One week to go!

It’s just one week before Richard Parks jets off for the start of his first leg of his world first 737 Challenge. The former Welsh international rugby player has spent the last 16 months training for one of the toughest challenges of his life. Parks’ quest to become the first person to stand on the highest mountain on each of the world’s 7 continents and travel to the geographic North Pole and South Pole, all against a 7 month clock will see him enter the record books as the first man to achieve this feat as well as set a new benchmark in the climbing of the 7 Summits.

7 Summits, 3 Poles, 7 Months….A World First.

Richard’s first 3 legs are back to back; The South Pole, followed by Mount Vinson in Antarctica and then on to Aconcagua in South America. Next Sunday he departs Cardiff for Heathrow airport where he will fly to Chile and then on to the Antarctic continent.

The 737 Challenge will begin 100 years from Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910 Terra Nova expedition, which also began from Cardiff.

Richard’s journey to the South Pole will take him approximately 2 weeks depending on conditions. He will have to pull a sled weighing 50-60kg, battling wind blown ridges called sastrugi and ever-present crevasses. Temperatures will range from a high of -15 degrees Celsius down to a possible low of -40 degrees Celsius.

He also faces a tricky wait sat in a tent on the Pole. When successful, Richard’s 737 Challenge will see him become the first person to stand on the continental summits and all 3 poles (The South Pole, The North Pole and Mount Everest) in the same calendar year. That year begins on January 1st 2011. Due to logistical reasons Richard will arrive on The South Pole around December 27th meaning he will have to wait until New Years Day on the Pole to ensure his first Pole is reached on 1st January and his world record attempt truly begins.