A hero who hit the heights ...and came back to earth

There is uncertainty in Richard Parks’s footsteps.

Where once he charged fearlessly at rugby union opponents, now he walks gingerly, a normal running shoe on his left foot, a flip-flop on his right.

“It gets worse the more it heals,” he says, pointing to the fist of a bandage that covers his big toe, a piece of his body he almost lost to frostbite on the dismount from Everest.

Four weeks on from completing the 737 Challenge in record time, 33-year-old Parks is happy to report the toe will eventually return to full form, but the body and the spirit is missing something. The adrenalin rush of the “most gruelling experience of my life” is absent for the former Leeds Tykes and Wales forward.

The way he raced up seven continental summits and to the three poles in less than seven months captured the spirit of adventure not only in himself but in those who followed him on various social networking sites.

Filling that void now it is all in the past is proving difficult.

Parks sacrificed so much in the two years preparing for and carrying out the challenge in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care, that it now almost feels as if he has fallen off a cliff after all.

“The irony is that since coming back I’m still readjusting,” says the Welshman. “In some ways, I still feel a little unsettled. It’s been an intense seven months because it’s a unique way of living on expedition. I’m still readjusting to being back. It’s a work in progress, it is all sinking in. It’s been humbling and pretty overwhelming how the challenge has been received in Yorkshire, back home in Wales and in the UK. That has taken some getting used to, because I’m still trying to reflect and process everything. The one thing I am very proud of is what we’ve achieved, and not just me, the whole group of individuals, because it’s been very much a team effort. The realism was, there was more chance of me not completing this than completing it so I’m proud of what the team of people have done.”

Often on his own and occasionally with teams of explorers including Olympic rowing champion Steve Williams and legendary adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Parks reached the seven highest peaks on each continent and stood on the three poles; North, South and Mount Everest. The challenge began in the South Pole before New Year’s Eve and finished ahead of schedule on the tip of Mount Elbrus in Russia’s Caucasus mountain range on July 12; six months, 11 days, seven hours and 53 minutes later.

Such a world-first undertaking was not without incident.

On the 6,194m-high Denali, in Alaska, on the penultimate leg, Parks and his sole climbing partner Matt Parks (no relation), a Yorkshireman, fell down a crevasse and are only alive today because a party of climbers behind them were able to lift them seven metres to safety.

“It’s a lot harder climbing with just two people because one small error is catastrophic for both,” Richard Parks reflects of the life-affirming moment.

“If I had to pick the hardest leg it would be Denali. Denali in its own right is often regarded as equal to Everest. It’s very different to Everest, and not as high, but equally as tough.

“Coming off Everest was when I was my weakest mentally and physically, having to deal with the frostbite, but then the crevasse fall at Denali, that makes that the toughest. Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia was really challenging, just from an uncomfortable point of view. That was the point where physically I hit that wall. I knew I would at some stage and that’s where it happened.

“I was really fortunate to have a few key drivers to get me through that wall. There were a lot of dark times on the challenge, a lot of times when I didn’t think I would have the opportunity to continue, I was physically pretty shattered. Apart from the personal reasons that led to the conception of the challenge in the first place that were born from my forced retirement from rugby (due to a shoulder injury), knowing so many people were following me back home through the social networking sites, here in Yorkshire and in Wales, was a massive boost to me throughout the challenge.”

Parks now describes the task of raising money as the “10th leg” of his expedition. The aim from the conception of the challenge back in 2009 was to raise £1m. As of this week the total stands below £100,000, but the timeframe to hit the target is open-ended.

“Since I’ve been back we’ve had a massive boost in fundraising, and my focus into the next year is capitalising on the exposure we’ve got,” says Parks, who chose Marie Curie because members of his family had suffered from cancer.

“The physical part of the challenge is finished but we’ve still got a lot of work to do. I think we’re just over £80,000 which has been a fantastic boost. We’re still a long way off but we’ve got some fantastic events coming up to try and reach that million.

“In the early days of the challenge I had to fund all the 18 months of training and to do that I used my life savings from my rugby career and the insurance policy from my enforced retirement. “I sold my car, sold pretty much anything that had any value and moved back in with my parents. I have also had the support of a handful of pretty amazing sponsors to help fund the project. Quite simply, how could I expect a sponsor to invest their money, and more importantly now in the fundraising, how can I expect people to donate their hard-earned cash if I wasn’t prepared to invest my own?

So after raising the bar in exploration, Parks now has to raise the funds. Parks plans to move back to Leeds as he continues to find his feet. The two years he spent as a Leeds Tykes player from 2003 to 2005 is a period he cites as ‘a special time in his career’.

Starting from scratch though now, the next challenge has already begun. “As a result of the challenge there are opportunities that are out there that are exciting,” says Parks, who was capped four times by Wales.

“I’m busier than I’ve ever been in my life, capitalising on the exposure. It’s given me something to channel my energies into.

“I’ve taken a lot from my career in rugby. A lot of the experiences in rugby have helped me and now both of them combined are helping me through this.”

To donate visit www.737challenge.com

Richard Parks’s 737 Challenge

December 27, 2010: Leg 1 The South Pole, 90° S – camped out on South Pole until January 1.

January 8, 2011: Leg 2 Mount Vinson, Antarctica, 4,897m/16,067ft – reached eight days ahead of schedule.

February 5: Leg 3 Aconcagua, South America, 6,959m/22,830ft – summited despite a very small weather window to reach top.

February 27, 2011: Leg 4 Kilimanjaro, Africa, 5,895m/19,340ft – tops the highest free-standing mountain.

March 15: Leg 5 Carstensz Pyramid, Australasia: 4,884m/ 16,023ft – jungle and rock climbs negotiated on a climb when Richard “hit the wall”.

April 11: Leg 6 The North Pole, 90° N – fell down a pressure ridge en route and a pulke (sled) landed on his head.

May 25: Leg 7 Mount Everest, Asia, 8,850m/29,036ft – after reaching the top of the world he was airlifted from the descent suffering grade 1-2 frostbite in his big right toe.

June 30: Leg 8 Denali, North America, 6,194m/20,320ft – treatment on his right toe was undertaken in a hyperbaric chamber and he reached top after being rescued from a seven-metre crevasse.

July 12: Leg 9 Elbrus, Europe, 5,642m/18,510ft – Richard completes the challenge in 213 days as he stands on the highest mountain in Europe.