Michael Woods on his passion for mountaineering and his ambition to climb Mount Everest! (BSL)

Hi everyone, I am Michael Woods. I am from Liverpool and I am profoundly Deaf. I am chasing my dream to summit Mount Everest with the aim of showing the Deaf community that they can achieve their dreams too, no matter how big they may be.

There is at present only one deaf person who has summited Mt Everest back in 2016, Satoshi Tamura from Japan. There has, however, been no deaf British or Europe person to complete this summit. For me to achieve this dream I will have to secure the support through sponsorship or donations.

I have such a huge passion for mountaineering. I have been climbing and hiking around the UK in all 3 regions for the past 8 years, completing roughly over 200 mountains trips. I even completed the Three National Peaks Challenge in 24 hours (completing it in 22hrs) at the same time raising over £600 for the Sign Health Charity with 2 of my friends.

I am now prepared to increase my training by taking on 3 of the biggest expeditions this year to help train and prepare my body and mind for Mount Everest Summit. I am preparing for these 3 expeditions by undergoing personal training and hiking around once a week, with about 8 miles of hiking. I am also running regularly at least 2-4 miles 5 times a week to keep my stamina really high.

The first of the exhibitions this year will be Mount Everest Base Camp. There I will be trekking for 21 days. This will enable my body to adapt to high altitude conditions and allow my body to get used to the new terrains.

Once this is complete I will next be doing Mount Toubkal, which is the highest mountain in Morocco standing at 4167m. I will be doing this during the winter season which will give me a good experience of tougher weather conditions.

Later in the year, my third expedition will be taking on “1 of the 7 summits” in the world, Mount Kilimanjaro. This is the highest mountain in Africa standing at 5895m.

(If you are wondering what are the Seven Summits? These are the 7 highest mountains on each of the seven continents of the earth (Asia, South America, North America, Africa, Europe, Antarctica and Australia).

In early 2024, I plan to take on the Ecuador’s Triple Crown where I will summit the 3 highest peaks in Ecuador. Climbing up Chimborazo 6310m is where I will stand on the furthest point from the centre of the earth and summit Cotopaxi at 5897m and Cayambe 5790m. This will further allow me to gain higher altitude, experiencing thinner air and giving me the opportunity to experience using ice axes.

Aside from hiking the tallest Mountains in the world, I also have the dream of providing workshops for both children and adults. Offering workshops gives me the opportunity to share my own experiences and pass on knowledge, tips and advice.

In workshops I am able to demonstrate my skills in using axes, ropes, crampons, mountains route and so on. Overall I aspire to  share with the Deaf community how amazing the experience of hiking is for your body and also most importantly the mind. Mental Health issues are high among the Deaf community and a fantastic way to combat this can be through walking or hiking.

Looking back, my journey towards the mountains began in 2015 after the birth of my first child. My fitness went downhill with being a new father. I then decided to become fit again and decided a good way would be to go hiking, and this was when I decided to take on Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales for the first time in 2015.

Being new to hiking it was difficult to begin with, I went hiking with a very heavy backpack, too much food and water. I really was learning as I went along!

After summiting Snowdon I began researching about Everest, the tallest mountain in the world and decided my dream would be to climb that mountain. Since that time my passion in mountaineering has become stronger and stronger. I have summited Snowdon 33 times, my most recent challenge was summiting Snowdon twice in just one day, (8 hours of ice and snow).

Over the years I have learnt so many skills including using crampons, axes, ropes and hiking in various weather conditions (even with winds at 100mph+, snow whiteout, heavy rain, heavy fog, and scorching sun). I have even stayed over in Scotland to do Ben Macdui during the winter season.

I have learnt so much about how to survive on a mountain and how to stay and respect the weather. At the same time I learnt all this without BSL access and realised this is a gap in the Deaf community, a gap I wants to help close while always raising awareness about Deaf Mental health and wellbeing.

If you would like to follow and keep track of my goals, you can follow my Facebook page and Instagram account. My content will also be in BSL with vlogs showing  my journey. I will also will be sharing tips, advice and any support given is greatly received.

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MichaelsSummits
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/michaelssummits

Small or big businesses who are interested in sponsoring Michael, or even to donate can be done by messaging him directly. Any donation big or small helps greatly. Any money raised will help towards the training and covering the Mount Everest Summit which can cost about £50,000