Ranulph Fiennes To Climb Everest

If this week's news is anything to go by, next year on Everest is going to be 'I'm a celebrity, get me down from here...'

After reports suggesting that Tom Cruise is off to climb the biggy once he's finished filming Mission Impossible 27 or whatever it is, Sir Rannulph Fiennes has hit the BBC TV news bulletins declaring that he too intends to scale the world's highest mountain.

There's just one small snag though, the veteran polar explorer, multiple marathon runner, adventure racer and heart attack survivor is scared of heights. Speaking to the BBC he said: "I was born with two fears - spiders and heights - and living in Saudi Arabia cured me of my fear of spiders, there were so many of them..."

He's already been in mountaineering training scaling Chimborazzo, the highest mountain in Ecuador, with Jagged Globe and, judging by the pics, wobbling around on sea cliffs.

We're pretty sure he's attempting the climb to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation, but will confirm that once we know for sure. Good luck Sir Ran.