Veteran British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has reached the summit of Mount Everest, succeeding after two previous attempts ended in failure.
He is the first man to cross both the polar ice-caps and climb 8,850 metres (29,035ft) to the world's highest peak.
Sir Ranulph, 65, who had kept this latest attempt at climbing the mountain low key, said from the top he was pleased but "felt dreadful".
"This is the closest you can get to the moon by walking."
The explorer began his latest attempt at climbing Everest three weeks ago.
He becomes the oldest Briton and the first British pensioner to scale the world's highest mountain.
The adventurer told the BBC: "We came to the summit as dawn broke. It was very, very cold."
He said he had been narrowly beaten by a group of 12 Indian army soldiers to the summit but that there was a "lot of chatter" once they arrived.
Sir Ranulph turned back from the summit on his first attempt in 2005 after having a heart attack.
Exhaustion forced him to turn back when he tried to climb it again last year. |
