EXMOOR-based explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who admits to suffering vertigo, has scaled the North Face of the Eiger after a five-day climb of one of the most difficult and dangerous mountains in the world.
The mountain in the Swiss Alps is 6,000 ft of mainly sheer rock face and ice, giving it a daunting reputation among the world’s climbers.
Sir Ranulph, aged 63, who lives near Exford, only took up climbing two years ago and has already also attempted to climb Mount Everest in a fund-raiser for the British Heart Foundation.
He undertook the Eiger challenge to raise £1.5 million for the Marie Curie Cancer Care Delivering Choice Programme.
He said: “This will revolutionise end-of-life care in the UK and aims to double the number of terminally ill people who can be cared for and die in their own homes.
“I have watched my nearest and dearest die of cancer and I understand the huge difference this choice can make.”
With Sir Ranulph on the Eiger Challenge were UK climber Kenton Cool and mountain photographer Ian Parnell.
They followed the classic route which was pioneered by members of a German-Austrian expedition who were the first to conquer the Eiger’s North Face in 1938.
On his MySpace blog, Sir Ranulph wrote: “It felt pretty good to reach the summit. We started yesterday with the Traverse of the Gods.
“Had I known that ‘it’ was part of the thing, and that it was, I won’t use a rude word, but ‘bloody’ difficult, I don’t think I would have done it. Not even for Marie Curie.
“I knew it was going to be a difficult climb. But I thought it would be more like the practise climbs I have been doing with Kenton around Chamonix and the Alps - just a more difficult version of that. Not the nightmarish thing that it actually was.
“So, much as I am very pleased that we succeeded in getting to the top, and I am really hoping for big money for our charity, to be honest it is more than I would have wanted to have taken on.
“I think I will have nightmares for a long time over the Traverse for the Gods. My policy of not looking down just was not possible. There was nowhere but down. I had to look down to find the next foothold because it is so totally vertical.”
Ian Parnell said he was particularly proud of Sir Ranulph’s achievement.
He said: “It is quite inspirational for somebody who, when he was first interested in the project two years or so ago, you would not call a climber in any way.
“For him to then do a route like the North Face of the Eiger, which by any climber’s reckoning is one of the big tough routes of the climbing world, it is impressive.”
Anybody who wants to support Sir Ranulph’s Eiger challenge can go to www.mariecurie.org.uk/eigerchallenge or http://www.justgiving.com/EigerChallenge.
His Myspace blog is at http://www.myspace.com/ranulphfiennes.
The Eiger Challenge was made possible by the following sponsors: HIGHSTONE Group Ltd, Motorola, Mountain Equipment, Grand Regina Hotel in Grindelwald, Swiss International Airlines, Switzerland Tourism, ARA (Artists Rifle Association), Europcar, Air Glaciers, Jungfrau Railways, The Met Office (UK), Meteotest, The Swiss Weather Bureau, Sutter Druck AG, and Grindelwald Tourismus.
The mountain in the Swiss Alps is 6,000 ft of mainly sheer rock face and ice, giving it a daunting reputation among the world’s climbers.
Sir Ranulph, aged 63, who lives near Exford, only took up climbing two years ago and has already also attempted to climb Mount Everest in a fund-raiser for the British Heart Foundation.
He undertook the Eiger challenge to raise £1.5 million for the Marie Curie Cancer Care Delivering Choice Programme.
He said: “This will revolutionise end-of-life care in the UK and aims to double the number of terminally ill people who can be cared for and die in their own homes.
“I have watched my nearest and dearest die of cancer and I understand the huge difference this choice can make.”
With Sir Ranulph on the Eiger Challenge were UK climber Kenton Cool and mountain photographer Ian Parnell.
They followed the classic route which was pioneered by members of a German-Austrian expedition who were the first to conquer the Eiger’s North Face in 1938.
On his MySpace blog, Sir Ranulph wrote: “It felt pretty good to reach the summit. We started yesterday with the Traverse of the Gods.
“Had I known that ‘it’ was part of the thing, and that it was, I won’t use a rude word, but ‘bloody’ difficult, I don’t think I would have done it. Not even for Marie Curie.
“I knew it was going to be a difficult climb. But I thought it would be more like the practise climbs I have been doing with Kenton around Chamonix and the Alps - just a more difficult version of that. Not the nightmarish thing that it actually was.
“So, much as I am very pleased that we succeeded in getting to the top, and I am really hoping for big money for our charity, to be honest it is more than I would have wanted to have taken on.
“I think I will have nightmares for a long time over the Traverse for the Gods. My policy of not looking down just was not possible. There was nowhere but down. I had to look down to find the next foothold because it is so totally vertical.”
Ian Parnell said he was particularly proud of Sir Ranulph’s achievement.
He said: “It is quite inspirational for somebody who, when he was first interested in the project two years or so ago, you would not call a climber in any way.
“For him to then do a route like the North Face of the Eiger, which by any climber’s reckoning is one of the big tough routes of the climbing world, it is impressive.”
Anybody who wants to support Sir Ranulph’s Eiger challenge can go to www.mariecurie.org.uk/eigerchallenge or http://www.justgiving.com/EigerChallenge.
His Myspace blog is at http://www.myspace.com/ranulphfiennes.
The Eiger Challenge was made possible by the following sponsors: HIGHSTONE Group Ltd, Motorola, Mountain Equipment, Grand Regina Hotel in Grindelwald, Swiss International Airlines, Switzerland Tourism, ARA (Artists Rifle Association), Europcar, Air Glaciers, Jungfrau Railways, The Met Office (UK), Meteotest, The Swiss Weather Bureau, Sutter Druck AG, and Grindelwald Tourismus.
Photo submitted.
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