Wounded Afghanistan hero David Wiseman tells how he dodged death on Everest

CAPTAIN Wiseman already knew what it was like to be physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted long before his attempt to enter the record books by climbing the world’s highest mountain earlier this year.

His tour of Afghanistan in 2009 had already been supremely challenging when he went out on patrol and was struck in the chest by a bullet during a firefight with the Taliban.

But he says he never became quite so exhausted as the night when he and four fellow wounded servicemen trekked, crawled and climbed their way up an ice wall and across an icy valley on their approach to the summit of Everest earlier this year.

“When we got to the camp, I was completely knackered. I felt I couldn’t walk another step,” says the former Tadcaster Grammar School pupil. “There were two guys we saw there who were so exhausted they were just sobbing.”

What had made the climb even tougher than normal was the fear that at any moment a block of ice as large as a car engine might crash down on them from the sheer mountain face at their side.

The problem was caused by the weather. Not the savagery of the cold but quite the opposite. A relatively mild spring in Everest meant the usual covering of snow had largely disappeared, exposing treacherously shiny and slippery ice.

But worse than that, it meant that towers of ice the size of office blocks on the side of one mountain were starting to melt, and lumps of ice were breaking free and tumbling down to the bottom, where Captain Wiseman and his fellow climbers were toiling along.

They could not see the ice falls, because they were climbing in pitch dark in the middle of the night in the hope that lower temperatures would reduce the problem. All they could do was listen out for the sound of ice falling.

“One guy in another climbing party had his shoulder dislocated when it was hit by a lump of ice, and another one was struck in the face and may have been suffering from a brain bleed.

“One of the guys in our party heard a wave of five blocks falling above him, and literally ran for his life and they missed him.”

The group could not have prepared better for the challenge, spending the previous 18 months getting themselves physically and mentally ready. The training included a climb up the world’s eighth highest mountain, Manaslu, which is 8,163 metres above sea level compared to Everest’s 8,848 metres.

During this climb, Captain Wiseman unknowingly walked across a bridge of snow which was covering a glacier crevasse. The snow collapsed, and he plunged into the crevasse, but his rope saved his life and he managed to climb back out. At the peak, he says he felt an incredible sense of exhileration as he looked down on the world.

All the soldiers had additional problems to contend with because of their injuries, which were sustained during service in Iraq and Afghanistan. One man, who was infamously set on fire by a mob in Iraq in 2005, had to cover his face at all times when the sun shone because he burned very easily.

Another was climbing without the use of an arm. Captain Wiseman’s lungs were scarred by the passage of the bullet, which remains lodged in his chest, and damage to a nerve meant his right hand froze into a claw shape in extreme cold.

The climbers spent many weeks acclimatising to the low levels of oxygen, with their bodies producing so many additional red blood cells that their blood eventually ended up as thick as treacle.

But as they got closer to the summit, their experienced guides and leaders were becoming increasingly concerned by the dangerous state of the mountain and eventually took the difficult decision to abandon the expedition.

“It was gutting,” said the father-of-two, who is currently living at Catterick Garrison with his wife Lucy, son, Luke, aged two, and baby daughter Jessica. “There’s no other way to describe it. We were really frustrated, but had to accept the decision. And over the following week, eight climbers died on the mountain.”

He said the key difference between the dangers in Afghanistan and those on Everest were that the climbers had the chance to turn back. “I remember, ten minutes before the action in which I was injured, we knew that the Taliban were aware of us and were going to attack, but we had no choice but to press on with it.”

He is also philosophical about the thwarted bid. “It doesn’t matter we didn’t get to the top. What matters is that we raised awareness of Walking With The Wounded, a charity which tries to ensure that guys who have to leave the army after being injured in conflict can get the skills to find a new career outside the army.”

Captain Wiseman will himself be looking for work in civvy street next year after being told recently that he is being discharged on medical grounds.

Bullet missed artery by millimetres

Capt Wiseman was on the operating table within 50 minutes after he was shot while on patrol in Helmand

THE Press reported in 2009 how Captain Wiseman survived by a “miracle” when he was shot in the chest by the Taliban during a firefight.

He described then how the bullet went straight through his lung before lodging in his back, but passed between a major artery and nerve, missing them by a few millimetres.

“It was miraculous really,” he said.

He was out on patrol while serving in Helmand Province with the 2nd Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment when the incident happened.

He said his “boys” provided protection until a helicopter arrived within 35 minutes, and he was on an operating table within 50 minutes to undergo emergency trauma surgery.

He was then flown back to the UK for further surgery at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, where doctors decided it was safer to leave the bullet lodged inside him than try to remove it.

Heroes to be seen on TV

ITV1 will screen a 90-minute documentary about the Everest attempt, called Harry’s Mountain Heroes, at 9pm tonight .

The programme may provide a big boost to efforts to raise £2 million through the climb for the Walking with the Wounded charity, whose patron is Prince Harry and which raises finances to reskill and retrain servicemen and women who have suffered physical and mental injuries.

To donate £5, text the word WALK to 70777. For more information, go to wwtw.org.uk