AIN’T no mountain high enough…
Football freestyler John Farnworth showed his mettle by completing his mammoth Mount Everest climb, while juggling a football with every step.
The 32-year-old from Preston reached Base Camp, some 18,000 feet up the peak, in an incredible nine days.
Battling the elements and the biting -12 conditions, he performed keepy uppies as he trekked the mountain nine-hours a day.
But he didn’t stop there.
Feeling brave, John climbed a little further to Kolkata as he aimed on breaking a world record.
It was all for the Alzheimer’s Society charity – a cause close to his heart following the passing of his beloved grandad.
SunSport spoke with John when he returned from Nepal to discuss his journey.
The CBBC presenter, who holds four Guinness World Records, relived the daunting challenge.
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“It was a real slog. It started differently the way it ended,” John explained.
“It was longer distances to start with, as we got forward and into the mountain we started doing less distances.
“It got steeper and the altitude and the cold were a huge factor that made us tired.
“The last two nights I remember not being able to sleep, being constantly out of breath and not being able to eat.
“But when you set your mind to something, you just got to get on and do it.
“It took us nine days to get to Base Camp, and then we took an extra day to go a bit higher.
“Base Camp is about 5,500 metres (18,000ft) and the next day we went up to Kolkata, which was just short of 6,000 metres (19,700ft).”
John was juggling a ball around nine hours a day – estimated to be around half a million keepy-uppies.
The blustery cold weather made the task that much tougher and he does admit dropping the ball once or twice.
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“On average I was juggling the ball nine to ten hours a day,” he said.
“A regular person doing it would probably take half that time and have the rest of the day to recuperate.
“We didn’t have that. We had two rest days before getting up there.
“It felt like constant moving, then relief when we finally got to the top.
“I did drop the ball a couple of times. It was a lot less than I expected, and that was on the first day.
“It took me time to get used to the terrain.
“I had two people around to guide me, so we had a little system going with the terrain so I could prepare myself for each corner or turn.
“I’d seen the terrain and studied it as much as possible, but it’s only when you get out there do you know what you’re faced with.
“You just develop little techniques, but you honestly don’t know what’s around the next corner.”
As he expected, John’s feet took a pounding during the expedition.
“I had to change my shoes after the second day, just for the support of my ankles,” he revealed.
“The main thing that hurt me were the soles of my feet.
“I was constantly moving and hitting the sole of my foot a lot harder than most people would normally walking up Everest.
“On the fourth day my left foot was in absolute agony.
“But that was relieved a little later in the trip when I was able to get an ice bath, which sorted me out.
“Cold treatment is amazing and being in the cold helped with recovery.”
Remarkably, John never doubted himself and it didn’t cross his mind that he wouldn’t make it.
“Because I knew the altitude was lower in the first few days I was sure that I would make it.
“The wind was less too. I knew I would do it, regardless, but in the last two days you just gather more fears.
“Seeing people coming back down saying how hard it was didn’t help either.
“But it was just a case of keeping your own mind set and not listening to people say, ‘You might suffer today.’
John also get himself into the mindset that he was doing something unique that hadn’t been attempted before.
Luckily enough, he also had some pals to gee him up if times got tough.
He said: “Doing something that someone hadn’t thought of was what kept me going.
“I imagined what it would be like, had a vision of completing the task.
“Having two of my closest friends next to me was a massive thing.
“The morale between us all was such a positive thing.
“They were constantly checking I was alright, I was like that with them, so it was very much a team effort.
“If I wasn’t with people who I trusted and knew it would’ve been a lot harder.”
For all his efforts, John is now hoping that the challenge will be recognised as a world record.
“Well, it needs to be adjudicated,” he said. “That takes time.
“But on our final day, we did the last part to Kolkata.
“For a world record it has to quite specific.
“We tried to attempt the furthest distance climbing with the ball in one hour in altitude.
“We managed to do 200 metres within the hour, the previous was 135 metres.
“Hopefully, we’ve beaten that. We followed the rulebook to the letter of the law.”
Already fit as a fiddle, John’s preparation for the task involved training up Snowdon and near where he lives in Lancashire.
He told us: “I spent a lot of time in North Wales training, we went up Snowdon and there are a lot of hills where I live in Lancashire.
“I trained with putting weights on my back and feet, trying to put pressure on my body so I was ready for it.
“In particular, it was my stabilizing muscles in my legs that I needed to make sure were strong for the journey ahead.
“I did lots of squats and deadlifts to give me the strength I’d need.
“I started preparing six months before.
“The first two months of that was just getting to know what I would be doing and how I would approach it.
“The last three to four months I was just training a lot, alongside my freestyle work.”
Knowing that he was going to be eating a plant-based diet during his escapade, he turned vegan back in December.
“I decided to go vegan for the challenge and for my life ahead,” he said.
“I always saw the benefits of it, but I never really committed to it.
“I knew I would be eating mostly dahl when I was out there and drinking water.
“It was plant-based diet anyway, so I thought it would be better to adapt to that earlier and get used to it.”
After nine days, blood, sweat and tears shed, John arrived at Base Camp – officially at an altitude of 5,364 metres – with a strange feeling.
“It was really odd when we got to Base Camp, there was a silence among the group,” he said.
“It was emotional, but it’s interesting because you never know how you’re going to react.
“I imagined it in my mind, how it would look like, but when it happened a few tears were had.
“It was a real moment between me and my friends and we stayed a little longer at Base Camp for three hours to take it all in.
“It was a memory I’ll never forget and definitely the greatest thing I’ve ever done.”
John hopes he can lead the way for others, including professional footballers, to step out their comfort zone and challenge themselves like he did.
“I hope it inspires people and footballers to try things like this,” he said.
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“Aside from the skill, it helps your character.
“From a personal experience, it’s a real thing, you learn about yourself.
“Football is such a unique sport and maybe I can leave my own mark on the game by doing something like this.”
John confessed that he wouldn’t be looking at climbing Mount Everest again, only maybe to reach the summit.
However, he does have the Sahara desert in his sights.
“I’m pretty certain I’d like to do the Sahara at some point, probably before the end of the year,” he admitted.
“Even though I’m on some downtime at the moment, I’m always thinking and studying different things.
“I also want to break more records. Another thing that appeals to me is to control the ball at terminal velocity.
“I’ve got the world record for the height — dropping the ball at 127 feet, which was difficult. But it wasn’t terminal velocity.
“I think there’s such a challenge in controlling a ball at such a speed and a height, so I’d like to try that in the future.”
John’s still trying to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society, setting himself a target of £50,000.
You can donate on his JustGiving page .
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