Ranulph Fiennes
In June 2005, Fiennes had to abandon an attempt to be the oldest Briton to climb Mount Everest when, in another climb for charity, he was forced to turn back as a result of heart problems, after reaching the final stopping point of the ascent. In March 2007, despite a lifelong fear of heights, Fiennes climbed the Eiger by its North Face, with sponsorship totalling £1.8 million to be paid to the Marie Curie Cancer Care Delivering Choice Programme.
In 2008, Fiennes made his second attempt to climb Mount Everest, getting to within 400 metres of the summit before bad timing and bad weather stopped the expedition. On 20 May 2009, Fiennes reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the oldest British person to achieve this. Fiennes also became the first person ever to have climbed Everest and crossed both polar ice-caps. Of the other handful of adventurers who had visited both poles, only four had successfully crossed both polar icecaps: Norwegian Børge Ousland, Belgian Alain Hubert and Fiennes. Fiennes, in successfully reaching the summit of Everest in 2009, therefore definitely became the first person ever to achieve all three goals. Ousland wrote to congratulate him. Fiennes continues to compete in UK-based endurance events and has seen recent success in the veteran categories of some Mountain Marathon races. His training nowadays consists of regular two-hour runs around Exmoor.
Dale Abenojar
Sherpa denies saying Abenojar failed in Everest attempt. A Nepali porter and guide (Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa) denied telling the disbanded First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition (FPMEE) that 44-year-old Filipino adventure sportsman Dale Abenojar did not reach the top of Mount Everest on May 15, 2006. In a telephone interview from Nepal made by Philippine STAR newspaper reporter Allan Rainier Ronda, Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa told The Philippine STAR he had not spoken with Dr. Ted Esguerra, the erstwhile expedition doctor of FPMEE or anybody from that group. "I didn’t talk to anybody", Tshiring said. "He (Abenojar) reached the top. That is the truth." Tshiring, who guided Abenojar to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, said the summit certificate issued by the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) to Abenojar should be accepted as final authority. "They (CTMA) interviewed Dale and asked him about his experience, Tshiring said.
"I was also interviewed. But not together, you know. And the other climbers who climbed to the top on that day were interviewed. And from the interviews, they issue the certificates."
According to Abenojar’s certificate, the CTMA certified that he had reached the summit of Mount Everest in the morning of May 15, 2006 through Tibet, China or north slope or north col of the legendary peak. The FPMEE has persistently disputed Abenojar’s feat of outracing their two members Leo Oracion and Erwin "Pastor" Emata, who had climbed to the top of Mount Everest via the Nepal side or the south slope and reached it on May 17 and 18, 2006. The FPMEE had dismissed Abenojar’s CTMA summit certificate as a "forgery" and his claim a "hoax", and maintained that Oracion and Emata were the first and second Filipinos to conquer Mount Everest.