday I went and spent the day at Cothill House School near Abingdon. Tuesday morning was in Cambridge at King’s College School, and then straight up to London to speak to the University of Dreams (an American intern programme) Wednesday (and Monday morning, Thursday afternoon and Friday) was spent with 33 14 year olds from Deer Park School, one of my local schools in Cirencester. I was helping with an Acheivership week - learning teamwork and leadership and communication skills through personal challenges. They were a great bunch, and all worked really well together - even if their take on the kit list left a little to be desired! 2 of the girls turned up with wheelie suitcases for a 7 mile cross-country hike! Thurday morning was spent giving a speech and handing out the prizes at the Eaton Square School prize giving/speech day at St Michael’s Church in Chester Sq (London). Yesterday I was over in Buckinghamshire doing the same thing at Chesham Prep, which went really well. To finish the week off, and in the true meaning of ‘work hard/play hard’, I went to the King’s Royal Hussars Summer Ball last night. One word - Epic!! Heroes theme - and as you can probably guess for the post title, I was a Ghostbuster! Feeling a little worse for wear today, especially having only got sleep at about 5.30am - outside in the rain!

John, Henry, Jake and Duncan - Ghostbusting!