He's battled against the most extreme conditions on the planet and endured the hardest tackles against the giants of world rugby, but when we speak, Richard Parks is grappling his toddler son Fred and is as besotted a dad as anyone could imagine.
Its wonderful, magical, is his description of fatherhood. Last night I was putting him to bed and drying him after his bathtime and he looked me in the eyes and he just went, Dadas home now, and honestly, I had to get him out quickly before I started filling up.
The obvious question after such a moving statement is how he can possibly keep putting his life in danger as an adventurer to the worlds most inhospitable environments.
He goes on to answer that in depth and is honest in responding to those who question the point of his endeavours and their environmental impact as the world worries about climate change.
We also talk about whether hes going to attempt another solo mission to the South Pole after some of the worst weather in recent years scuppered his attempt to break the world record on the expedition hes just returned from.
This feat saw him break his own British record for skiing coast to pole in Antarctica, solo, unsupported and unassisted, but (to use another un), his unstoppable spirit would make anyone doubt the 42-year-old will be content to leave it there.
Not that his spirits have always been so high, and on the latest expedition he admits he cried just about every day and was constantly battling the bad voice in my head.
This most recent race to the South Pole was the latest of his extreme adventures which started with his pioneering 737 challenge.
His first death-defying expedition or, to be more accurate, series of expeditions, began in 2011, 19 months after a sporting career which had included playing at flanker for Wales and the Barbarians was cut short by a rugby-induced shoulder injury.
His award-winning autobiography Beyond The Horizon charts how hed come to the verge of suicide as he struggled with the end of his playing days.
It was during his grandmothers funeral of all places that the answer for what he should do next came to him, when he heard the vicar say: The horizon is only the limit of our sight.
Within a fortnight hed had those words tattooed on his arm and was developing his world-first challenge to stand on the seven highest summits of the world and the North and South Poles within the same calendar year.
His initial aim with 737 had been to raise 1m for the cancer charity Marie Curie, although the campaign missed that target with a donation of a still very creditable amount of more than 320,000.
On 12 July 2011, he conquered the final part of the 737 challenge, reaching the summit of Russias Mount Elbrus.
Along the way, hed brushed with death after slipping into a deep crevasse in Alaska where he was forced to perch on a ledge for an hour and a half in a dark, icy cavern. Eventually, another group of climbers came along and were able to help rescue him.
Its a measure of the dramatic impact of everything he endured during the 737 challenge that a three-part BBC Wales documentary is still being watched by TV viewers around the world.
The series sees him threatened with losing a big toe to frostbite and battling knee problems. He admits the frostbite was painful and talks about how staff and students at Cardiff Metropolitan University have been helping him overcome the legacy of that injury for his most recent expedition.
Its not something I see as a badge of honour, far from it, he says of the frostbite. It is one of the risks in performing in some of the worlds most hostile environments.
The lasting effect of that particular injury is the impaired circulation in my toe, so my toe gets colder quicker than any other part of my body so my choice of footwear, that was a factor in the design of the orthotic that the podiatry students made.
It was really important that we kept the volume of the boot so that it didnt lose any of its insulation properties. Im able to manage that pretty safely now and its always a consideration, its more susceptible to cold now, but it didnt impact the expedition.
Theres no lasting damage, either, from the medical complications he encountered on a scientific expedition to Everest in 2016, when his blood became dangerously thickened because of the extreme altitude.
The complications that contributed to the decision to abort the Everest expedition were directly related to altitudes and extreme altitude, he explains. Although altitude is a factor in Antarctica, 3,000m is a significant altitude, Ive recovered.
Hes careful not to overstate the physical, mental and emotional toll such mammoth undertakings would have on anyone, but concedes the effort is brutal and to succeed he has to adopt a blend of defiance and humility.
"Theres a huge amount of psychological strain, emotional strain, obviously the physical strain of skiing 16 to 19 hours a day, close to threshold and its relentless.
There was also the sheer will needed to carry on in an increasingly barren Antarctic landscape.
Up to 20 days. I was skiing in whiteouts, good weather, wind chill of minus-45, whatever the conditions and thats demanding, he says.
The first part of the expedition you ski past the Ellsworth mountains and there are features on the horizons, but once youre past the halfway point, there really is nothing and that really challenges all of your focus internally.
Every hour of every day I wrestled the bad voice in my head to quit, or to stop, or to just pitch the tent or, you know, just slow down or, certainly when I when I thought of my family back here in Wales, I would say, I cried every day.
He and his family decided he wasnt going to speak to them at all during the expedition, although they were able to follow his progress.
His only human contact was a brief daily safety call with the Antarctic company supporting his expedition.
As an aside, this companys website advertises the Hercules Inlet to South Pole ski challenge as a guided expedition for $72,875 (56,130) and over 58 days. Unsurprisingly, its described as extremely strenuous.
Richards endeavours naturally went way beyond that and I ask him whether leaving behind his fiance Jo and their almost two-year-old son Fred has made him rethink such a dangerous way of making a living.
Ive reflected on this," he says. Jo and I had the philosophy that in order to be the best parents we had to be the best versions of ourselves and the best version of ourselves in my opinion is an authentic self.
I found a purpose or pathway in life that enables me to use my unique skills to add value to this world and I kind of mean my athleticism as a professional athlete, my business and commercial skills to design and develop the projects.
Im really proud about the social footprint that all of my projects have left behind, particularly this project in Antarctica.
In some ways becoming a dad has not changed anything, but in some ways its changed everything. I know that sounds a bit of clich, but Ive always been always prided myself on my kind of meticulous and sometimes maniacal preparation and training and conditioning and certainly in the past its what kept me safe and successful.
