Role: Logistics
Hometown: Aberystwyth
University: Imperial College London
Degree: MEng Mechanical Engineering
Year of study: 3rd Year
Age: 21
Kayaking Background: I started boating when I was about 9 in the local kayaking club in Aberystwyth called Aberkayakers. I had a go at the playboating circuit, but when real rivers were on my doorstep and I realised I wasn’t very good at playboating, I went back to real boating. After moving to London, I was pleased to find a thriving canoe club at Imperial, of which I am now Captain, and I managed to get out boating about every other weekend.
Previous Trips: North and South Alps, Corsica, Arctic Sweden, Norway, Pyrenees, India, Nepal and the USA.
Favorite destination so far: Maybe Norway but the are all quite different so hard to compare.
Extra Skills: I’m good at shouting.
Previous media coverage: Our Sweden trip was in Playboating magazine.
Other Interests: Politics, the Royal Navy, and….I guess I do too much boating.
Music of choice: Jupiter from Holst’s the Planet suite. Perfect warm up music. Especially when the ‘I vow to thee my country’ bit comes on, stirring stuff. I also like a good sea shanty after a few pints.
Most exhilarating boating moment: Finishing the Tsarap Chu/Zanskar felt pretty good.
What has been your worst boating moment? Probably starting the Tsarap Chu/ Zanskar.
When and where was your last swim? In 2001, at a Peak UK Challenge at HPP, my deck ‘popped’. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Most random / unusual thing you have ever done? I do a lot of random things, especially after a few. Ask Dave Fairweather. Gate crashing a function with Jeffrey Archer, Carol Vorderman and David Cameron was pretty random.
What are you most looking forward to about the expedition? Well it’s not vodka. I enjoy being in really remote places that the usual tourist doesn’t bother going to. And it is always the more different from the river. I think the rivers are going to be a good sport too. And of course watching Dave Burne swim.
What part of the expedition do you feel will be the biggest challenge? The hike-in to some of the planned rivers seem to be pretty brutal. 3 possibly 4 day hike ins are going to hurt. Multi days on hard white water takes its toll on you mentally aswell.
What will you cook when it’s your turn to feed the team? What every real man eats, a large amount of meat on the bone, using your hands. Oh and I intend of finding the animal and killing it with my bare hands, unless it’s a bear.
What piece of kit will you be sure you take on expedition? A mosquito net. I learnt the hard way in Sweden.
What made you chose Siberia and Mongolia? It’s somewhere new that I had never thought of going to, which from reports that I have heard, there is some fantastic boating.
As a team, you have a lot to live up to after the success of the 2005 Kyrgyzstan trip. What do you think makes The Four Borders Expedition so special? We have a lady on our expedition.
How do you think the team will get on since most of them only met for the first time in November? Obviously fantastically. We will all get on like one big happy family as happens on all expeditions.
Personal website: Usual self indulgent blog: http://www.patrickclissold.wordpress.com
