Pat Falvey - Adventurer
What’s your earliest holiday memory?
We would have gone most years to Butlin’s holiday camp. I’ve great memories of it, from babysitting when the adults were in nearby Dan Lowry’s bar to my granny entering my siblings in bonny baby competitions. We wouldn’t have been very wealthy and the place had other working class families like ourselves.
What was your worst holiday?
In the high altitude death zone I have lost 13 friends. In 1993, I had to bury Karl Henize in an icy grave never to return to his family. He worked with Nasa doing a science project on Everest and not even Nasa could bring him home. It stuck in my gut and haunts me to this day.
We accept the risks with adventures, and I am very fortunate to be still alive and without injuries. The worst memories for me have been learning experiences that probably kept me alive.
What was your best holiday?
Because I am a full-time adventurer people consider my life as a constant holiday, but I never considered it a holiday. The two adventures that stand out are the most amazing places in the world. One is on top of the world at 29,000 feet, feeling small in time and the history of the planet as an Irish and Cork person standing with the team on Everest. The other is the South Pole, to stand in the place where Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen stood together. I felt like a time traveller walking around the pole where the meridians of time are through one central point.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?
My dream is to complete the walk from the top of Canada to the North Pole, the equivalent of 120 consecutive marathons. If I did that I could retire gracefully from the extreme holidays I do! I’ve laughed with my kids that after this I’d love to go to Lanzarote. Other than my honeymoon and earlier visits to Jersey, since I took up adventures in 1986 I’ve never had the experience of sitting in the sun in my togs reading a book.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?
On adventures we have to be very cautious about who we bring and in recent years it has been a very small group of friends. My expedition partner, Dr Clare O’Leary, and I are able to second guess each other on the hostile environments and she is one of the best female adventurers in the world today. For Lanzarote I’d bring my family.
What’s your favourite place in Ireland?
My favourite place in the world is Ireland. Where I live on the edge of a mountain at Gap of Dunloe is my spiritual hideaway. The main reason I love it is the amazing people, the fantastic sense of landscape and the seascape where I have my home. Here I can get away from modern and expedition life.
Your recommended holiday reading?
Any type of adventure book which relates to history of human endeavour. If one book stands out it is An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean by Michael Smith.
Where will you go to next?
I’m in Canada preparing for my next expedition to walk to the North Pole with Dr O’Leary. I hope this will complete the Three Poles Challenge – the North Pole, South Pole and Mount Everest.
Adventurer Pat Falvey runs an adventure travel and training company, patfalvey.com
In conversation with
GENEVIEVE CARBERY