Neil Laughton

Laughton's first expedition was a three-day canoe journey in Somerset with a school friend aged thirteen. He has continued to organise and lead adventurous journeys on seven continents, by land, sea and air. He has completed the Explorers Grand Slam and led more than 50 expeditions to remote parts of the world. He holds two Guinness World Records for high altitude expeditions.^[27][28]

Over the course of nine years, Laughton successfully climbed the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, known as the seven summits. The first summit he reached was Acongacua in 1991 and he completed the challenge in 2000 in Antarctica on Mount Vinson. During this undertaking he raised money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.^[29]

1. Aconcagua - January 1991
2. Kilimanjaro - July 1992
3. Denali - May 1993
4. Elbrus - February 1994
5. Carstenz (Puncak Jaya) - April 1995
6. Everest - May 1998
7. Vinson - January 2000

Laughton has taken part in six expeditions on Mt Everest.

During his first Mt Everest expedition in the spring of 1996 Laughton did not reach the summit. He was amongst the climbers caught in the "worst storm in 100 years" whilst at an altitude of 8,000 m (26,000 ft) 9–11 May 1996.^[30]

In 1998, Laughton returned to Mt Everest leading an expedition team that includes the young Bear Grylls. They successfully reached the 8,848 m (29,029 ft) summit of Mt Everest on 26 May 1998, at which point Bear became the youngest Briton to achieve this.^[31]

In 2003, Laughton led an expedition to help wheelchair-using explorer Glenn Shaw achieve his life's ambition of seeing Mount Everest from Base Camp.^[32] Shaw had a medical condition known as 'Brittle Bones' and used a wheelchair all of his life.^[33] The team successfully reached Base Camp on the north side of the mountain.^[34]

In 2007 Laughton returned to Everest with Bear Grylls as Team Leader of "Mission Everest". This record-setting parajet paramotor flight eventually reached an altitude of 8,991.6 m (29,500 ft) flying higher than all the Himalayan peaks and the mission raised $1 million for the charity Global Angels.^[35][36]

During an expedition to set the record for the World's Highest Dinner Party, Laughton and his team are on the north side of Everest in Tibet at an altitude of 6,400 m (21,000 ft) during the devastating earthquake of 2015. The record attempt is abandoned as the team successfully descend from high altitude to help with the rescue efforts.^[37]

Laughton returns again with a team to the north side of Everest and successfully host the World's Highest black tie dinner party on Mt Everest at an altitude of 7,056 m (23,150 ft) on 30 April 2018 as recognised by Guinness World Records.^[27] The three-course dinner was specially created by chef Sat Bains who was a member of the original expedition team in 2015. This expedition raised over £100,000 for charity.^{[38][39][40][41][42]}

Laughton holds a number of records for completing first circumnavigations by jet ski and paddle board. In 2000 Laughton was with the first team to circumnavigate the British Isles on a jet-ski. This 30 day project raised funds for the RNLI.^[30] This was followed in 2017 by the first jet ski circumnavigation of Ireland again in aid of the RNLI and Help for Heroes.^[43][44] November 2017, Laughton led a team of paddle-boarders in the first circumnavigation by stand up paddle board of Easter Island in the Pacific.^[45][46]

In 2005 Laughton led an expedition in Greenland and achieves twelve first ascents of previously unclimbed peaks as well as making an ascent of Gunnbjørn Fjeld the highest mountain north of the Arctic Circle.^[47]

In 2009 Laughton undertook a mission to pilot the world's first road legal flying car on a 5,800 km (3,600 mi) journey by land and air from London to Timbuktu across the Sahara for charity Alive & Kicking.^[48][49][50] Leaving Knightsbridge on 9 January the team completed the expedition on 25 February 2009. The Parajet Skycar was driven where there were roads available and flown where they were not, notably over the Straits of Gibraltar and making a north - south crossing of the sahara desert.

Laughton has undertaken a number of polar expeditions. Three are of particular note and the last degree expeditions to both poles completed his explorers grand slam.

In 1999 Laughton skis the Last Degree to the North Pole, the last 110 km (60 nmi) to the North Pole, raising money for the Starlight Children's Charity.

The Shackleton Memorial Expedition led by Laughton took place in 2001 in Antarctica. The expedition planned to retrace Shackleton's traverse of South Georgia. The expedition took three and a half days to traverse the mountain terrain in atrocious weather conditions raising money for James Caird Trust^[51][52]

To mark the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott's arrival at the South Pole in 1912, Laughton led an expedition to ski the Last Degree to the South Pole. When they reached the Pole Laughton organised the first official game of cricket there with the British team winning by two wickets against the "rest of the world" in this commemorative game^[53][54]

In the winter of 2016 Neil Laughton and James Bingham attempted to make a crossing of the Bering Strait. The ice was too thin to walk on and would not support their weight, but nor was it possible to paddle through on kayaks. They began to drift north in the ice into open ocean and had to be rescued airlifted from the ice by a United States Coast Guard helicopter who airlifted them from the ice.^{[55][56][57][58][59]}

In May 2022 Laughton led an expedition in the Peruvian Amazon to travel 260 km on the Yanayaka River. The team completed their journey from Dorado Lake to Nauta at the confluence of the Ucayali and Maranon rivers on standup paddle boards.^[60] The expedition raised money for several charities including Prostate UK. This led to Laughton being tested and subsequently treated for prostate cancer in May 2023, from which he made a full recovery.

Laughton's first attempt to achieve the Guinness World Record for the highest altitude bike ride on Mt Putha Hiunchuli, the 95th highest mountain in the world in October 2022 had to be abandoned due to adverse weather conditions. Laughton returned in September 2024 and he and Nima Kanchha Sherpa reached the summit on 18 September where they rode their bikes to set a new high altitude record of 7,246 m (23,772 ft).^[61][28] A second Guinness World Record was achieved during this expedition, for the highest altitude playing a board/party game at 6,216 m (20,393 ft) for a chess game between Laughton and Tim Maw.^[62]

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