Cancer survivor Jules Mountain explains his love for the highest peaks

  • Meet the Guernsey man whose name matches his hobby


They say cats have nine lives but one businessman and entrepreneur from Guernsey has used up at least three of those.

The appropriately named Jules Mountain decided to grab life by the crampons after being diagnosed with cancer and has found himself in some very sticky situations.

Jules is used to hanging around, often off of large, snowy, icy peaks like Mount Everest.

He explained: "Ironically I was born in Lincolnshire which is the flattest place.

"They found it very funny at Everest base camp and said, 'When did you change your name?' and I said, 'I didn't, I promise I didn't'."

After having a brain tumour removed, Jules decided to accept an invitation to climb the world's highest peak Everest, but his first attempt was thwarted by an earthquake and subsequent avalanche in 2015.

Jules said: "All of a sudden the ground started shaking, really violently. I was in my tent and it felt like somebody was lifting me about a metre. And I thought what the hell is going on here?

"I was shoved to the left and right and I got out of the tent and the snow and the ice came down and I thought this is it, it's all over.

"I was buried alive, about a metre down. I dug myself out and 19 or 20 people died."

After that brush with death, Jules finally reached the summit the following year and for his next challenge, he flew a helicopter 4000 miles from Canada to Guernsey - with even more harrowing escapes.

He explains: "I'm not trying to kill myself but when opportunities come up, life is for living and people with cancer will understand that.

"You have to grab life because you never know if you've got weeks, months or years to live."

Jules wrote a book about his adventures with all proceeds going to the Haematology Cancer Care charity.


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