Bear Grylls Broke His Back, Then Climbed Everest 18 Months Later

In 1996, a 22-year-old British Army reservist jumped out of a plane over Zambia and nearly died - not from the fall itself, but because his parachute failed to open correctly.

The Accident That Nearly Ended Everything

Bear Grylls was on a military free-fall exercise when his main canopy failed to deploy and the reserve parachute became entangled. He plummeted from 16,000 feet and landed on his parachute pack, crushing three vertebrae in his spine.

His surgeon later said he had been "within a whisker" of permanent paralysis - the spinal cord had escaped severing by the narrowest margin. Doctors feared the damage could prevent him from ever walking normally again.

Ten Hours a Day, Every Day

Rather than surgery, the recovery involved a punishing programme: up to ten hours a day of physiotherapy, swimming, stretching, and ultrasound treatment. This was the regimen designed for servicemen returning to active duty.

Grylls drove himself through it with one goal in mind. He had dreamed of climbing Mount Everest since childhood, and breaking his back was not going to stop him.

Standing on the Summit

On May 26, 1998, Bear Grylls reached the top of Mount Everest at 7:22 in the morning, climbing alongside former Commando and SAS officer Neil Laughton. He was 23 years old - just 18 months after the accident that nearly left him unable to walk.

At that moment, he stood at the highest point on Earth.

The Story That Made His Career

Grylls documented the expedition in his book Facing Up (published in the US as The Kid Who Climbed Everest). Within a decade, he had become the host of Man vs. Wild, one of the most-watched survival television programmes ever made.

The broken spine and the summit became his origin story - and he still manages ongoing back pain from the injury to this day.