Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else, welcome to the official Mediocre Mountain Challenge
award ceremony. Yes tonight we will be announcing the winners of the entirely fictitious but
extremely prestigious Golden Molehills, and at the end you will get to vote for one of
5 nominees for the ultimate award for the Most Mediocre Mountain. Now it wouldn’t
be an award ceremony without a thank you speech so before we start I’d like to say thank
you to all of you who took part, and thank you for all the lovely messages
videos and photos that you sent in. It has been a beautiful thing to see people going
out and climbing their local mediocre mountains all over the world. In fact you know what,
here’s a taster of what that looks like.
I’ve honestly been blown away by the effort that you’ve all put in to this challenge, the response has been way bigger than I expected
and unfortunately because of that there was no way I could put everyone into this video
so once you’ve finished watching this please do check out the posts on my Facebook page,
there’s a whole hashtag to explore on Twitter and Instagram, and there’s a huge YouTube
playlist of all the brilliant videos that you’ve been uploading here. I will put a link
to that at the end of this video and in the description below but now it is time for the
official Tim Traveller Mediocre Mountain Awards. And let’s face it, there’s only one place
we can start: it’s the “but Tim I live in Switzerland” award for the Least Mediocre
Mountain. Ok I admit it, in hindsight this challenge
was a little bit unfair to anyone who lives near actual genuine mountains. I had several
messages from people in Swizterland desperately trying to find something mediocre in their
local area and failing miserably. Special shoutouts to Alex in Switzerland who climbed
the Pilatus, and Primo in Switzerland who cycled up the Gotthard Pass.
There were also strong contenders from Jacob in California, Ryan in Colorado, Steven
in Spain and Thomas in France but in the end it was between two people.
Zelda in South Africa, I just wanted to jump straight into my computer screen and be where you are. I
mean look at that. It’s just ridic… Ok Zelda we get the point. Seriously though,
beautiful photos, but the winner for making me want to be there even more is Brandon in
Wackersburg, Germany. To be honest Zelda is unlucky to miss out, it really could have
gone either way but there was just something extra about Brandon’s pictures.
Ok next up is the award for the best view from a mediocre mountain. Anna and Nicky both
sent in photos from the highest point in Brooklyn, only 66m up but with a great view of the New
York skyline, while over on the West Coast, Cheetah Obscura climbed the highest point
in Seattle, and this was by far the best view sent in by an endangered animal.
But for the top two we’re crossing to Australia and I really couldn’t split these. First
up is Ben, who climbed 150m of Mount Noorat for this spectacular view of its volcanic
crater and sharing the award is Markus who as far as I can tell climbed just 100m above
the suburbs of Canberra to take this stunning photo. Well done both, you’ve really maximised
the amount of view that you got for the number of metres you climbed. An honourable mention
here to Tom who climbed 500m for this view of Hong Kong.
And of course the only way to follow that is the award for the Most Mediocre View From
A Genuine Mountain. Now this was close. In second place is Micah in Guatemala… but
the winner is Gerhard who climbed the legendary Table Mountain in Cape Town South Africa and
saw the inside of a cloud. Oh hang on I’m hearing that we’re adding
an extra category, it’s the Micah in Guatemala Award Going Up A Mountain Twice Just To Get
A Better View and that goes to… Micah in Guatemala.
Ok before we get onto the mediocre mountains themselves we’ve got a few special awards
to give out. Firstly it’s the Mediocre Grammy for Best Album and no real contest here, that
goes to Max and his friends in Bucharest Romania. If you four aren’t a critically acclaimed
alt pop band sort it out I want to buy your records. Likewise there was only one contender
for the Jumping On The Hashtag Award, which goes to Pastor Seth B Kajang, who advises
us to Avoid mediocrity. Bit late for that Seth. And another area where there was no
real contest is the Best Footwear Award, which goes to Bram in Shrewsbury.
Right, now it’s a big one: the mediocre awards for dramatic performance which I’m
going to call the Medioscars. And here are the nominees: Malin and Maria in Sweden;
Liam in Pennsylvania;
and Steve in Ohio.
They're all fantastic performances, but the winners, impressing the judges with this tense
moment as they reveal a huge plot twist, are Maarten and Maarten from the Netherlands.
We're now at 32m high!
And this is the highest natural point of Groningen.
Natural? This is artificial. It was created in 1994.
Echt?
Ja.
Kak.
