UK adventurer adds Everest to achievements

Photo / Jim Eagles

Exhausted and fearful for his health, Sir Ranulph Fiennes turned his back on the summit of the world's highest mountain for a second time a year ago and declared: "I won't try Everest again. The first time I got a heart attack. This time, bad timing and weather scuppered my chances. I think any third attempt would be bad luck."

Never one to be restricted by such trifles as fate or his own wellbeing, the 65-year-old explorer and survivor of heart bypass surgery yesterday set aside his vow by trudging for seven hours in oxygen-depleted darkness to finally stand on top of the world.

In so doing, the veteran adventurer became the first British pensioner to climb Everest and the first human to have crossed the globe via both poles and climb its highest peak. Soon after reaching the 8,848-metre summit about 1am British time, Sir Ranulph said: "This is the closest you can get to the moon by walking. It's amazing where you can get with a bus pass these days."

The arrival of the explorer on Everest's peak during his third attempt took place with significantly less fanfare than his two previous assaults in 2005 and 2008, which were captured by an entourage of television cameras that broadcast his every step. This time, he was accompanied by a lone BBC crew which was only allowed to reveal the attempt once it had reached its conclusion.

But the triumphal end to the low-key climb was no less poignant for Sir Ranulph, who had returned to the mountain to finish raising £3m (NZD$7.7m) for a leading cancer care charity, following the loss of two of his three sisters and his first wife, Ginny, to the disease over an 18-month period in 2003 and 2004. He once described his marriage to Ginny, who he met at the age of 12, as the greatest achievement of his life.

The explorer, who said he felt "dreadful but pleased", said: "I have summited Everest for Marie Curie Cancer Care, which has long been a personal goal."

The conquering of Everest is the latest in a long list of triumphs for Sir Ranulph, who has led more than 30 expeditions to the most inaccessible and cruelly testing environments on the planet. The Old Etonian and former SAS demolition specialist is best known for his three-year circumnavigation of the globe via both polar ice caps, completed in 1982, as well as his attempts to walk to the North and South poles alone and unsupported.

During his unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole, the explorer suffered extreme frostbite to his left hand after he plunged it into freezing water to retrieve a sledge.

After returning home and unable to bear the pain from his blackened fingers while awaiting surgery, he removed the damaged bone and tissue in his garden shed using a vice and an electric jigsaw.

Four months after undergoing triple heart bypass surgery in 2003 when he fell ill on board a plane at Bristol airport, Sir Ranulph achieved another feat of extraordinary endurance by running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. He is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the greatest living adventurer.

Not withstanding a morbid fear of heights, Sir Ranulph could be forgiven for believing that luck was against him after setting his sights on Everest as his next task. His first attempt four years ago was abandoned at 8,500m when he suffered a mild heart attack. He turned back from his second assault on the summit last year at 8,400m due to a combination of bad weather and exhaustion. Despite that failure, he still managed to raise £2.6m to support Marie Curie nurses and decided to return this year to raise the remaining £400,000 needed to meet his target.

A spokeswoman for the charity said: "He was very frustrated that he didn't succeed last time. He took the view that this time he didn't want to be distracted by making it high profile. It was kept low key so he could concentrate on the climbing."

Speaking before his final assault on the summit, Sir Ranulph said he had arrived at a new formula to conquer his bete noire: "Forget about thinking that you are going to succeed. You have to just keep plodding. Imagine it is a mountain with no top."

In the end, his third climb was defined by good fortune. Kenton Cool, the mountaineer who has climbed Everest six times and accompanied Sir Ranulph, said they had been helped by some of the best weather conditions he had seen on the mountain.

After spending three weeks acclimatising at base camp, the window for attempting to reach the summit is notoriously narrow and the two men set off for the final stage of the climb at 6pm local time on Wednesday night to walk through the night in oxygen levels one-third of those at sea level.

Sir Ranulph, who arrived at the peak shortly after a group of soldiers from the Indian army and planted a Marie Curie flag, told the BBC: "We came to the summit as dawn broke. It was very, very cold."

Despite his recently acquired bus pass, the explorer also made it clear that he has no plans to hang up his crampons any time soon. As well as spending his time at base camp writing his 19th book, he was also planning his next, as yet unannounced, expedition.

Speaking in Britain before leaving for Nepal, he said: "To end up in this country without an expedition on the horizon is a deadly state of affairs. It's like having no cigarette packet if you are a smoker."

- INDEPENDENT