Mission accomplished! Despite having to leave the Royal Marines with two fractured feet, Ryan is now on top of the world thanks to a training grant from RMA – The Royal Marines Charity.
Former RM recruit Ryan Thomas, who hails from Manchester, says: “2022 was a very crazy year indeed for me. I couldn’t have ever imagined in my wildest dreams where I would be now. I couldn’t have done it without any of you guys at the RMA Charity. Not just from a funding point of view but just from having access to the large network of support that you made available to me.”
Ryan has certainly been on a real roller-coaster ride since joining the Royal Marines in October 2019 to turn his boyhood dream of becoming a Commando into reality.
But, sadly, it was not to be. The tough training regime at the Commando Training Centre in Lympstone, Devon, resulted in severe fractures to both his feet following particularly gruelling exercises in the field. He endured two stints in Hunter Company, undergoing intensive programmes of medical rehabilitation, re-joining training twice — but only to get injured again.
Each time, I had to go through it all again. My motivation completely went, having already spent over a year in rehab,”
And so in January 2022 he was catapulted headlong into finding something else to do with his life.
He then remembered an interview he’d had during the leaving routine with the Charity’s Employment & Education team. “They thought I’d be best suited to the outdoor industry and helped me start the job search by enrolling me for a residential rural week with HighGround at Bicton College, along with five other RMs going through the same thing (see page 17 ‘Tree-mendous success!’).
In the meantime, I came across a company operating out of the UAE that was looking for general duties’ instructors. I applied, had an interview the very next day, got the job — and two days later flew out to Dubai!”
Ryan nevertheless returned to join the pre-arranged HighGround week to see if any of the rural careers such as tree surgery or estate management highlighted during the course would be of more interest. It made him realise that he already ‘absolutely loved the work’ he’d been doing, so he returned to Dubai where his whirlwind transition into a new way of life was about to lead to greater things!
It was during a chance meeting with some climbing guides from India that he then learned about the qualifications available through the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. This was set up in 1954, with Tenzing Norgay Sherpa as its first director, after he and Sir Edmund Hillary had become the first to successfully summit Mount Everest the previous year.
He was excited by the amazing opportunities this could open up. The Charity had continued to keep in touch with Ryan to follow his progress with transition, and so, when asked if they could offer any financial support to enable him to take the intense month-long training course to become a mountain guide in one of the world’s harshest and toughest climbing environments, RMA – The Royal Marines Charity was there to help him pursue his dream.
The course was absolutely amazing and covered all aspects of mountaineering, from clothing and climbing theories to everything rock-related in the Himalayas,”
“Just before graduating, we headed to Rathong Glacier for seven days of ice-craft. This was the bit we had all been waiting for, trekking to base camp experiencing everything from glacier crossings and ice climbing to crevasse rescues and ice-axe self arrests.”
He has since spent his first season in Nepal as a fully qualified guide accompanying treks to Everest Base Camp, summiting Ama Dablam and taking tourists around some of the smaller treks in the foothills around Kathmandu. “Me being a foreigner was a big hit especially with the locals and everyone wanted to meet the foreign guide!”
In between Everest climbing seasons, Ryan is back working in Dubai and, in going from one extreme to another, will return to Nepal later in the year with ambitious plans to take his exciting new career to the highest possible peak!
