ALISON BOSHOFF: Sir Ranulph Fiennes admits he had to enlist his wife to help him climb a household ladder… despite having climbed 6,000ft before
You can imagine nothing scares polar explorer and Everest climber Sir Ranulph Fiennes – but he admits he failed the task of climbing a ladder to clean a gutter in his home.
Fiennes, 78, told the Midnight Meets podcast that his wife Louise asked him to pull a few leaves out of a gutter – admittedly a three-story gutter – and he couldn’t do it.
“There was no way I was going up,” he admitted, before sharing that Louise ended up taking on the task.
ALISON BOSHOFF: Sir Ranulph Fiennes, 78, admitted he had to enlist his wife to help him climb a domestic ladder… despite having climbed 6,000ft before
‘Louise said, ‘I’ll hold the Ran ladder!’ And I realized that climbing that rickety ladder was out of the question. I ended up getting Louise up and holding onto the ladder.
It was particularly disappointing because he had already climbed a steep 6,000 foot face of the Eiger to try to overcome his fear, like you do.
Speaking about his triumphs, the explorer and writer explained: “In the SAS, parachuting from balloons etc. you’re supposed to keep your eyes open, but I couldn’t do that.”
Helping hand: Fiennes told the Midnight Meets podcast that his wife Louise asked him to pull some leaves out of a gutter – admittedly a three-story gutter – and he couldn’t do it
Explorer: It was particularly disappointing because he had already climbed a steep 6,000 foot face of the Eiger to try and overcome his fear, like you do
“But I had heard that there were these two wonderful climbers who would teach you to lose vertigo.
Continuing: “One of them, Kenton Cool, said, ‘I’m going to take you to the Alps and a climb called Murder Wall of the Eiger.
‘And it worked. Kind of. “As long as I could see them I lost my vertigo,” said Sir Ranulph. “I thought it might have disappeared.”
In 2009, Ranulph became the first person to climb Mount Everest and cross both polar ice caps.
He remains the oldest Briton to successfully climb the mountain, which is the tallest in the world.
Ranulph rose to public prominence through his daring expeditions and was called the world’s greatest living explorer by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Record holder: Ranulph rose to public prominence through his daring expeditions and was called the world’s greatest living explorer by the Guinness Book of World Records
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