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Ranulph Fiennes

Described by the Guinness Book of Record’s as ‘the world’s greatest living explorer’, British author and explorer Ranulph Fiennes has led a fascinating life. Having broken several world records and the holder of numerous impressive endurance awards, Fiennes is truly an inspiration to modern day travellers and explorers. Indeed not only has he braved countless life threatening incidents, along the way he has raised over £14 million for UK charities receiving an OBE in 1993 for his charitable services and was named the UK’s top celebrity fundraiser.

Fiennes has led over 30 expeditions, discovered the lost city of Ubar and at the age of 65 became the oldest Briton to conquer Everest. Not only was he the first man to reach both the north and south poles by foot, he is also the first man to cross Antarctic and Arctic ocean on surface as well as the first to circumnavigate the world on its polar axis. Not only has he braved sub zero temperature losing multiple fingers to frostbite which he self-amputated upon his return, in 2003, just months after suffering a massive heart attack, Fiennes ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents.

Ranulph found time in between adventures to stop into Stanfords to give some more insights into his fascinating life…


How did it start - who were your heroes as a child?

My dad was. He was killed four months before I was born and my mother brought me up on stories about him and the war. He was commander of the Royal Scots Greys regiment and he was killed in Naples. He was definitely my hero and still is.

But in terms of travellers, there’s a guy called Wilfred Thesiger, a great desert traveller, particularly in the 1950s, died about two years ago, fantastic guy. In terms of polar travel, Sir Wally Herbert is the best polar explorer that I know – the most successful. Arctic and Antarctic, fantastic guy, sadly died about a month ago. So those three would be my... if you want to use the word 'heroes', then you can.

What drives you through all your endeavours?

Well I took it up in the first place in order to make a living after leaving the army. When I was in the army it was during the Cold War in Germany, so in the ‘60s mainly. And at that time since our enemy – the Soviet Union – wasn’t actually attacking, all our many thousands of British soldiers in Germany were doing nothing really except exercises and they’d get bored and beat each other up in the canteen for sport. And in order to stop that happening, you’d do stuff called adventure training with the soldiers, which means planning expeditions up European rivers by canoe, skiing in winter in Bavaria and all that sort of stuff. I got the job of skiing instructor for three months every winter in Bavaria, and in summer three months in canoes, taking Scots people all over European rivers.

I only left the army because I hadn’t got the necessary number of A’ levels to go to Sandhurst, which is where you become a regular officer, so after eight years in the British army I found myself in civvy street and needed to use what army experience I had got to make an income. The only thing that really had a commercial application was the fact that I had been teaching people all those various outdoor skills. I didn’t want to become an adventure training instructor, so leading expeditions seemed to be the only way of doing it, providing one could get sponsorship, as we didn’t have any money.

I got married to my late wife at that time – 1970 – and she and I started planning expeditions and getting sponsorship for them. One expedition alone took seven years full-time planning, and of course we weren’t paid for it at that time, so we worked in pubs and that at the weekends to make money, or in my case, in the territorial army, and gradually the sponsorships became easier to get and gradually the expeditions became more ambitious as the years went by. And so the motivation remained as making an income – and it still is.

I’m not really selective because they’re all so different. If they were all fairly similar I suppose you could quite easily choose one. But the one that took seven years to plan and three years of permanent travel to do, remains the only time humans have ever been around Earth on its polar axis travelling on surface by any route either before or since. So I’m pretty lucky to have managed to do that one.

Physically the hardest I think was probably the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic continent with Mike Stroud in the 1990s.

The one that frightened me most only actually lasted five days and that was this year [2007] and that was the North Face of the Eiger. So getting to the top of that amazed me – that I actually did get to the top without dying of fright on the way up.

Finding the Lost City Of Ubar in the Omani desert in the early ‘90s – that was a result of 26 years of looking for it, during which I did eight major four-wheel drive expeditions into the desert and so when we eventually found it, it was obviously nice.

 

Where is your favourite place on Earth that you’ve been to?

South Arabia – the country of Dhofar. Second, Cape Province in South Africa and third the Exmoor National Park where I’ve lived for 22 years on and off.

Is there anywhere you still want to conquer?

We never like using that word because it sort of suggests that humans can get one over on nature, which of course you can’t. But in terms of if there’s anywhere I’d wish to visit, I would like to be able to climb up Everest, which I tried doing in 2005. It took 72 days to get within reach of the last night’s climb onto the summit, and 330 metres below the summit, I had an angina attack. I was lucky to get down alive, unlike Robert Milne who had a heart attack the following night at the same height and died.

And so I’d like to do that again. It’s very irritating that, obviously. I’d like to try again, from the other side of the mountain, ie from Nepal rather than Tibet.

There’s one or two polar things which nobody’s done yet, which might be undoable, but we’re doing some feasibility studies to see whether it’s possible. That particular thing I don’t want to talk about because we obviously don’t want our rivals, particularly the Norwegians, to get wind of it and find that they’re first.

Does being a father [he has an 18-month-old daughter, Elizabeth, and a 12-year-old stepson, Alexander, with his second wife] change how you approach life now?

Well I realise, and I’m full of admiration for the fact, that Louise is an absolutely brilliant mother to Elizabeth. I was born with a wonderful mother too and my wonderful mother died when she was well into her 90s – three years ago – and so I had 60-odd wonderful years with no dad and a wonderful mother, so if I should cop it for any reason, Elizabeth will be in wonderful hands with a wonderful mother and have a great life parent-wise like I did, so I’ve got no problem with that.

In terms of doing expeditions, you are statistically much safer than becoming a UK salesman who has to go on motorways day-in, day-out. The number of polar explorer people who cop it is minimal. Far more people who fish and hunt die. The only time I’ve ever had a heart attack was reading a magazine at Bristol airport on an aeroplane that hadn’t even taken off. So in terms of journalists who try to suggest some sort of irresponsibility of carrying on doing polar exploration after you’ve become a father, it’s a nice angle but doesn’t actually wash with reality.

Apart from the necessary supplies, are there any little, personal things you always take with you on your adventures?

Well being a wimp, I always take stuff called Antisthan. Whenever you get bitten by bugs or stung by nettles, which is really annoying itching all the time, put this stuff on and it stops all itches immediately.

What would you suggest to someone who wanted to follow in your steps but never had the courage to?

I’d say start off in the army maybe. But if you don’t want to start in the army then start with small, unambitious expeditions, and like anything else in life, move on to more ambitious ones. The best way to find out about expeditions, if you happen to be in the UK, which is the best place of all to do it from, is to go to the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington Gore. They will put you on the right track to every expedition that’s going.

What are you planning next? Any plans for another book?

Book-wise, I’ve averaged over 38 years a book every two years, so there must be at least 17 books, and I aim to carry on that output.

Browse all books by Ranulph Fiennes using our search box at the top of the page. Plus, check out Portraits of Adventurewith foreword by and striking image of Ranulph Fiennes.