'Realised I was going to die' Ranulph Fiennes on 'bad mistake' that almost killed him
express.co.ukSir Ranulph said: “I made a bad mistake. Minus fifty [degrees], the sledge fell in ten foot down into the water, dark, full moon, breaking up all the ice…“I realised I was going to die very quickly if I couldn’t get the sledge out of the water.“Because, as it fell in, I get the quick-release that meant that the tension that was all over the life-saving equipment was no longer fixed to me.“And there it was, and it was gradually sinking.
And there was air inside the Russian bags and so on, but it was gradually sinking.”The explorer continued: “Blocks of ice were falling in on top of it, so I had to get it out.“You use one hand to put it out, I managed to get ten feet back up on the edge of the ice float from which I’d fallen, and quickly got out of it.“Everything is latched on, my hands were so gone.”He added: “I couldn’t undo the lashes so I cut the lashes.
Got the little tent, sleeping bag, matches and a tin, cooker and that was about it.“What you do is, you start your cooker by pumping petrol onto the plate and then you light the plate.Sir Ranulph went on to explain how he accidentally set part of his tent on fire while trying to start the cooker.He had to use his sleeping bag to put the fire out in what he described as “the worst moment of my life”.Sir Ranulph concluded: “Long story short: I eventually got back to the mainland and managed to get a ski plane to come in from 600 miles away.”He continued: “I got back to a hospital in Canada.
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