We interviewed SAS Australia Ant Middleton at Everest Base Camp. Read about this exclusive and off guarded interview which you can also watch in this article.
If you’ve been watching SAS Australia on Channel 7, you’ll know the main frontman of the show is called Ant Middleton. This hard nut looks like someone you really wouldn’t want to mess with. But, what’s he like in real life?
Well, well, well… Steve & I actually met Ant Middleton at Everest Base Camp when he was filming his TV show called Extreme Everest With Ant Middleton. We were travelling at the time and wanted to do the Everest Base Camp trek as a major bucket list item to tick off.
We spent about an hour talking to him, AND he even let us film a rare interview with him! So, we’re going to share our video footage, and let you know what Ant Middleton is like in real life!
Who Is Ant Middleton?
Still no idea who Ant Middleton is? The ex British soldier has had a past that you just couldn’t even make up.
After spending thirteen years in the military, he spent four years as a Special Forces Sniper, as well as serving in the SBS navy wing of the Special Forces. Basically, he’s really hard and someone who has probably seen it all.
His motto is all about mind control, and when you use it properly, you can achieve anything. He is speaker who goes on various tours around UK to help people, has written award winning books and as now a TV star, he’s fronted many shows including; Mutiny, Escape and Wrongfully Convicted.
Watch Our Interview With Ant Middleton At Mount Everest
When We Met Ant Middleton At Everest Base Camp
We did the Everest Base Camp hike with an amazing small Nepalese company called Visit Himalaya Treks. They are absolutely brilliant who we highly recommend, but the amazing thing about going with them is that it we had our very own tour guide and porter. We saw many other people in large tour groups, so they were told when they had to hike.
When you do the Everest Base Camp hike, you’ll see the same other trekkers each day as you’re essentially doing the same trip. When we got to the last town of our 13 day trek before our final hike to Everest Base Camp, we decided to stay two nights instead of one. There was a snow storm on the day we were supposed to hike to Base Camp but because we were on a private tour, we could call the shots.
In the morning, we decided to hike the final few hours to Everest Base Camp which means because we had changed our plans, we were the only people at Base Camp that morning. The group who were a day behind us hadn’t arrived yet, which gave us an amazing window to have it all to ourselves.
When we got to Everest Base Camp, we saw someone with a cameraman waiting at the helipad. We thought they must have been with Ben Fogle who was also climbing Everest at that time.
In true Steve style, he shouts over to them; “Are you with Ben Fogle?”
This my friends was the moment we started to talk to Ant Middleton.
We Didn’t Know Who Ant Middleton Was
As we started talking to Ant Middleton, neither of us had any idea who he was. I told him I had been living in Australia for seven years at the time and even told him I didn’t know who he was. He found it kinda funny! In my head, I genuinely thought he must have been an Olympian.
We asked him about whether he was climbing Everest, but he told us he was making a documentary about the environment there. It was obvious that he was climbing it, and although we only hoped to meet someone actually doing it, we couldn’t believe our luck when we met Ant Middleton!
What’s Ant Middleton Like In Real Life?
When we met Ant Middleton at Everest Base Camp, he was genuinely one of the nicest people we have ever met. Watching SAS Australia had actually surprised me because he was just so chilled out and lovely in real life.
Ant and his cameraman were happy to chat with us for easily an hour as they were waiting to head down to a lower altitude in the Himalayas for a few days. Because we were hiking with just our guide from Visit Himalaya Treks, we weren’t in a rush to start hiking back, so we could just hang out with him.
To be honest, the Ant Middleton you see on SAS Australia or SAS: He Who Dares Wins is absolutely not the same guy we met. He was so nice to us and seemed like a genuine lovely guy.
What He Had To Say Off Camera
It was really interesting chatting to Ant Middleton about Mount Everest. As I tried to get more information from him about climbing the highest mountain in the world, he told us all about the process to climb to the summit.
Climbing Everest Base Camp is set in four stages. Climbers get usually a two months window to climb between April and May and will spend those months climbing up and down between Camp 1 and Camp 4 to acclimatise. When you actually ascend to the summit of Everest Base Camp, you might just get a small window to do it over a couple of days.
Ant Middleton from SAS Australia told us about the eye opening moments he had witnessed before he climbed to the top, apparently there were many rich people who hadn’t done very much training.
What Happened When Ant Middleton Climbed Everest?
He told us his documentary would be airing on Channel 4 around September time and it just so happened we were in UK to watch it. His documentary called Extreme Everest With Ant Middleton is absolutely amazing.
He documented his journey as he made it to the top of Everest, but during the experience, he actually nearly died. When he made it to the top, a snow storm hit and everyone had to try and get down the mountain as quickly as possible. He stayed until the end because he wanted to give the others more chance of survival.
It is said that he actually witnessed other climbers freeze to death on the mountain during the storm and he himself nearly died, saying it was the most horrific experience of his life.
Steve and I watched that documentary in complete shock that the friendly guy we met at Everest Base Camp went through that experience.
You can watch his Extreme Everest With Ant Middleton documentary on YouTube
We’ve been meaning to share this story for ages so hope you enjoyed it!
Don’t forget to watch our interview with Ant Middleton at Everest Base Camp below!
Read our Everest Base Camp Base Walk Guides
