From the first towering mountain shot to epic and fear inducing adventures across the world, The Mountain Within Me draws viewers into a tale of overcoming adversity, adapting to life's challenges, and yes facing down the mountain within us all. Following the efforts of former rugby player Ed Jackson as he adapts to a life changing spinal injury, the new documentary explores Jackson's journey to rebuilding his life — from learning to walk again, all the way up to climbing mountains.
FILMHOUNDS sat down with former-rugby player Ed Jackson to discuss his journey to recovery, why mountain climbing is so therapeutic, his life-changing experience mountain climbing in Nepal, and how people can bring a similar sense of adventure to their own lives.
So I loved the documentary. I just had the best time watching all the mountain shots and the story, and it's just so inspirational. It made me want to get out and climb a mountain, honestly. I wanted to talk a bit about the inspiration for this? Why did you want to make a documentary about your experience?
To be honest, it wasn't my idea. I was approached because of a book I wrote called ‘Lucky' a few years ago, and a lady called Helen Parker at Universal got in contact with me and said “We think this could be a film”, which, of course, I didn't believe. I thought it was a wind up from one of my friends… but it wasn't because now it exists. I think it did take some consideration to a certain degree, because obviously you're laying your life out there on the line. It's not just my life, it's also people I care about, my family, Lois, also the beneficiaries of our charity, you know.
But when I met the director, Polly Steele and the producer George, they came to our house, and I suppose we felt each other out in a weird way. But we were just so aligned straight away on why we wanted to make this and the main reason was if it can have a positive impact on some of the people that watch it rather than it just being entertaining, like you said, it's made you want to go and climb a mountain, like that's great.
You talk a lot about positivity in the film. I quite liked this idea of rewriting the rulebook of what's possible. Is that the main message you hope people take away?
I think there's a few messages in there, but, of course, that is one of the main ones. I think it's realising that most of the limitations that we have in our lives are self imposed, or they're not real. It's trying to give people the confidence to pursue dreams, to take chances, to get out there and do the stuff they've always wanted to do but haven't either thought they're capable of doing. Because a lot of it is about overcoming adversity, obviously, but it's also then the beauty that happens because of the realisations I've made from having had to overcome adversity, and one of those main realisations is I could do way more than I thought I could.
So despite all of the physical limitations I know I now have, I actually have a way more colourful life than I ever did before when I was a professional rugby player. I just hope people can take some of that away and realise that and watch the film and think, hang on a minute: “If Ed's doing that, then maybe I can do this thing that I've always wanted to be able to do.”
But the other, one of the other main messages for me is about the power of kindness and how rewarding that is for yourself. I've always said if you're struggling, don't try and make yourself feel better. Go and make someone else feel better, because straight away, you'll get those emotional rewards. So they're probably the two key messages in the film.
There's probably different parts of the film you'll connect with, you know, someone's really going through trauma. There's probably different takeaways they can take there. Or if there's someone who's already in a good place, just wants to go and watch a film that they could find inspiration from. It might be that they want to go out and climb a mountain.
Can you share a little bit about your experience in learning to walk again? In the film they phrased it as ‘training your way out'. What was your mindset there? Because I thought that was incredible. I spent the first half of the film thinking ‘oh please don't fall'. I was really nervous!
At the beginning, obviously, I was told I had a complete injury, and I was told that I wasn't gonna be able to walk again. And then it goes everything from my toe flicking for the first time, to obviously, climbing mountains. But that path wasn't linear, and because I came to the point of accepting that I wasn't going to walk again in that first week. Everything after that seemed like a bonus, and I never thought I'd end up where I am today. It was just trying to get those little wins every day and try and get further and further and further along the line. And I think because of my background in sport, I understood that often you get out what you put in physically, and that's the same mentally as well. So I didn't want to turn around in a year or two, and think I've cut corners there. That I could have done more.
I just really committed to trying to do everything I could. I didn't know what the outcome would be, the extent of my injuries or the seriousness of my injuries would dictate how far down the road I could get. Obviously, I can't out train a severed spinal cord, for example, but I can try and recover towards the top end of my spectrum, and that's all I wanted to do, so that I could look myself in the mirror and go, okay, the rest was out of my hands. I never imagined I'd get to where I am today. I'm very, very grateful for that.
Is there anything about mountains and hiking that fitted with your training journey and your hopes for after the injury? What's so special about the mountains?
To be honest, it's the psychological therapy that you get from being in those environments, as well as the physical climbing up mountains — which is probably the hardest thing for me to do in terms of, like, how I present physically. But I think in a weird way, that's why I do it.
Really I should be trying to row across oceans or swimming like I'm much better in water than I am on land. These things that wouldn't have this impact on my body. I can't lift my left leg up properly, and I can't use my left hand, and there's weakness in my core, and I'm affected by the cold and all of these things, which means “don't do mountains,” but actually, that's why I do them.
That's probably my weird competitive nature, but what I've realised actually it's being in those environments. It's the time at the end of the day when you're sat outside the tent or at the tea house, surrounded by this epic scenery. It gives you that sense of place in the world, and really a sense of perspective that, you know, you are small, and so are your problems. There's something incredibly freeing in that I find. So I get as much from it emotionally as I do physically.
