Sir Ranulph Fiennes may be 79 and no longer climbing mountains or polar trekking, but he doesn’t see himself as retired. Becoming a first-time father at the age of 62, we catch up with Britain’s greatest living explorer as he continues his Living Dangerously tour
Sir Ranulph Fiennes is no stranger to his fair share of successes and setbacks. Born in Windsor, Berkshire, nearly four months after the death of his father, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, in action in the Second World War, he inherited the baronetcy at birth, becoming the 3rd Baronet of Banbury.
Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes 3rd Baronet OBE, commonly known as Sir Ranulph Fiennes or more affectionately as Ran Fiennes, is currently touring with his show, Living Dangerously, in which he talks about his life from school days to his time in the army and many heroic expeditions.
A national hero, named by the Guinness Book of Records as “the world’s greatest living explorer”, Sir Ranulph’s many ambitious endeavours have pushed his endurance levels to the very limits.
But behind the scenes, the story is one of unhappy school days, failing to gain entry into the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, being dismissed from the SAS, chopping off his own fingertips, the loss of his beloved wife of 34 years to stomach cancer, a second marriage and a new career as a much sought-after motivational speaker. Then, there’s also his success as a writer, with sixteen-plus books to his name – and not forgetting those lifetime highlights, which include:
- The first and only person to circumnavigate both North and South Pole.
- The first to cross the Antarctic and Arctic Ocean.
- The first to circumnavigate the world along its polar axis.
- Discovering the lost city of Iram in Oman.
- In 1993 he was the first man to walk across Antarctica, unsupported, in 93 days.
- Becoming the oldest British person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, in May 2009.
So, after all he has accomplished, will Sir Ranulph be able to stand down or is there still one niggling challenge tempting him out of retirement?
“There are many challenges left for all of us to go for and a great deal of pleasure can be got thereby. An example would be crossing Antarctica during the polar winter.”
And are there any moments when on an expedition he thought he’d made a terrible mistake and would not make it home?”
“There were many days and nights where I wished I had never set out on various expeditions in polar climes and hot Arab deserts. I have experienced near starvation, close attention from polar bears and endured both hyperthermia and hypothermia. At such times I would try to force my mind to dwell on happier times.”
Following the death of his childhood sweetheart and fellow adventurer wife Ginny in 2004, Sir Ranulph embarked on a lecture tour, where he met Louise Millington, whom he married in 2005. They welcomed their first child Elizabeth in 2006.
It was his late wife Ginny who was behind the explorer’s decision to chop his own fingers off rather than follow his surgeon’s advice. In 2000, Sir Ranulph attempted to walk solo and unsupported to the North Pole. The expedition failed when his sleds fell through weak ice and he was forced to pull them out by hand. He sustained severe frostbite to the tips of all his fingers on his left hand, forcing him to abandon the attempt. On returning home, his surgeon insisted the necrotic fingertips be retained for several months before amputation, to allow regrowth of the remaining healthy tissue.
“My late wife told me I was becoming irritable because every time my frozen finger ends touched anything they were extremely sensitive…I decided to get rid of any further deterioration of my behaviour by getting rid of the offending items.”
With a distinguished past, what does Sir Ranulph – with the threat of climate change more apparent than ever – urge the younger generation to change?
“Sorting out the plastic in the ocean is a good start, rather than trying to tackle things you can’t 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 would switch to electric vehicles that would be good – then we would be heading in the right direction.”
Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s Living Dangerously tour will be at Kingston Theatre on 23 October. For more information: sirranulphfiennes.co.uk.
Or book at: rosetheatre.org
His most recent book, Climb Your Mountain: Everyday Lessons from an Extraordinary Life, was published in 2022 by Quercus Publishing, priced £20 (hardback).
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