Bolton School's Dominic Hardy's adventure of a lifetime

The Bolton School pupil spent his summer trekking in The Himalayas – the world’s highest mountain range.

Dominic, 17, of Parkham Close, Westhoughton, was one of just 50 young people selected to take part in the British Exploring Society’s (BES) expedition.

The BES is a youth development charity founded on the belief that challenging experiences can change lives, empower and equip young people with the courage, skills, resilience and determination to make the most of their future.

It offers a variety of experiences across the globe and Dominic chose The Himalayas.

“From a geographical point of view, it is one of the highest places in the world with massive fold mountains. I just wanted to go there,” said Dominic, who is studying A level biology, chemistry and geography and hopes for a career outdoors.

‘I was after something with a bit of adventure, as well as something that was linked to doing scientific work.”

Along with around 50 other successful applicants, and accompanied by a professional geologist, Dominic spent five weeks during the summer there – the first time he had been to Asia.

Far from being a glorified holiday, they undertook important research and learned valuable skills.

“I learnt lots of mapping techniques and global information like GIS. It was my job to map snow packs for the area we were going to and I Iearned about rock types.’ “We did the John Muir Award, which is about respecting the landscape and learning from it. We sampled the river source, that we would wash and clean in, for plastics and saw how difficult it was to separate natural things from the water to the plastics themselves.”

The team flew to Delhi and the travelled on to Leh. From there, they took a bus across the mountains through the second highest motorable pass in the world, called Tanglang La.

To acclimatize to the altitude, they camped in the remote Zara Valley and embarked on three tours.

“I led the first tour, but on the second tour I only managed to get 5,500 metres up because I started to get acute mountain sickness (AMS) symptoms so I didn’t feel up to it and came back down.

“The third tour was redemption for the second one and we got up to 6,000 metres. That was one of the highlights of the trip for me.”

However, the suffering he underwent in the second climb was also a valuable learning experience for Dominic.

“Being challenged quite a bit has made me quite emotional, at a high altitude I cried. When I got AMS and was having bed rest I cried. But when you overcome it you know you can get through this, a massive resilience comes out of you. It was an extreme situation that took me right out of my comfort zone and really tested my resilience.

“Altitude is like a lottery, one year you can be great with it and acclimatize properly, next year you’ve got to come down. My mate got a retinal haemorrhage, so he had to go home which was quite a low point in the trip. Our own personal medic got water in the lung, so she got sent home. It became a survival contest by week four, it was about finishing the trip and coming home.’ The climate also tested the explorers – for six days there was non-stop torrential rain, and on the snow-topped mountain temperatures plummeted to minus 14 degrees at night During the expedition, the group had a visit from the Indian army which was camping at the bottom of their valley.

They also stumbled upon a talk by the Dali Lama “It was in a massive open field. He was speaking in Ladakhi, so even though we were there for an hour, we didn’t understand a word he said,” laughed Dominic.

Trying to be accepted for the expedition was almost as arduous as climbing the mountains when he got there.

“I applied in early 2017. I had phone calls, video chats and then a weekend meeting. It was a lot of steps to go through.”

His proud mum, Louise, said “Dom initiated this whole experience on his own because he wanted the adventure. He found out all of the information and then came to us and said, ‘I’d like to do this’.”

“At the time the school was asking if people wanted to apply for things to do trips or something on their own. So, he had to go in front of the board to suggest the idea.’ He then had to endure medicals, vaccinations and a small mountain of paper work and admin.

Next came another challenge - raising £3,500.

He asked for sleeping bags and other necessary equipment as birthday and Christmas presents, and raised £1,500 by doing car boot sales every Sunday. Additional funds were raised by working at his school’s outdoor pursuit centre in the Lake District.

For a teenager, being separated from a mobile phone and social media might have proved one challenge too far, but Dominic easily adapted.

“I left my mobile phone at home and I coped easily. Everyone else was in the same boat so we played loads of card games, but I missed my music.”

When he returned to Westhoughton, his family noticed a difference in him – and not just the stone in weight he lost.

“He was so relaxed and like a completely different person,” said his mum.

So, what’s next for the young adventurer?

“I’ve got to knuckle down for my A levels and then we will see,” said Dominic.