Climb Your Mountain: Everyday lessons from an extraordinary life

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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. Again unsupported and so without new supplies or assistance, Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud broke the existing world record for unsupported north travel. 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 Marie Curie is the UK’s leading charity for people with any terminal illness.The charity helps people living with a terminal illness and their families make the most of the time they have together by delivering expert hands-on care, emotional support, research and guidance.

If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us Sir Ranulph is using his pursuit of this landmark achievement to raise vital funds for the charity Marie Curie. The money raised will help Marie Curie provide vital care and support to people living with a terminal illness and their families in the UK. This has all been made possible by sponsorship from long-time benefactor Paul Sykes and TMF Group.The Explorers Club (Br Chapter) awards him the Millennium Award for Navigation and the University of Portsmouth honours Ranulph with an Hon Dr. 1995 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 Sir Ranulph is attempting to become the first person to have crossed both polar ice caps (by traversing the Arctic Ocean and crossing the Antarctic continent) and climb the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. He was, in 2009, the first person to cross both ice caps and summit Everest. In 1982 Sir Ranulph circumnavigated the world on its polar axis during a three year trans-globe expedition travelling solely by sea and land on a route that has never been repeated, with Charles Burton. 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. Fights Marxist Terrorists 1968-1970 and receives the Sultans Bravery Medal from Her Majesty the Queen. 1968

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.” 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.Sir Ranulph has also previously climbed Mount Kosciuszko in Australasia, which is included on some lists of each continent’s highest mountains in place of Carstensz Pyramid. 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). 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.

Breaks the world record for unsupported (without new supplies or assistance) northerly polar travel, with Mike Stroud in The Unsupported North Pole Russian Expedition. Ranulph also wins ITV’s Award for Event of the Decade. 1986 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. 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. 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. 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.”This was the first crossing north to south of Canada, inland, over water. Ranulph was again leader of the expedition. The Headless Valley is also known as the Nahanni Valley of Canada’s north-west territories. The only way to get there is by water, air, or a long trek on land from Tungsten village. Even now, much of the area is unexplored. To get there, the team travelled some 290 miles in small rubber boats against the rapids of the South Nahanni River up to the Virginia Falls. For comparison, these rapids are about twice as high as Niagara Falls. However, he still needs to successfully summit Mount Vinson, Aconcagua in South America, Mount Carstensz in Australasia* and finally Denali, the highest peak in North America and one of the world’s most dangerous and difficult mountains to climb - only then will he complete this world first. Becomes the first person, with Charles Burton, to reach both poles by surface means during The Transglobe Expedition. This expedition also meant they were the first people to cross the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans and first to circumnavigate the world along its polar axis by surface means. 1970

For more information on Marie Curie and Sir Ranulph’s support visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/ranulph . Uses army explosives to blow up civilian property. Ranulph is then asked to leave the SAS. 1965-1966This is one of Ranulph’s most famous expeditions, although not for the reasons he would have hoped. The trip, aiming to walk solo and unsupported (without outside help or new supplies) to the North Pole was unsuccessful when Ranulph’s sled fell through weak ice. His hands got wet when he was freeing it, resulting in severe frostbite, forcing him to abandon the attempt.