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More than a mountain to conquer as Sir Ranulph returns to high adventure
Sir Ranulph Fiennes has navigated the White Nile, found a lost city and conquered both poles, so why at the age of 64 does he want to climb Everest?
MOST people wouldn't return to a mountain that almost killed them – especially at the age of 64 and with cardiac problems.
And most people wouldn't spend a week removing their own frostbitten fingertips with a saw after being told by doctors to wait five months for an amputation.
But then Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who can count running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days and conquering the icy face of the Eiger among his achievements, isn't "most people".
Born Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes in 1944, he went to Eton before joining the army and later being seconded to the SAS.
He was discharged after misusing explosives in a protest against, of all things, the film The Adventures of Dr Doolittle, and then flew out to Oman where he joined the Sultan's Army.
In 1970, he found himself back in England, aged 26, with only a string of lacklustre O-levels to his name, so decided to begin organising expeditions.
Any money he made was through writing books and giving lectures on his experiences, but more than 30 years and 30 expeditions later, his travels have raised more than 10m for charity and led him literally to the ends of the earth.
He is still the only person to have been awarded two clasps to the Polar medal for both the Antarctic and the Arctic, and was awarded an OBE in 1993 for "human endeavour and charitable services".
In 2005, he was attempting to climb Everest for the first time, having suffered a heart attack two years previously, when after 72 days on the mountain, he ran into difficulties just hours from the top.
Whisked back to doctors in London, at first he said he felt relieved to have survived, but later became frustrated by failure.
Now he says he's determined that his second attempt, which should see him reach the summit in May, will be a success – not least because the aim of the venture is to raise 2.2m for Marie Curie Cancer Care's Delivering Choice programme.
He said: "I hope I identified the issues that caused me to fail, because if you can correctly identify the problem then you can avoid it the next time round.
"This time I'm doing the Nepalese route, which is the one Sir Edmund Hillary took. The last time I did the Tibetan route, which is where Mallory died.
"Altitude sickness wasn't really the problem. The guides were fully aware of how to acclimatise people and I don't think altitude sickness was to blame.
"It was my heart and I'd had a prior indication of that the previous summer, on Kilimanjaro.
"When I was up to 28,500 feet it felt like the wire that held my ribs together was being torn out of my chest and somebody was sitting on me.
"I had Glycerine Tri-Nitrate (GTN) pills with me and I was supposed to take one, but I took all 10. The heart attack I was waiting for didn't occur, so stage two, after taking the pills, was to lose altitude.
"I said to my Sherpa that we must go back down immediately, so we scrambled our way down to the next camp.
"From there we couldn't go any further down until dawn, when we could see. Within three days of reaching base camp I was at a Harley Street clinic, which must have been one of the fastest descents on record.
"When I got back to the UK my first feeling was one of relief, but then that slowly turned to frustration and annoyance that my ticker couldn't have held on that little bit longer."
Sir Ran said that he didn't immediately want to have another crack at Everest, but instead his thoughts turned to trying to conquer his life-long fear of heights.
During his months on the world's highest mountain, he said, his vertigo didn't prove a problem as he wasn't confronted by any sheer drops.
So when explorer and Himalayan guide Kenton Cool suggested a different venture, he was up for the challenge – and it was time to face the north face of the Eiger, a sheer wall of thick ice in the Swiss Alps.
Dubbed the "Mordwand" – German for "murder wall" – the face has claimed 60 lives since 1935 and is notorious among mountaineers for being one of the most perilous challenges in the world.
But Sir Ran put his own fears to one side and began training for the climb, which was his first expedition in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care.
He lost his first wife and childhood sweetheart, Virginia Pepper – known as Ginny – to stomach cancer in 2004 and, within 18 months, cancer also claimed his mother and two of his three sisters.
He explained that during that difficult time, while he was in hospital with Ginny, he met many people who were desperate to spend the end of their lives at home but couldn't afford to pay carers.
When it came to choosing a charity to support, therefore, Marie Curie was an obvious choice.
