It helped me get to the top, I swear

13th July 2009

Uttering expletives when you hurt yourself is a sensible policy, according to scientists who have shown swearing can help reduce pain. Keele University 'curse doctors' have proclaimed that swearing can increase your pain threshold by as much as 50%. It also maintains that those who's vocabulary spends most of its time in the barrack room will not benefit so much as expletives are a normal casual part of their verbal diet.

None of this is exactly news to Exodus, a holiday company that specialises in pushing normal people to do extraordinary things. Cycling over the Atlas Mountains in a gale, summiting Kilimanjaro in 15 minus or rafting the terrifying Grade 5 Zambezi are all unlikely to escape one or two precious epithets. Valerie Parkinson, Exodus' most experienced guide has just been on Everest and even this normally mild-mannered leader was alleged to have spat a couple of choice ones across the Hillary Step. We are often asked what gets people through those tough days when it seems a combination of weather and extreme exertion are conspiring to defeat. Good guides, good food and the certainty that a bad day in the hills is still better than a good day in the office is normally enough, but if swearing is the final piece of the exertion jigsaw so be it. Whilst we are not advocating a gaggle of Gore-Tex Gordon Ramsays be unleashed on the slopes and mountains of the 88 countries Exodus visit, if it helps don't be shy, just try to be original.