Climb Your Mountain: Everyday lessons from an extraordinary life

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Sir Ranulph Fiennes, (born March 7, 1944, Windsor, Berkshire, England), British adventurer, pioneering polar explorer, and writer, who, among his many exploits, in 1979–82 led the first north-south surface circumnavigation of the world (i.e., along a meridian).

Awarded a bar to his Polar Medal, amounting to winning it twice. The same year he’s given an Hon Dr: from UCE, now known as Birmingham City University. 1992-1993

1984

The Explorers Club (Br Chapter) awards him the Millennium Award for Navigation and the University of Portsmouth honours Ranulph with an Hon Dr. 1995 I have sponsored him to raise funds for Marie Cure before which included the Everest, Eiger and Marathon des Sables challenges. The money Sir Ranulph will raise will help Marie Curie reach many more people living with a terminal illness as well as providing vital emotional support for their families.” The Polar Medal, awarded by Her Majesty the Queen, is awarded to Ranulph. His wife, Ginnie, wins the Polar Medal in 1987, becoming the first woman to win the award. In the same year The Guinness Book of Records calls Ranulph ‘The World's Greatest Living Explorer’. The Royal Scottish Geographical Society also awards him the Founder’s Medal and the New York Explorers Club awards him a Gold Medal. 1983 Ranulph and Mike Stroud became the first people to completely cross the Antarctic continent on foot unsupported. At the time, and for years after, this was the longest unsupported (with no assistance of resupplying) polar journey, totalling 97 days. From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada:

Marries childhood sweetheart Ginnie Pepper and together they launch a series of record breaking expeditions. Ranulph also wins the Sultan of Oman's Bravery Medal this year. 1969 Taking seven years to plan, this was one of Ranulph Fiennes’ most epic journeys. The team, led by Ranulph, circumnavigated the world on its polar axis, using only surface transport. In total, they covered 52,000 miles over three years. Along with his expedition partner, Charles Burton, Ranulph became the first person to visit both North and South poles travelling only on the surface and to cross the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans. It was such a huge challenge no one has ever repeated the route. Frederik van Tuyll, CEO, TMF Group who are sponsoring the Global Reach Challenge said: “Sir Ranulph Fiennes is the world’s greatest living explorer. He has inspired many for generations with his perseverance and dedication, and has pushed himself to the extreme to complete some of the world’s most gruelling and difficult challenges. He has shown that to succeed in remote areas requires not only tremendous ambition but also detailed local knowledge and expertise - so he surrounds himself with a strong team, all experts in their field. TMF Group understands this too, and is excited to be part of the Global Reach Challenge team.” The 72 year old, who is famed for pushing himself to the limits despite ailing health, will contend with -40C temperatures and severe winds as he tries to conquer the 16,050 feet (4892 m) peak. I ask him what it felt like to be there, at the top of the world. “Magnificent,” he tells me. “Truly magnificent. Although I didn’t lose my vertigo. It took climbing the north face of the Eiger, where the drop is many thousands of feet, to cure that.” There’s a warn braggadocio in his voice, the voice of the man who, impatient at his doctor’s treatment for frostbite, decided to chop off his own fingers with an electric handsaw. Fiennes is a man who seems to take pride in testing the frontier between brave and foolhardy.The peninsula is on the shore in north-west Greenland, in the Qaasuitsap municipality. As a tidewater glacier, the Hayes Peninsula changes in size and shape fairly rapidly, shrinking or enlarging every few decades. Born, Windsor, Berkshire. His father died in action in late 1943 at the Battle of Monte Cassino. Ranulph inherits the baronetcy held by his father when he is born, becoming the 3rd Baronet of Banbury, and means he has the title of Sir. As preparation to summit Everest, Ranulph climbs the tallest free standing mountain in the world, Mount Kilimanjaro. It was no easy task, the explorer getting angina pains 500ft from the summit. It was to be a sign of the dangers ahead in his attempt on Everest. Paul Sykes, long time benefactor of Sir Ranulph, is sponsoring the Global Reach Challenge, in aid of Marie Curie.

When he returned home Doctors insisted he wait five months before the frostbitten parts of the fingers could be removed. Ranulph, irritated by the pain and waiting, decided to remove them himself. He spent a couple of days on each finger using an electric fretsaw to take off the top third of his fingers and thumb in his garden shed. Preparation for what came to be called the Transglobe Expedition began in 1972 and occupied much of Fiennes’s and Ginny’s time during the rest of the decade. The trekking team, led by Fiennes and including fellow Britons Charles Burton and Oliver Shepard, had a support crew of some three dozen people, including Ginny. They departed from Greenwich, England, in September 1979, attempting to stay as close as possible to the Greenwich meridian as they journeyed southward over land and water, until they reached the coast of Antarctica in January 1980. They remained there until October, when Fiennes, Burton, and Shepherd departed on snowmobiles for the South Pole, which they reached on December 15. Setting out again after a short time at the American base there, they arrived at the Scott Base on the west coast of Antarctica in mid-January 1981, having made the continental traverse in a record-setting 67 days. October - Race 2: Falkland Islands, representing the ‘Antarctica’ leg (bad weather and plane engine trouble prevented him getting to the King George Island Marathon)We were both in the same sort of place and we fought similar wars,” he tells me over the telephone from his home in Cheshire. “I’ve really been fascinated with him since then. It was 1967 and 1968,” he goes on. “I was on secondment to the Sultan of Oman’s army. There were Marxists in Aden – that is what Yemen used to be called – and they were heavily supported by the Russians.” On standard routes up Everest you trudge along ropes the Sherpas put out and you need two “ascenders” to attach yourself. When you get to a knot in the rope, you put an ascender above the knot before you disengage the one below. So at all times you are connected. Explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes is setting off to climb Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica, in his pursuit to become the first person to have crossed both polar ice caps and climb the highest mountain on each continent to raise money for Marie Curie. After serving in the Royal Scots Greys regiment of the army, he’s seconded in 1965 and 1966 to the SAS, becoming the youngest captain in the British Army. 1956 In 1969 Fiennes led his first expedition: a journey by hovercraft up the White Nile River that began in eastern Sudan and ended at Lake Victoria in southern Uganda. The following year he left the military and married Virginia (“Ginny”) Pepper, whom he had met as a child and who, until her death in 2004, would be the collaborator on many of his subsequent expeditions and adventures. A trip to Jostedals Glacier in Norway (1970) was followed by the first north-south traverse of British Columbia, Canada, via water (1971) and by a northward trek into the Arctic (1977) in preparation for his circumpolar expedition.