22796
“An example of great determination, to achieve something that’s becoming harder all the time, an adventuring ‘first’, which would have proved both physically and mentally challenging.” – Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Ash Dykes is a world-renowned adventurer, explorer, extreme athlete, author, and motivational speaker. To date, he has achieved five world records in some of the harshest environments in the world, with four of them being first records, meaning nobody had previously completed them.
His achievements have seen him appear on some of the biggest platforms around the world, including The Joe Rogan Experience, BBC World News, The One Show, Fox News, Good Morning Britain, Forbes, and High Performance Podcast.
He is a highly sought-after keynote speaker, and has given two TEDx talks: ‘Life Lessons Learnt From the Extremes’, and ‘The Difference Between Failure and Success’.
Ash Dyke’s expeditions have seen him overcome heat stroke in the Gobi desert, Malaria in Madagascar, the bears of west China, military, bandits, spiders, snakes, impenetrable jungle, sub-zero temperatures, crocodile-infested rivers, sand storms, snow blizzards, and even being followed by a pack of wolves. His most impressive adventures include:
2014 – Mission Mongolia, East Asia: From West to East, Ash trekked 1,500 miles over the Altai Mountains, through the Gobi Desert & across the Mongolian Steppe, all whilst pulling 120kg (18st) of survival supplies on a homemade trailer. From Grey Wolves, Snow blizzards, Sandstorms, severe heat exhaustion, Snakes, Semi-wild dogs & loneliness, to name a few; Ash battled on through the elements, across the second largest land-locked country in the world, in just 78 days; knocking a staggering 22 days off his predicted time.
2016 – Mission Madagascar, East Africa: Ash contracted the deadliest strain of Malaria, was held up by the military, dodged bandits, received nasty spider bites, built a raft for a dangerous river crossing, was almost washed away – at night – by another ferocious, crocodile-infested river and had to hack his way through near-impenetrable jungle, among much more.
2020 – Mission Yangtze, China: The severity of this 6,437km challenge was not to be underestimated. Throughout Ash’s estimated 8 million step exploration, he came across some of natures most intimidating experiences. From being in close proximity to snakes and bears, wolves to Asian hornets – the isolating weather-ranging and isolating challenge pushed all of Ash’s strengths to the limit.
Other endeavours include:
– Cycling Cambodia and Vietnam (1,130 miles) in 15 days
– Trekking the Himalayas in North India
– Cycling 700 miles of Australia in 13 days
– Escaping the outbacks of Australia after a nasty wild breakdown
– Learned how to survive the jungle with a Burmese Hill Tribe
– Cycled the length of Britain (985 miles) in seven days
– Walked 200 miles across Wales in the dead of winter
– Trekked alone through the Alps during winter, just missing a landslide
– Worked as a scuba diving instructor for two years in Thailand
– Competed against locals in the martial art of Muay Thai
Not only has Ash broken and made Guinness World Records, his adventures have seen him be one of the world’s most interactive explorers, sharing updates via blogs, vlogs, and live streams.
Below: Ash delivering ‘Life lessons learnt from the extremes’ at TEDx HangzhouSalon
.
Ash’s latest extreme adventure is UNCHARTED, his most intense expedition to date, situated in the Suriname Jungle. One of the most sparsely populated countries on Earth, this land is so ferociously wild that the wildlife, accustomed to humans, often approach with dangerous curiosity. However, this habitat is under dire threat and Ash wants to raise awareness of its difficulties.
His challenge will see him drop from a helicopter into the base of Julianatop, Surniame’s highest peak; will conquer the 1,280 metre mountain; will paddle upstream for several days to Tafelberg, the country’s version of Table Mountain; they will then summit the 1,000 metre peak, before trekking 100km to the coast.
Exploring Suriname means coming face-to-face with some of the deadliest creatures on the planet, such as bullet ants – whose sting is considered to be one of the most excruciating in the insect world – venomous wasps, lethal snakes, jaguars, pumas, freshwater stingrays, electric eels, wolffish – a 40kg predator with razor-sharp teeth known to attack explorers who wade into its territory – ticks, botflies, piranhas, and the chance of misidentifying toxic plants.