That hasnt changed. This might sound crazy, Ive always been risk averse with a high-risk appetite. I know that sounds crazy and its quite business-y, but thats how I see myself.
But, what Fred has changed is the why, the legacy and making it count and I guess seeing the world, or having an empathy for what the world will be like in 10, 15, 20 years when when Freds growing up, Freds really challenged me to develop projects which add value.
I push him on this, how exactly he does feel he adds value? Hes aware there are those who question the point of his expeditions as well as the impact of flying around the world to some of the most fragile environments.
Ill be really straight, he replies. Ive got a fantastic team around me and Im a smart guy and Im fully aware of the consequences and the trade-off in living the life that I lead, and I dont necessarily mean in direct response to that type of comment.
I mean the price for my family, the financial price of these types of expeditions. Ill be honest, 99.99% of the interactions I have are incredibly positive and supportive and really humbling.
I see the world that young people are inheriting from us and I think the mindset and skills associated with adventure, understanding and mitigating risk, with high aspirations, the confidence and the courage to be able to set ambitious goals, the skills to thrive in an unpredictable, dynamic and volatile world, all of these skills are skills that are the foundations of my performance in these types of environments.
Sharing that, sharing the project, the development, the highs and the lows in real time with young people to help them to develop those skills to thrive in the dynamic world that theyre inheriting, its something I feel very passionate about.
Hes particularly proud that of the involvement of the Cardiff Met students who were given the task of designing and manufacturing various parts of his equipment and he says the benefits went far beyond the items they produced.
Some students signed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) because the project started two-and-half years ago and even that was a real step for young people, to have an honest conversation about what stays in this room stays in this room and not being able to share on social media, he says.
One of the most widely-reported aspects of this latest expedition was how the worsening weather conditions not only put a stop to Richards world record hopes, but the extra days meant hed have to stretch his food beyond carefully-planned rations hed developed with the students.
He knew from previous expeditions hed be burning 10,000 calories a day and had planned a daily ration of 7,200 calories for this trip.
Pictures from the end of the expedition show the weight loss which came from that energy deficit.
Having mentally dealt with the disappointment of missing out on the world record, he was determined to still achieve the British one.
It was really important to me from an integrity point of view that I reached the South Pole in the way that I had planned, solo, unsupported and unassisted, and I knew if I was to take a food supply, that would invalidate any opportunity to break my own British record, he says.
Then it was just a logistical kind of decision. I pitched the tent and got all the food I had now and laid it out inside my tent its not a very big tent and worked through the calories, what I had, the distance I had left, how I could spread that out evenly.
Along with working out his food allowance, hed also calculated out hed need to go all-in for the last push to the Pole, skiing in seven-and-half-hour blocks with an hours sleep, repeating that around the clock.
That enabled me to to spread the calories out and and to reach the Pole and it worked to perfection because I arrived at the Pole with one energy bar left, he says.
He explains how hed consume three dehydrated meals in each 24-hour period of non-stop sunlight, with most of his calories coming from snacks.
This is where the work the students did changed the game a little bit, the majority of my calories came from nutritionally-balanced snacks throughout the day, so I was consuming 400 calories every hour and 10 minutes through either a ball or a bar or some sort of solid food and 150 calories through a liquid supplement.
These were entirely designed and manufactured by the students and they were nutritionally balanced to make sure that I had the right fats, proteins, sugars, all in line with what specifically suits me so I am incredibly proud of what they did and the work we did together.
They were instrumental in the records that we broke out there.
His ambassadorial roles are deeply important to him as well, among them promoting tourism with Visit Wales.
Theres a number of ways that we can celebrate, promote and be an ambassador for our country, he says. In a small way, carrying my Welsh flag and my Union flag is something I take really seriously.
In a community that is largely dominated by Scandinavian countries to be not just a Brit, but to be a mixed-race Welshman who has skied the most solo, unsupported miles in Antarctic history, thats something Im hugely proud of and Im putting Wales in the history books.
He says hes also conscious of his carbon footprint and is working on ways to lessen that in future.
He's excited about the start of this year's Six Nations and hell go to at least one of the games. But, thats something he couldnt have faced in the past when his rugby-playing career ended prematurely in 2009 from that shoulder injury while with Newport Gwent Dragons.
Its been a journey, he admits. Ive been retired 11 years now and I would say for the first three or four years [it was] still incredibly difficult to watch a game.
Having developed my own, unique niche in this world, Im in a different place now.
I ask if theres any part of him which would still relish the opportunity to run out onto a rugby pitch.
I will always miss the changing room, thats something any rugby player or team sports person will share my feelings on, he replies.
The changing room is a truly, truly special place before and after games, but, no, as far as actually running out onto the pitch or the day-to-day life as a professional rugby player, Im grateful for mine, but Im in a very different place now and I love what I do now.
So, what comes next? How strong is his urge to make another attempt at the world record to the South Pole?
He says hes not even allowing himself to think about that for now.
Of course, it is possible that I could go back, whether its for this record or for a different objective. Its a decision that involves a lot of people and a lot of factors, he replies.
It was a really difficult decision to commit to go back this year. Financially, its a lot of money and there are other considerations, the price on my family, the price on me, the price you pay to train, to sacrifice time with friends and family, the environmental concerns and its not something I take lightly.
I love Antarctica, its a real privilege to be there and if the right project came up with the right factors, of course Id consider it.
I would never say never.
Read the rest here:
Richard Parks takes on his critics and talks about fatherhood in an in-depth interview - Wales Online
