Everest Avalanche and a Barefoot Running Recovery

Having survived the 2015 Everest Avalanche, climber and film cameraman Joe French found his way back to health and stability through barefoot running in the forest near his home.

In 2015, climber and documentary maker Joe French was about to fulfil a dream of a lifetime – to climb Everest and film it. Then natural disaster struck and Joe found himself at the epicentre of an vicious earthquake which killed nearly 9,000 people. Only a few years previously, his team of Sherpa had been killed in another avalanche, and soon after that, Julie, his wife, was diagnosed with cancer.

The accumulation of trauma took its toll: suffering from post-traumatic stress, Joe was haunted by the horrors he’d witnessed. In an attempt to find a resolution, his only answer was to find solace in what had inspired him all along - the outdoors.

Running barefoot through the forests and glens around his house in Scotland, Joe discovered the means to find a return to health and peace of mind. Out of Mind is his story.

A story of hard climbing, extreme adventuring and reconnecting with ones own self through time in the hills. A story that starts on the outcrops of the Peak District but plays out on the highest mountain in the world.