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.
Seven Summits
In 1970, the Japanese mountaineer and adventurer Naomi Uemura (1941-1984) was the first person to reach five of the Seven Summits including Mount Everest. He climbed Mont Blanc (1966), Kilimanjaro (1966), Aconcagua (1968), Mount Everest (1970 solo) and Denali (1970 solo). After the first solo trip to the North Pole (1978), he planned to go on his own to Antarctica to climb Mount Vinson. In preparation for the Antarctica expedition, he did a solo winter ascent of Denali (1984). On the descent he disappeared in a winter storm.
In 1978, the Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner was the first person to reach six of the Seven Summits (1971 Puncak Jaya, 1974 Aconcagua, 1976 Mt. McKinley (now Denali), 1978 Kilimanjaro, 1978 Mt. Everest). For Messner, Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya) was the highest peak in Australia (Messner list), but in 1983, he climbed Mt. Kosciuszko to also satisfy the other geographic definition of Australia. In the same year, Messner climbed Mt. Elbrus and declared that this is the true highest peak of Europe. This definition was quickly accepted by others in the mountaineering community. Finally in 1986, he climbed Mt. Vinson. At that time, he was only the fifth person to reach the Seven Summits.In 1985, Richard Bass, a businessman and amateur mountaineer, was the first man to climb all Seven Summits. In only one year, 1983, he climbed six peaks: Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elbrus, Mt. Vinson and Mt. Kosciuszko. All of these climbs he did together with his companion Frank Wells and different mountain guides. Beginning in 1983, Bass and Wells made various guided attempts to climb Mt. Everest, the highest and most difficult peak in the list. On 30 April 1985, Bass reached the summit of Mt. Everest in a party without Wells, guided by the American professional mountaineer David Breashears. He then co-authored the book "Seven Summits", which covered the undertaking. Later in 1985, American mountaineer Gerry Roach became the second person to climb the Seven Summits.