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.
Tomas Olsson
Tomas's ultimate goal, which was scheduled for spring 2006, was to once again stand on the summit of Everest and from the top of the world's highest mountain directing the skis toward Tibet and become the first skier in the world to ski down Everest's steep north side of the mountain. At the end of March 2006, he set off to go to Everest. The goal together with Norwegian Tormod Graneheim was to be the first in the world to ski from the top and down the mountain's north side. During October and November, he was in Sweden to tie a couple of new partners to the office and work out optimum communication- & logistics solutions. Then it was off to Chamonix in France, to fine-tune the shape during the winter. As training for the Everest Expedition in the summer of 2005, he cycled alone from Stockholm to Chamonix in France, climbed the Mont Blanc (4810m) and then rode back to Sweden. He was an adventurer full-time and his goal was to in May 2006, becoming the first in the world to ski down the north side of Everest, the world's highest mountain.