I really felt they captured the mediocrity of the moment there.
And the other Medioscar that we’re giving out tonight is for the Best Supporting Appearance
By Someone’s Mum. There was a very strong performance from Seth’s mum in Toronto,
but in the end, the judges have controversially given the award to this lady in Devon, England,
er... because that’s my mum. Ok we’re nearly there but I wanted to give
special recognition to a few people who showed outstanding innovation in taking on the challenge.
Will and Aidan conquered the UK’s lowest point at -2.75m, while Narayan and Cato did
the same thing in the Netherlands at -6.74. But they were all blown out of the water by
Christian who says “Greetings from the Indian Ocean. Highest point within 50 nautical miles
of 13°2'N - 073°50'E”. Frankly superb work from Christian there but for triumphing in the
face of adversity one person stood out.
G'day Tim, currently in quarantine in a hotel room in Adelaide, Australia.
So the best I can do is climb to the highest elevation in me room.
(Which I've had to manufacture myself)
Bit of Dutch courage, warming, I hear it gets a little chilly at those elevations...
Right, wish me luck...
Aw crikey
Yes!
Congraulations to Malcolm in Adelaide for an incredible piece of innovation,
and an achievement so mediocre that I think you nearly forgot to say yes
at the end. But now the moment is finally here. After sifting through 100s of emails,
social media posts, and YouTube videos, I can now announce the 5 nominees for the ultimate
award of Most Mediocre Mountain. Now this was tough because almost all of you
who sent something in deserve to be nominated, you’ve gone to some really dull places and
it’s been almost impossible to pick just five, but YouTube polls have a maximum of
5 choices so here we are. And you will get a chance to vote once you’ve seen the nominees.
Nominee number 1 is Matthias in Switzerland. Judges were impressed by the astonishing achievement
of finding a genuinely mediocre mountain in Switzerland. This is the highest point of
the Geneva canton (which is what Swiss people call their regions), and at 517 metres, is
the lowest highest point of ANY Swiss canton. It is marked only by this border stone with France.
Nominee number 2 is Shannon and the highest
point in Washington DC. There were a few of you who sent this one in, but judges were particularly
impressed by Shannon’s video where she dramatically reveals the beautifully mediocre monument
at the summit.
Ok, nominee number 3: it's Vicky and Dom
in Coventry. The judges were impressed not just by the outstanding mediocrity of this
mountain but also by the innovative use of a stepladder which Vicky explains is
"a homage to the highest point in Belgium, the Signal de Botrange". And that is the kind of shameless
nerdery that gets you in the top 5. Nominee number 4, combining the mediocrity
of the mountain and the mediocrity of the weather in a way that I don’t think anyone
else quite managed is FutureCat in Burnside New Zealand. Here she is climbing a roadside
embankment at a suburban intersection in the pouring rain.
The judges were impressed byFutureCat’s ability to remain positive despite having what most people would consider to
be an absolutely dismal time, and also the fact that to get both the distant and close
up shots she clearly had to climb it twice. For sheer dedication to mediocrity you fully
deserve a nomination. And our final nominee is one of the first
submissions I received and it really set the standard. The judges loved every little detail
about this: it’s Giles and his very understanding wife in Plymouth, UK.
Hello and alright me janner! It's Sunday 14th of June 2020, it's my birthday,
and myself and my wife have come to... here.
The highest point in Plymouth city.
It's a roundabout on a retail park, surrounded by a Lidl, a Domino's Pizzas, and several other housing estates.
It's a lovely spot to come to on a Sunday afternoon.
So there are your 5 nominees for a for the Most Mediocre Mountain. A very high standard
of mediocrity all round, but if you’d like to vote for one of them to win the Golden
Molehill a form should be appearing on your screen NOW. I will leave that
poll up and we’ll announce the winner on Friday 17th July via community posts and all
the social medias. Meanwhile if you think you or someone else should have been nominated feel
free to argue about it in the comments. And with that, all that remains is for me
to say thank you again to everyone for joining in, and to those of you in places like Brazil,
India, and other areas where it wasn’t safe to go out, thank you for doing the right thing
and not joining in this time. Hopefully things will improve and we can do something similar
where you are later this year. I would love to see those mountains too.
And I think that’s pretty much it for today – oh wait.
There was one more video. Adam and Jenni in Provo, Utah – I’m guessing this wasn’t
just because of the challenge and you were going to do it anyway, but either way,
congratulations :)