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world's "greatest living explorer"?

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 kevin stephens 17 Sep 2012
I've got a fair amount of admiration for some of Sir Ranulph's previous arctic and antartic adventures (better not mention the climbing bits) but this latest venture?

Crossing Antartica on foot in winter closely followed by two great big diesel powered buldosers dragging three portacabinbs on sledges for 6 months seems to ne pointless, barmy and a descecration of one of the world's most fragile and awesome places.

Or am I missing something?
 SFM 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens:

I'm of the same mind. Seems like a totally pointless "challenge" to me.
Removed User 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens: Prepare yourself for a massive Fiennes love in from Ray Mears types on here...
 Tom Last 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens:

Ah that makes sense, when I heard it on the news I thought they meant it was going to be a rather dangerous sounding solo effort. Yes, seems he'd be better off quitting while he's ahead.
 Cuthbert 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens:

I agree with you. Fiennes ego always strikes me as being big enough to require a bulldozer to pull it.
 Philip 17 Sep 2012
He was great in Harry Potter though.
 butteredfrog 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens:

Purely in reply to the thread title...

Buzz Aldrin
 subalpine 17 Sep 2012
In reply to butteredfrog: James Cameron?
In reply to kevin stephens: Ray would be better - he carries his food reserves at all times!
 subalpine 17 Sep 2012
In reply to grumpybearpantsclimbinggoat: Ray's lipotube- now that's an idea..
Daithi O Murchu 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens:

the chap who walked the amazon

James cameron is an interesting one in terms of the unknown and the risk of it all
 Steve John B 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens:
>
> ...seems to ne pointless, barmy and a descecration of one of the world's most fragile and awesome places.
>
> Or am I missing something?

Yes.

"The Coldest Journey will also attempt to raise USD10 million for Seeing is Believing, a global charitable initiative to fight avoidable blindness."

Not interested in the mission as a whole, but this seems fairly admirable.
Wonko The Sane 17 Sep 2012
In reply to Daithi O Murchu: My ex father in law did a fair chunk of that in a canoe....... he wrote a book about it and it bombed like a led zeppelin. Shame cos he was a good law lecturer, which he didn't really have passion for........ and a pretty average writer, which he lived for. Still, he's got the trips he's been on to look back on.

Re Mr Fiennes......... he's 68. Fair play to anyone doing something this hard, with or without support........... rather him than me.
 Steve John B 17 Sep 2012
In reply to Removed User:
> (In reply to kevin stephens) Prepare yourself for a massive Fiennes love in from Ray Mears types on here...

Er, ok...
Clauso 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens:

I once took a walk down Dovedale in winter. Without a compass. Or a map. And only 3 days of emergency rations... If that counts?
 ajsteele 17 Sep 2012
In reply to Daithi O Murchu:

Ed Stafford would get my vote too, truly amazing effort to walk the entire length of the amazon!
 james mcclung 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens: Ed Stafford is a good British one but my favorite is Lars Monsen who is Norwegian crossed Canada and Alaska with his dogs and canoe on one trip witch took him 2 years 7 month watched a Documentary about it on bbc alba theirs the full Documentary on youtube only prob is its in Norwegian still watch it .

 The New NickB 17 Sep 2012
In reply to Steve John B:

These things usually are for a good cause, but it does seem at bit contrived and unsustainable.
 Bruce Hooker 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens:

I don't want to get in a for or against RF thread again but in a more general sense to what extent can we really refer to any of those mentioned as being "explorers"? Athletes, people of great physical and mental abilities perhaps but are they really explorers in the real meaning of the word?

On a micro level, exploring caves, canyons and such like possibly but in terms of finding new lands, the source of the Nile and so on, hasn't it all been explored already?
 anonymouse 17 Sep 2012
In reply to kevin stephens:
> Or am I missing something?

Meh. Armstrong, Aldrin, they are the greatest living explorers in so much as they went somewhere no one had been before.
Wonko The Sane 17 Sep 2012
In reply to anonymouse:
> (In reply to kevin stephens)
> [...]
>
> Meh. Armstrong, Aldrin, they are the greatest living explorers in so much as they went somewhere no one had been before.

You might want to check the latest information on Armstrong. He died a very short while ago.
 anonymouse 17 Sep 2012
In reply to Bruce Hooker:
> On a micro level, exploring caves, canyons and such like possibly but in terms of finding new lands, the source of the Nile and so on, hasn't it all been explored already?

It depends if you see exploration as discovering new places, setting out into the unknown or whether being an 'explorer' is something that a person is?

Robert Twigger talks quite intelligently about this in his book, which details his attempts to paddle to the Pacific in a birch bark canoe.
Clauso 17 Sep 2012
In reply to Wonko The Sane:
>
> You might want to check the latest information on Armstrong. He died a very short while ago.

Lance Armstrong's dead!?!?... Was it the doping investigation that tipped him over the edge?
 Bruce Hooker 19 Sep 2012
In reply to anonymouse:

Surely most people called "explorers" today are really "adventurers", at best, showmen most of the time?

I've just seen an article on the BBC site which says more or less what I did above so apparently I'm not alone on this one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19621341

 Trangia 19 Sep 2012
In reply to james mcclung:
> (In reply to kevin stephens) Ed Stafford is a good British one but my favorite is Lars Monsen who is Norwegian crossed Canada and Alaska with his dogs and canoe on one trip witch took him 2 years 7 month

Did he do some of it on a broom stick?

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