17/12/2008Nik Royale's Everest

Nik Royale from North Wales, aged 35, has a disabling and rare condition described as progressive cerebal palsy. It began to affect him when he was twenty-one and it has steadily worsened affecting his speech, balance and coordination. He has partial feeling in his legs and suffers from spasms that can leave him wheelchair bound for long periods of time.

This summer he joined a climbing course at the Beacon and set himself the challenge of reaching Tryfan's summit by one of its east face rock routes. Nik explains that he took on the challenge, so his 2 year-old son, Josh, could be proud of his dad. Nik said: "I did it for him because the way my condition is, there's every chance that by the time he's ten I won't be able to pick him up."

So, at the start of September, after some intensive training at the Beacon, Nik found himself nervously standing below Tryfan in the company of instructor Greg Cain and cameraman John Whittle. They were heading for the start of First Pinnacle Rib (VDiff). Below is the short film John made of the climb and a personal account by Nik.


Nik Royale's Everest from John Whittle on Vimeo.

An account by Nik Royale:

"I was an awkward child, and there were a lot of things that I found difficult which all the other kids found easy. It was much later in life that I was finally diagnosed with a progressive form of cerebral palsy, meaning that I have to make the most of my physicality while I still have some. I will eventually be confined to a wheelchair and have already had a number of spells when the wheelchair has been essential to me.

I’m a very muscular person, and in my early twenties I became a bodyguard to some pretty famous people – it was a good life after a pretty rotten childhood. I also did loads of outdoor courses, and camped in North Wales at the foot of Tryfan many times. That mountain is so impressive, a proper looking mountain. I’d walked up it a few times but I really wanted to climb the East Face on a real rock climbing route, but I wasn’t a rock climber and it would cost so much for more courses.

Eventually the episodes of spasms, hospitalisation and rehab started to get the better of me. I knew there would come a time when I could not walk at all. I would have good days and bad days, and with the arrival of my son Josh, I wanted not only to delay the inevitable for as long as possible, but to do something that my son Josh would be proud of his Dad for. His Mum and I have since split up, but I still get to see him. I decided to climb Tryfan, not just for myself but to raise awareness of cerebral palsy and to raise money for decent wheelchairs for active people like me.

One morning I went to a well known outdoor centre and after speaking to them it seemed that I not only needed quite a lot of money to learn to climb but that the physical skills and stamina required would be beyond me. I felt really low and wondered if wanting this so much was a joke. I then learnt about the Beacon Climbing Centre, an indoor climbing wall not far from Llanberis. Feeling quite depressed from the morning that I’d had, I went there, rehearsing over and over in my mind that I would simply say “I have progressive cerebral palsy; I want to learn to climb but I don’t have much money, I want to climb Tryfan – can you help me?” 

The Centre was really busy when I got there, but Gill (Beacon co-owner) was able to come and listen to me. I nervously blurted out everything I wanted to do, just everything I wanted. The answer I got was completely different to what I’d expected. First of all I was told that there shouldn’t be any barriers to someone who felt they could climb and that I could have half-price lessons to see how I got on. So I still needed some money but nowhere near as much as I thought I would. I went to a friend of mine called Gwyndaf Evans (of Ford Motors; suppliers of my specially modified car) and asked him if he would sponsor me for 10 lessons. Luckily for me he was more than happy to. 

The first couple of lessons made me really tired but I enjoyed them so much and I was making new friends at the climbing wall. I now knew that I really could climb a route up Tryfan if I worked at my fitness, and set myself a date of ten weeks time, knowing that I needed some pressure and knowing also that time is not on my side. 

But to raise money for charity isn’t an easy thing to do – you need to get the message out there. Over the next few weeks I got myself in the newspaper, DMM had sponsored me with some kit, and my girlfriend had organised raffle tickets with prizes donated by the Snowdon Railway, RnB Hair Salon, Joe Brown’s and the Beacon. I decided I needed to train even more to make this climb possible and by the time the money ran out I was competent to climb unsupervised, and I had made friends who would climb with me in the Beacon, so I no longer needed lessons. The Beacon offered to let me and a climbing partner climb for free, so I was coming in to climb about three times a week and getting really strong in the upper body, though my legs were getting weaker.

My friend Greg Cain offered to do the climb up Tryfan with me and filmmaker John Whittle contacted me to say he wanted to film it. I was so excited about this and could hardly wait for the climb to take place. He took footage of me climbing at the wall, and then, when the day came to climb Tryfan, it rained. I was so psyched I had hardly slept, but we left it a day and then went to do it in half-reasonable conditions.

The walk-in was hard, but then we were climbing First Pinnacle Rib; Greg, John and I. It was the best adventure of my life and very emotional for me. People were texting me to ask how it was going. I had so much support. I had to do it and I did the whole climb in 5 hours. The walk down was slow and difficult for me. I was exhausted but so happy.

The training and the climb itself left me quite drained and I felt that I needed a long, long rest. After being so active over the weeks and building up muscle, even in my weak legs, the sudden drop in the level of exercise brought on a relapse, and severe spasms left me hospitalised. I was depressed at the thought of many more months of rehab:  knowing that the returns on all the previous periods of physiotherapy had been diminishing each time, I wondered if this was now the time to give up and resign myself to being full time in the wheelchair for the rest of my life. After a few days on antispasmodic drugs, and trying to get used to the idea that I should opt for the inevitable permanent wheelchair use, I started to get some sensation back in my legs, so the consultants and I agreed to delay the treatment necessary for allowing my leg muscles to waste completely. Within a few days of leaving hospital, I was on my feet, wobbling like a baby. After another two weeks, I made it to the Beacon, got out of my wheelchair and climbed a couple of routes. 

I’ve been talking again to John and we’re planning another challenge now, this time on a multi-pitch sport route in France. Watch this space."