Ranulph Fiennes on Aconcagua

Is he really getting old after all? Sir Ranulph Fiennes has back trouble. Britain’s best-known adventurer had to be flown off from Aconcagua by a rescue helicopter at the beginning of the week. On the highest mountain of South America, the 72-year-old suffered from so bad back pain that he could not continue his ascent to the highest point on 6,962 meters. “I was within just a few hours of the summit but problems with my back meant I couldn’t continue,” Fiennes said. “I’m very frustrated, but I’ve learnt that at my age you can’t ignore any pain.”

Across the poles and summits

Fiennes wanted to climb Aconcagua as part of his project that he has called “The Global Reach Challenge“. The Briton wants to become the first ever who will have crossed the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic as well as climbed the “Seven Summits”, the highest mountains of all continents. Besides Aconcagua, only Denali (6,194 m) in Alaska and the Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 m) in Indonesia are still missing in his success list. Fiennes is using his project to collect donations for the British aid organization “Marie Curie”, which is supporting terminally ill people and their families.

New obstacle

Aconcagua

The Briton will now return home and have a thorough checkup before doing anything new. “Another obstacle I will face is that things aren’t as they were in the past,” the adventurer conceded: “The body, with the same amount of training, can’t achieve the same things, so success in this challenge is by no means guaranteed.”

Nearly unstoppable

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who was knighted for his numerous expeditions and charitable activities in 1993, has demanded a lot from his body. He became (along with Charles Burton, who died in 2002) the first man to reach both poles from the coast in 1982. Fiennes rounded the earth along the zero meridian. In 2003, he completed seven marathons within seven days on seven continents – only four months after a bypass operation. In 2009, Fiennes, aged 65, summited Mount Everest. In early 2013, Fiennes had to be rescued during an attempt to cross the Antarctica for the first time in winter because he had suffered frostbite. A new attempt that was planned for this winter was not approved by the British Foreign Office. This man can hardly be stopped.

P.S. Before you start to google: Sir Ranulph Fiennes is a third-grade cousin of the British actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes.

Alexander Huber had already visited East Greenland last year, but in another season. “You just cannot imagine in arctic winter that everything is completely free of snow in summer. This shows quite clearly the effect of climate change”, tells me the 47-year-old, the younger of the two Huber brothers. “It’s very unusual that the zero-degree line in Greenland is permanently at a height of 2500 to 3000 meters.”

Attractive alternative destination

Ritterknecht

Huber and Co. re-planned without further ado and decided upon an attempt on the East Pillar of the 2020-meter-high Ritterknecht, which many climbers know under the Danish name Rytterknægten. The distinctive mountain in the so-called “Schweizerland” (Swiss land) was first climbed in 1938 by an expedition of the “Academic Alpine Club Zurich”. The group led by climber André Roch had scaled more than a dozen peaks in East Greenland for the first time. Alexander had picked up the East Pillar as a possible goal last year. “That was part of the motivation to start the journey. A 1000-meter-high pillar with an impressive massive shape. Of course, it’s an attractive goal for an alpinist to climb such a pillar.” Huber found out that apparently no one had climbed it so far. “We made a first ascent of this pillar, which was a great thing.”

Made what was possible

Successful team: Schneider, Huber, Zenz, Walder (f.l.t.r.)

Within 24 hours the quartet climbed via the pillar to the summit and back to their camp on the glacier. It was “a powerful ascent,” Mario Walder wrote in his expedition report. The climbers called their new route “Carpe diem”, what literally means “Pluck the day”. The motto also applies to the expedition, says Alexander Huber: “We have used and enjoyed our chances. We have just done what was possible and accepted it contendedly.” The climbers were on the way for three weeks. The special attraction of an expedition to the Arctic lies in the “absolute remoteness,” says Alexander. “An Inuit has led us to the end of the fjord. And from that moment we were the only people who were traveling in this mountainous region.”

Vulnerable

Immediately prior to departure from Iceland to Greenland Alexander Huber was informed about the 16-meter fall of his brother Thomas from a rock face in the Berchtesgaden region. “For me this was quite a dramatic moment, because I did not know whether I should set off or not. Before I flew, I wanted to know that he was alright.” Although Thomas – as reported – got off lightly, Alexander was shocked.: “Things like that bring to your mind how vulnerable you are as a human.”

P.S. Alexander Huber has just returned from the rocky mountain massif Picos de Europa in northern Spain. There he and his German climbing partner Fabian Buhl succeeded in free climbing the classic route “Suenos de invierno” (Winter Dreams) on the 2518-meter-high Naranjo de Bulnes for the first time – within nine hours. The Spanish climbers who had done the first ascent of the route in winter 1983 had spent a total of 69 days in the wall.

Thomas Ulrich some days ago

The man took me to the North Pole six years ago. Thus I owe Thomas Ulrich a lot. At the time of our last degree expedition, the 47-year-old adventurer from Switzerland proved to be a prudent and motivating expedition leader. Also this year, Thomy led a group on skis, pulling sledges, the last almost 120 kilometers from the 89th degree of latitude to the North Pole. A week ago they reached 90 degrees north. In contrast to 2009, Ulrich did not fly with the other expedition members by helicopter back to the Russian ice station “Barneo”.  Thomy wanted to ski towards Canada, solo and unsupported. His destination: Ward Hunt Island, 800 miles from the North Pole. Ulrich thought that it would take him 30 to 40 days to reach the island. Previously only his Norwegian friend and former expedition partner Borge Ousland had soloed the distance. But after a few days Ulrich turned around again.

Two meters between life and death

Despite whiteout and storm he initially made good progress, because he was able to use his kite, told Ulrichs Swiss friend and business partner Hans Ambühl. Thomy skied 80 km in the first three days. However, he had to survive several critical situations – like this: Over night suddenly a wide crack opened in the ice just two meters from his tent. Two meters between life and (most likely) death. Thomy became aware that in contrast to earlier expeditions he was no longer ready to take “an unlimited risk”. “The joy gained from overcoming difficulties and maybe even mental boundaries no longer outweighed for him the necessary physical and psychological pain inevitable”, writes Hans.

His dream: Solo across the Arctic

Thomy wants to return via the ice camp Barneo and Spitsbergen to Switzerland. Originally, he had seen this year’s solo expedition as a test run for an even bigger project in 2016: crossing the Arctic from Russia via the North Pole to Canada. Will he now, after the experiences he made last week, bury his great dream? In 2006, his first attempt had failed shortly after the start from the Russian mainland. Ulrich was then rescued by helicopter from an ice floe. “Failure is possible. I don’t want to fail”, Thomy writes about his project “Transarctic Solo 2016”. “And yet, a back-up rescue and emergency plan must exist. Everyone involved, including myself, must know what to do in the worst of all cases. Responsibility also means dealing with these scenarios as relentlessly and intensely as possible, in order to effectively prevent them.” Already a year earlier Thomas Ulrich has proved his ability to make responsible decisions.