You won’t meet too many people this week who have been chucked out of the SAS, paddled 2000 miles down one of the toughest rivers on the globe in a rubber dinghy, and became the oldest British pensioner to scale the north face of the Eiger.
While many of his relatives have hit the heights in theatre and film (third cousins once removed Ralph, Joseph and Sophie), Ranulph Fiennes has arguably gazumped them all by climbing Everest.
To say that he has many tales to tell on his Living Dangerously tour would be an understatement.
We haven’t even touched on his part in preventing a coup in Oman, or that time he ran seven marathons in seven days, or the occasion when he amputated the tips of his own frostbitten fingers with a Black & Decker.
And yet, despite all this famed derring-do, Ranulph had to overcome a significant obstacle to make his Everest ascent.
“When I was first asked to climb Everest, I said no because of my extreme vertigo. Then six months later my wife died and I just wanted to do something, anything to distract me.
“So I did months and months of training and then I got a heart attack when I was 300 metres from the top and my friend got hypoxia on the way down.
“The doctor at base camp told me that if you go up the other side, from Nepal, it’s dead easy.
Four years after that, in 2008, I did that and nearly got to the top and didn’t get a heart attack.
“The next year, by which time I was an OAP, I had worked out why I had failed twice: I was being too competitive.
“The next time I tried, I went with a Sherpa who was so fit there was no point in trying to be competitive. I went very slowly that time.”
So, just to track back: Ranulph Fiennes, a man who has done more daring pursuits during his life than many of us could even contemplate dreaming about, suffers from vertigo.
You would think that such an impediment would completely hamstring anything he’s ever done in the exploring field. But that fierce competitive spirit has continually driven him on.
“If I could have a super power it would be to not have extreme vertigo.
“When I was in Dubai recently, they wanted me to go on the World’s Highest Zip Wire and break the record of going 160 mph.
“I said yes because I didn’t want to be unpopular with the client. I sort of opened my eyes as we left the platform, but I then kept them shut for the rest of the ride.
“When I did the north face of the Eiger, I was being led by this guy who had done Everest 11 times.
Just don’t look down…
“He is very clever at teaching his climbers how not to get vertigo temporarily.
“It’s pretty simple: don’t allow yourself to think below your feet at all. It seems obvious but don’t look down.
“Last August at home, the gutters got full of leaves, and I was too scared so I sent my wife up and I held the ladder.
“The north face of the Eiger has killed off 80 people but I could only do it because of that guy.”
A fragile planet
As with many of the contemporary breed of explorer, while the thrill of achieving their goal is a large part of what they do, Ranulph has seen enough around the world to know that we live on a fragile planet.
“Sorting out the plastic in the ocean is a good start, rather than trying to tackle things you can’t even see.
“Everyone can do something about that, whereas something complicated like tackling carbon monoxide is more difficult to get the public interested in.
“If the whole of the motor industry had to switch to electric vehicles that would be good; then we would be heading in the right direction.”
With Living Dangerously, Ranulph Fiennes will bring us a message of drama from his past and terror of the future should our leaders fail to act now to help save us, and generations to come, from environmental catastrophe.
COP26: are you listening?
- Sir Ranulph Fiennes: Living Dangerously, Perth Concert Hall, Monday November 1, 7.30pm; Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, Tuesday November 2, 7pm; Whitehall Theatre, Dundee, Wednesday November 3, 7.30pm.
