Ben spoke about his journey into rock climbing and his toughest challenge to date; scaling Angel Falls.

Ben told the students on how he fell in love with rock climbing at university despite falling on several occasions and once broke both his ankles.

In 2005 when two of his friends told him they were travelling to Venezuela to scale the tallest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls, he took the opportunity to join them in making history as the first group to ever scale the face of the 980 metre tall waterfall.

The group prepared themselves and trained for months prior to the expedition to get themselves in peak physical condition for the gruelling three week expedition.

The group spent a week traveling over water to reach the falls before spending two weeks living on the side of the waterfall, carrying over 700 kilos of food and water with them to survive, while also sleeping and eating thousands of feet off the ground.

To conclude his talk Ben said to the pupils: “No matter the setback, I proved to myself, and hopefully to all of you today, that with hard work, determination and planning, any goal is achievable and you should not limit yourself to what you can accomplish both in school and out of it.”

Deputy Head of Rendcomb College Sixth Form, Alice Wyndow, said: “The messages of determination and mental and physical strength involved were incredibly inspiring. Ben also showed us some jaw dropping pictures of the realities of living on the side of a mountain for two weeks which left all of our pupils quite shocked.

“How they managed to keep safe and finish the adventure is unimaginable. It made Go Ape look like a stroll in the park!”