And I think once it gets to the point that if it was very detrimental for my health, it'd be very hard to justify it, but actually, I see physical recovery when I come back from some of these mountain expeditions, really from challenging myself and pushing it. And I definitely see the emotional reward. It's a great reset, especially with how crazy modern society is, to be able to go and switch off for a couple of weeks in the mountains.
There's some amazing mountain shots in this film, like just gorgeous, gorgeous cinematography. Does life on the ground ever feel a bit mundane?
I'm quite enjoying life on the ground at the moment because I've just come back from another big climbing challenge. So it goes in peaks and troughs. But there's definitely a time where I'm like, “Okay, it's too flat now I need to get back up to the hills.”
A lot of that amazing climbing cinematography is it's just testament to the environments you're in. The young videographer that we took to Nepal, that footage wasn't supposed to be in the Universal film. He did such an incredible job, and what transpired on that mountain meant that it did make the film. But it's just so nice to be able to capture that scenery, and hopefully it will inspire some people to go on those adventures, because it's rare that you see those types of places and you see it documented so beautifully. So I'm incredibly grateful that they did such an amazing job. Sharing those special places with people. And it's hard to get there. Where we were in Nepal, it was seven days from the walk from the nearest road. You are out amongst it. But the rewards that come along with that, the silence, the disconnection, the stars like it's just life changing.
I wanted to ask about Nepal, because there's this moment in the film where you arrive back from this nerve wracking experience. I mean I was panicking for you, and you just say “it's epic.” How do you have such positivity when it's been such a terrifying experience?
We had just survived. There was a chance that we were not going to survive. Quite a high chance, to be honest. So I was probably on a high. Epic's the right word.Just because it's epic doesn't necessarily mean that it was all enjoyable. And that is the thing about the climb. They are so rewarding, because they're hard. And I think, like the harder something is when you then complete it or get to the end of it, the more rewarding it is.
So that's why I like to push with the challenges, in terms of getting outside my comfort zone. Although I would not choose to repeat what happened in Nepal, because if you roll the dice like that too many times, you'll end up on the wrong side of it. I definitely don't regret it, because the lessons we learned, the lessons I learned about myself, something that we shared with each other on that mountain. There was a period after we got back for about a week, we couldn't speak to anyone else apart from each other. It really reset what I wanted to do with my life. It was a good reminder to me of what's important to me and what I should be saying no to as well as saying yes to.
My face was like half hanging off, and I'm absolutely knackered but that's how I felt at the time. You know, I was on a high. We just survived. I was probably also talking about the helicopter ride, to be honest, because it took three days to climb up to that point, and then about six minutes to get back down in this helicopter. And it kind of peeled off the side of this mountain and just dropped back down the glacier and it was amazing. Yeah, it was epic.
I also wanted to ask very quickly about the charity you operate, Millimeters 2 Mountains, and this idea of getting people together outdoors has this ripple effect. Not everyone can go to Nepal and have a life changing experience like that. But how would you suggest people find ways to get outdoors and find that positivity and that adventure where they are?
I think it's starting small. It can be quite daunting. I'm talking about in mountains in Nepal, but I didn't start there either. I started playing on my granddad's farm when I was a kid. I started by walking up Snowden, which effectively is a hill in Wales. It's a big hill, but it's a hill.
And you can build up higher and higher, but those micro adventures are really important, like just going out exploring your local area. There's a guy called Al Humphries. He did a really cool thing recently, which was and he's been on some big adventures, but he spent a year exploring all the grid references around him on his OS map. So he just explored within like a 10 mile radius of his house, and it took a whole year and he uncovered some unbelievable things.
So you don't have to go to Nepal, to the other side of the world to have an epic adventure. Like once a year, go do something that is outside your comfort zone. In terms of reaping the rewards of the outdoors, just going for a walk, getting in a green space, like consciously getting outdoors, trying to factor in that time to to spend a bit of time out. Going outside every day is really important.
If people want to get involved and support Millimetres 2 Mountains, how can they help?
So if you check out just www.millimetres2mountains.org, or social media we've got loads of events throughout the year. We obviously take the beneficiaries on trips around the world, but we also run lots of open hikes in the UK where you can come and join us. We have golf days, charity functions, big dinners in London. We always add an element of fun to what we're doing. So if you can make any of any of those events, that's great. Equally, fundraising is really important to us. So you can always just donate via any of the online platforms where we're registered as a charity.
Where would you like to go next? Mountain wise, any big plans?
Good question. Well, we're off to Albania soon to go to the Accursed mountains, which are kind of a hidden gem. I like going to places which are authentic, and you really can immerse yourself in the local culture. (The Accursed Mountains) are supposed to be incredible. So I'm really looking forward to that. And then we're heading to Kenya as well to climb Mount Kenya later this year, which I'm really excited about too, with the charity again, and people can come and join us on those trips.
Nice! Okay my final question, there's an epic end credit song on this documentary (Ain't No Mountain High Enough). Is that your theme song for life now?
It seems to be that way, doesn't it? There was that bit of us climbing when I'm just sort of deliriously singing it. I don't even remember that. I blame the altitude for making me go a bit nutty, which can happen sometimes, but yeah, I think so. I think the messaging is right in there for sure.
THE MOUNTAIN WITHIN ME, directed by Polly Steele, is in UK cinemas from 23rd August. For more information head to: mountain–within–me.film.
