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I'm currently hanging from the bottom of Africa's highest bridge where we have built the world's longest monkey bars stretching from one side all the way over to the other. I'm going to attempt to cross from start to finish. The bridge stretches over 300 m across the gorge with a drop of more than 200 m to the ground below. To make it across, I'll have to climb 600 monkey bars. And the arch shape of the bridge forces me to start with the steep uphill section. Basically, I have to do around 120 pull-ups to even get close to halfway. For this crazy idea, I teamed up with my friend Richard, the guy that needs to figure out how to build this entire thing.
It's taken a team of 12 guys, 21 days to rig this thing. 300 m of monkey bars, 9,700 m of straps. So, in short, I'm going to go home safe. That's the plan. Okay, deal. We've built a lot of obstacles before, but nothing to this size and this scale. As a world champion obstacle course racing athlete, I'm used to tackling different obstacles that requires every muscle group in my body. But for this project, I want to take one key obstacle, the monkey bars, and turn it into the biggest possible challenge that I can imagine. Nothing like this has ever been done before. So, the first thing I need to work out is how do you
even train for this? The team here has built a simulation training rig. I haven't seen what they've built. They've kept it secret up to now. I've separated the bridge into three key sections. The steep incline, the middle, where I will switch my grip from facing backwards to facing forwards and the final steep descent. We predicted the hardest section of the bridge would be the incline right from the start. So, we have to build a rig that helps me better understand this section. Welcome to my playground. Yeah, nice to meet you. Likewise. Very exciting project. Stefan is an absolute legend in climbing. I'm excited to see what I can learn from him ahead of my big challenge.
It's a very interesting project. We're talking about 5 to 600 single moves. That's a whole route in the mountains. It's just uh at the limit. Maybe it's not possible. This rig helps me work out the best technique to tackle the incline section. The challenge is finding the right rhythm so Thomas can stay in control of every movement and swing. We've already found one or two kind of movement patterns that we can try and improve on. The bridges incline section is like doing this rig 12 times. Today we managed eight repetitions with a lot of rest in between. Before I decided I
don't want to do more cuz the skin's going to come off my hands. We need to tie them into being back to back without rest. And then we've only done like almost the first quarter. Explaining it like that gives me yeah insight again to what we're trying to do here. It's it's massive scary. To start my training, I've built a flat 6 m rig in my garden and began focusing on three core elements that will help me get across all sections of this bridge. Rowing to build my upper body strength. I'm an expert. Okay. I've watched three YouTube videos. I know what I'm doing. finger exercises to improve my grip.
300 more to go. And running to build endurance I need to make it across the bridge. 6ks in. This training is key to tackling the bridge as a whole. But as the training rig in Austria showed me, the biggest hurdle is going to be the incline. And for this, we need a completely different setup. So to have any chance at conquering that final challenge underneath the bloons bridge, we have built a 48 m simulation rig on the mountain in my home backyard. So this is about 100 bars. On event day, I'm going to have to do closer to 600 bars. We don't have a piece of the mountain steep enough to build something on 45°. So we had 10° less than the actual bridge. So, this is as accurate and as steep as we could physically get built.
Sorry, shoulders. This is going to hurt. The goal for today is to climb from the bottom to the top and all the way back down. The aim was definitely get up all the way, get down all the way without falling. conquer one/ird of the bridge. Didn't do that. Just doing monkey bars uphill versus doing them flat is like running 400 m flat versus running 400 m on a steep mountain incline. It's completely different. What this means is I need to kind of go back to the drawing board on how I'm training for this.
I realize how far off I am physically from just being able to complete this challenge. If I have to be a bit more honest, I am uh myself. 50 grip squeezes, 10 pull-ups, five rounds. No, I can't write. Well, hello Stefan. Hey, Thomas. Hey. How are you, man? Did you find your rhythm so far? Obviously, I've spent a lot of time hanging on the bars and so forth. The rhythm is a hard one to get. We have a couple of points that we call shake out points that I'll hook my legs in and like hang upside down and try and get some of the arm pump out. It's not comfortable to do at all.
I need to figure out how far can I push it before I have to kind of strategically take a shake out point. Definitely you have to get in the shake out position because otherwise you will lose your grip. It's a crucial decision. That's starting to hurt now. My hands are really sore. Yo, my hands hurt, man. 168 m. I've prepared the best way I possibly can over all these months of training, but now it's time to find out if it's all been enough to tackle the sprint. This is the first time I actually get to see all the bars on the bridge. How mental is that? Oh, hey. Good to see you. Welcome to my crazy bridge.
Oh, no. Come on. And you have to the middle uh 150 m. Oh, it's fine. Come on. Do you want to try it? I can see you. Let me out of tr. You just hang and swing. Oh. That's enough for climbers to know that it's hard. Good job. That was good. You're crazy. Oh man, you're my hero. It's steep. It is much steeper than it looks. And it's a full every time. This is the biggest thing I've done to date. Thank you. Take your time.
I want to feel I didn't leave any bit out there. Can you hear me? I'm only on that channel cuz I'm only talking to you. I'll see you underneath the bridge. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. It all comes down to this moment at the bridge. I will only have one try. This is me on first bar. Okay, Thomas's on his first bar. Okay, deep breathing. All right. Now, hands on the bars. The problem is the first 150 m are permanent pull-ups. Okay, Rich, I'm going to take a point.
Hey guys, got a quick draw. Okay, that's the first time that he's going upside down just hanging on his legs in the bar. It's very tiring to get in the position and to get out of the position again. Can't believe that I can hang from one hand just casually like this. Come on. Hands are not feeling fantastic. They're pretty burnt. A little bit worried that it's too much blood floating in his head. That's scary as well that he gets unconscious.
You got me. I've got you. You're doing super well, my friend. You're doing super well. Three, two, one. Hands on. Set. That's it. Yeah. Turn around. Now he's turning around because it's getting less steep. And that's definitely the right tactic. Bit more slack, rich. Oh, dude. Oh, that drop. Don't look at it. Definitely you get to the point where you question yourself, can I do it? Can I really do it? Because your body is getting weaker and weaker. The doubts are getting bigger and bigger.
The body is a limit. Your body is fully trained for this. Your head is in this. Three, two, one. That's metal, boy. That's metal. That's good. And I think he's definitely now in the position that he starts thinking, "Oh god, oh my god, I hope my hands can do it. I hope my muscles can do it." Really struggling to get good swing. Yeah, it's not far. And then it's all downhill. Okay. You're doing so well, mate. You are doing this. Epically proud of you right now. This is much harder than I had in my head.
Moving it. Blood rush. Yay. Sorting blooded. We're going soon. And now we're going to start giving slack. You see it in his movements that it's getting super tough. Hands are strong. I can hear you boys. Here's hands on bars hanging. I hope he's not pushing too hard. Take your time. Oh, no. Come on. Rest. My face start three. Two. releasing knees. Activating bis node. Slack as much slack as you can. As much Slack. Keep going.
Stopping. Stop. AH, COME ON. OKAY, stay in the zone. Now it's all about the head. All about the motivation. Okay. Focus. Hands on B. going. This is the end. That's his biggest motivation. Make sure. Make Well done. Come on. Let's go. Nice. Come on. Yes.