He said: "When I was with Ginny on some of the NHS wards, we talked to some of the ladies who were also in the same state and they looked miserable.
"They made it quite clear that they would have rather been at home. That is made possible by Marie Curie, and Marie Curie nurses don't grow on trees.
"What we want to do is enable Marie Curie to extend its services to help many more people."
After Kenton Cool successfully helped him to conquer the Eiger, he knew he had found the ideal guide to help him on any subsequent attempt on Everest.
He teamed up once again with Yorkshire tycoon Paul Sykes, who sponsored his assault on the Eiger, and the pair set about preparing a second attempt on Everest.
Their teamwork, he stressed is essential.
Sir Ran said: "When I did the seven marathons in seven days that was a total success, but as Paul wasn't involved we didn't achieve the financial aim.
"Everest failed, but as Paul was involved we did raise the money. The amounts we used to raise are peanuts compared with what we achieve now."
On April 2, Sir Ran and his team will leave for the Himalayas and it is hoped that, after acclimatising, they will be pressing for the summit about six weeks later, in mid-May.
Mr Sykes said that, although at first he was wary about the attempt, he thinks that Sir Ran is more than capable of reaching the summit
He said: "Ran is a unique individual who seems to enjoy danger. That's been his life, and nothing is going to change that.
"Ran, being Ran, does not like failure. It's going to be much, much better this time with Kenton Cool and we can make sure that everything that can be prepared is prepared.
"He raised 2m through the first attempt on Everest, 2m on the Eiger and we've already raised 1.2m here.
"We're going to be putting these Marie Curie nurses to work faster than they've ever worked before."
How you can can donate
To make a donation to Marie Curie Cancer Care, contact Julia Bailey on 0113 214 7901 or 07795 564 813, or write to her at Marie Curie Cancer Care, Chantry House, Victoria Road, Kirkstall, Leeds, LS5 3JB.
Next page: Career highlights
Here are some highlights from the career of the man dubbed the world's greatest living adventurer:
Transglobe: 1979-1982
Together with Oliver Shepard and Charles Burton, Fiennes travelled around the world on its polar axis, using surface transport only on their 100,000-mile journey.
Ubar Expedition: 1991
The lost city of Ubar was described by Lawrence of Arabia as the "Atlantis of the Sands". Using space technology, Fiennes and his team discovered Ubar in 1991.
South Pole: 1992-3
Fiennes joined nutrition specialist Mike Stroud in an attempt to become the first to cross Antarctica unaided. After 95 days, the pair, suffering from frostbite and hunger, were forced to turn back. It was the longest unsupported polar journey in history.
North Pole: 2000
Bad fortune struck again when Fiennes's sled became jammed in the ice. Removing his mitt to free the sled caused severe frostbite. Within seconds, his fingers were "ramrod stiff and ivory white". On his return, he was told he would have to wait five months before amputation to allow for any partially damaged tissue to heal. Fiennes decided to take matters into his own hands and, buying a fretsaw blade from the village shop, he performed his own emergency surgery.
Seven Marathons: 2003
Despite having suffered a heart attack and undergoing double heart bypass surgery, Fiennes joined Stroud again to complete seven marathons in seven days on seven continents in aid of the British Heart Foundation. Admitting the tropical heat in Singapore had nearly broken him, the pair ended the challenge in New York, completing the final 26 miles in five hours 25 minutes. Doctors had warned him not to let his heart rate exceed 130 beats per minute. Fiennes later admitted he had forgotten his heart monitor and had no idea how fast his heart was beating.
Eiger: 2007
Although he dislikes heights, Fiennes attempted to climb the notorious north face of the Eiger. "I think I will have nightmares for a long time, " he said. "My policy of not looking down just wasn't possible, there was nowhere but down." The climb took five days, with the team having to struggle up 6,000ft of near-vertical rock and ice.
How you can can donate
To make a donation to Marie Curie Cancer Care, contact Julia Bailey on 0113 214 7901 or 07795 564 813, or write to her at Marie Curie Cancer Care, Chantry House, Victoria Road, Kirkstall, Leeds, LS5 3JB.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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