Ant Middleton has revealed that he left his team during a trek to the top of Everest so that he could enjoy a boozy bender at a high-end spa retreat.
The TV tough guy had taken on the challenge for Channel 4 documentary Extreme Everest, but admitted he decided to take a break ahead of the last leg of the journey.
Writing in his new book, the former sniper said he left his team huddling together in tents in Nepal while he paid £1,500 to be picked up by a private helicopter, which took him to the Yeti Mountain Home in Namche Bazaar.
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He wrote: "For the first time in a month there were no cameras pointing at me, no schedule bearing down on me and no alpha-male politics to negotiate. Not only that, I'd booked myself into the best hotel in town."
Once there, the 39-year-old got to work making his way through the hotel's drinks menu which, at such high altitude, was no easy feat.
He says: "Over the next few days I ended up basically living there. I'd stumble out smashed at 2am every night.
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"Then I'd wake up feeling dreadful, with the symptoms of my hangover concentrated dozens of times over by the effects of high altitude."
After one final blow-out, Middleton boarded a flight back to Base Camp to rejoin the team he had left behind.
But despite suffering with the hangover from hell, he had to carry on with his treacherous trek.
He said: "I felt like rotting meat. I'd done the damage, now I had to live with the consequences."
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Until now, the TV presenter's drunken trip has never been mentioned - and it definitely didn't make the show's final cut.
After making it to the summit, Middleton and his team then had to make the long and arduous trip down, which saw him and his team caught in a powerful storm.
The father-of-five later revealed that he saw a Sherpa guide die in front of him.
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Looking back at the terrifying ordeal, he wrote: "Mother Nature - Mount Everest - bent me over, pulled my pants down, gave me a good hiding and said 'on your way'."
But despite Middleton joking about his drunken getaway, one mountaineer said it's no laughing matter.
Speaking to The Sun, an unnamed 'mountaineering source' reportedly said: "This is really frowned on in our world.
"He might be making light of it but it wouldn't have been funny if something disastrous had happened to his team while he was living it up in a hotel."
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