Cool Conversations with Kenton Cool

This week, Kenton sits down with expedition doctor Jakob Muehlbacher and asks for his insights into working on Everest. Jakob is back on Everest for the fourth time. He first took the role of expedition doctor in 2023, then combined the role with a summit in 2024, and has continued as doctor in 2025 and 2026. He is fascinated by high-altitude medicine and deals with a whole spectrum of issues from 'easy' gastro distress and coughs and colds, to pulmonary issues often providing remote advice to guides higher up the mountain. Interestingly, Jakob supported the Xenon team last year and he and Kenton have an interesting discussion about the use of hypoxic tents before travelling to altitude. Listen now to hear a medical professional's view of working on Everest.

This week on the pod, Kenton is joined by high-altitude mountaineer David Goettler. This is his second time on the podcast, having previously chatted to Kenton back in 2022 after he successfully summited Everest without oxygen. On this occasion, Kenton was keen to speak to David because he has recently returned from an expedition in Pakistan, where he finally achieved his dream of summiting 8,000m peak Nanga Parbat via the Rupal Face. David's perseverance shines through when we learn that this was his fifth attempt to climb the mountain, and climate conditions required lots of careful calculations to make safe progress up the steep slopes. His descent, however, was much quicker! David spent 35 glorious minutes paragliding from slightly below the summit all the way to Basecamp and as listeners, we share his joy in the journey. Dreaming of big mountain adventures? This episode is for you!

This week's Cool Conversations guest is adventurer and safety expert, Aldo Kane. Aldo tells Kenton that he was a Royal Marines Commando for 10 years before finding his way into TV and film where he looks after safety and logistics in extreme, remote, hostile environments. Prompted by Aldo's work, this conversation delves into the changing world of TV and streaming services, and the difficulties of balancing time outdoors with technology. This conversation delivers very differently to what you might expect and is definitely worth a listen! What's Aldo reading? Check Engine Light by Rob Wilson What's Aldo listening to? Moonshots podcast

The popular Tales from the Trails is back and this week Kenton is taking us on a journey through Pakistan. Starting in Islamabad, Kenton and his team fly to Skardu (not without drama!), then take 4x4s to Hushe, high in the Hushe Valley, before they continue on foot to Laila Peak's Basecamp. As always, Kenton provides vivid descriptions of the landscape unfolding around him as he travels deeper into the mountains. This episode is recorded on the go, so please forgive us the background noise!

We have another outdoor special for you this week, recorded near Chamonix in Servos. Kenton chats to Sev Garo, an artist and sculptor who is inspired by glaciers. Sev explains how he aims to capture the energy of glaciers through his art and how he hopes his work helps to start conversations about climate change and glacial melt. Sev tells Kenton how he initially came up with the idea to design unique pieces of jewellery from the surface detail of glaciers and the process he follows to create this wearable art. Take a look at Sev's work on his website: www.garogosi.com

Welcome to a previously untested podcast format (for us!) - a walk and talk. Kenton recorded this episode with adventurer, writer and super-mum, Anna McNuff, whilst walking on Leckhampton Hill in Gloucestershire, and it really is a cool conversation! Anna and her husband, Jamie McDonald (another adventurer), have recently decided to sell their house in Gloucester and live a more nomadic lifestyle with their three children. As you will hear, Anna has undertaken many adventures and she wants her children to experience life a bit differently. Kenton and Anna discuss her thinking behind this big change, and they also cover a broad range of subjects including Madagascar (the film!), squats, Mum duty, trains, unschooling, mini-adventures, big adventures and Gloucestershire geography... You're in for a treat! This conversation is interspersed with dog chats, hellos to other walkers, and some wind noise - we hope you don't mind. Let us know what you think of the format!

Recorded at 6,400m on Everest, is this the highest altitude podcast recording ever? We don’t know but we do know that you’re going to love it! Kenton speaks to University of Leeds based Professor of Glaciology, Duncan Quincey, about his current research project on the Khumbu glacier. Whilst Kenton was climbing Everest, Duncan and his team were installing some impressive, solar-powered equipment at Camp 2 to monitor changing glacial temperatures over the coming months. In this episode, Duncan explains his hypothesis to Kenton and talks about the early data they are collecting. He is clearly passionate about what he does and they cover glaciers, melt rates, radiation, snowfall, precipitation, temperatures and livelihoods in this fascinating conversation. There’s more to glacial research than you might imagine!

Whilst at Everest Basecamp this year, Kenton recorded this episode with Mark Fisher and Erich Roepke who made arguably the most exciting Everest discovery of recent years when they found Andrew Cormyn (“Sandy”) Irvine’s boot on the North Side of the mountain late last year. It was almost exactly 100 years since Irvine and Mallory went missing on their 1924 Everest expedition and whilst Mallory’s remains were found in 1999, there has been no trace of Irvine… until now. Erich and Mark tell Kenton what led them to make this discovery and their subsequent actions. We’re not going to give anything else away here - tune in to hear the whole story!