A RENOWNED explorer who has trekked through polar wastes and scaled the forbidding north face of the Eiger will undertake a unique Lakeland challenge, this summer, reports Paul Duncan.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes will head for the Lake District in July to attempt the Bob Graham Round, which is one of the most challenging sporting events in the UK and involves climbing 42 of the Lake District's highest peaks - including Scafell Pike and Helvellyn - in 24 hours.

Sir Ranulph has been hailed as the world's greatest living explorer and he has a number of notable achievements on his cv, including the first circumnavigation of the earth's polar axis with Charles Burton, and the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic continent with Dr Mike Stroud.

A double heart bypass in 2003 did little to dim his adventurous spirit and he has since run seven marathons in seven days on seven continents and this year he climbed the infamous North Face of the Eiger - 6,000ft of vertical rock and ice which has claimed the lives of dozens of climbers and is notorious for avalanches and rockfalls - in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care.

See May 25 Westmorland Gazette for story in full.