It takes a lot to shut me up for one minute.  It takes awful lot to shut me up for one million, forty six thousand eight hundred and eighty minutes.  The Haute Route Pyenennes achieved that. 

I am 32,000 feet above the white cliffs of Dover heading to Geneva to start the haute route Dolomites 2016.

Beside me on the flight is Lucinda Creighton. 

‘You have a great carrer behind you’. ‘You had great potential but you aimed too high and you weren’t as great as you thought. You are just not cut out to compete with the big boys. You need to find something else to do with yourself that you might be a success at. ‘
‘That’s a bit harsh Lucinda’, I reply. ‘I did finish the last Haute Route and there were 10 people slower than me’.

Lots of training done but 8Kg over weight. I hope she isn’t right. I hope I’m not travelling to Switzerland on a suicide mission