Over the years, Ash has partnered up with organisations like the WWF, Yibin Fishery Department, the British Consulate General, Water-To-Go, and The Green Development Foundation, sharing positive news of all the great work being done to help protect and preserve the natural environment.
He has also partnered up with the Lemur Network Conversation in order to spread the incredible work being done to protect Madagascar’s unique biodiversity; he also partnered with the tourism of Madagascar, spreading awareness of the country’s unique beauty, and the fact that over 80% of all plant life and wildlife found in Madagascar exist nowhere else on Earth. Unsurprisingly, Ash has been named the UK Ambassador for Madagascar Tourism.
Ash has also worked as a Special Ambassador of Malaria No More UK, an organisation working to eradicate malaria, an organisation already supported by the likes of Sir Andy Murray and David Beckham. He has become an ambassador and partnered with environmental brands such as WWF, UNESCO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Red Cross, and Cher’s foundation ‘Free the Wild’.
In 2015, Ash won the Welsh Adventurer of the Year Award, and the National Adventurer of the Year Award (public vote), and was invited to 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister.
Ash has become a popular face on our television screens and in printed publications, promoting his charity work and telling anecdotes of his adventures.
His Mission Yangtze reached over 1.1 billion people worldwide, making it one of the world’s most interactive world first records. He has since been invited onto platforms including the Joe Rogan podcast, Sky, BBC, Forbes, The Times, The Guardian, FOX, ITV, The Telegraph, Esquire, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic.
In 2017, Ash published the book Missing Possible: A Decade of Living Dangerously. The book follows the spirit, planning, training, and determination that he needed to achieve his record-breaking feats, as well as looking at Ash’s personal story.
Ash has completed two UK speaking tours, and has toured across Asia, speaking in Singapore, Myanmar, Korea, and China. He has also given talks in Dubai, North America, Sweden, Greece, India, Morocco, Norway, Singapore, Australia, and South America. He has presented in schools, colleges, and universities, and spoken in parliament alongside Annie Lennox.
The lessons he’s learnt from the extremes serves as inspiration to millions across the globe. He fortifies discipline, mental resilience, holding yourself accountable, self-belief, confidence and a healthy lifestyle in mind and body, even coaching people on his peak performance training camp app.
Below: The Difference Between Failure and Success at TEDx Cardiff
– Mindset and Motivation
– Adventure, Breaking Boundaries and Facing the Extremes
– Resilience and Overcoming Adversity – Inspirational stories of survival against all the odds
– Leadership & Teamwork
– Doing the Impossible – going the route ‘less travelled’
– Tourism & Travel
Ash’s talk was really interesting and engaging – I learnt a lot from how he went about dealing with the challenges he faced on many of his trips. He was a great story teller and key note speaker to end our conference – thank you!
Clarke Willmott LLP
We were delighted to host Ash at our customer event in Athens this winter. His talk on walking the Yangtze brought a real dose of adventure to proceedings and our audience were thrilled to hear about his remarkable accomplishments. I can highly recommend him as an inspiration to all, especially to young people who are looking to push the boundaries of what they can do, be the best and never quit.
Navarino
Ash Dykes is one of the most exciting speakers I have worked with, who impressed me with his high efficiency! I saw from him, his passion for environmental protection and for breaking new ground of potential. His passion is reflected in his speech, for the full 18 minutes he had the whole crowed silently listening at the TEDxHangzhouSalon 2019 stage. Many of the audience couldn’t wait to ask our organising committee whether his speech scripts can be shared with them. Thanks again Ash Dykes!!
TedX Hangzhou
At one of the busiest evening events hosted by London’s Science Museum – a special Science Lates in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Ash spoke to a full house about his travels, adventures and own experience of getting malaria. With standing room only, Ash’s talk was a chance for a new audience to hear about malaria, a disease that still kills a child every two minutes.
Science Museum London
