He has never lacked towering ambition, pushing body and mind to their limit in pursuit of improbable feats of endurance.
So it was, perhaps, inevitable that Bear Grylls would be reunited with Everest when he soared into the record books yesterday with a petrol-powered paraglider flight over the Himalayas.
The explorer, whose first encounter with Everest was when he reached the summit only three years after breaking his back in three places, survived temperatures of -76F (-60C) and dangerously low oxygen levels to reach 29,500ft. His achievement is almost 10,000ft higher than the previous powered paraglide record, although the record is yet to be independently verified.
The 32-year-old had planned to fly over the summit of the 29,035ft mountain but the former SAS soldier, for once opting for discretion ahead of valour, decided the risk of being jailed by the Chinese was too great if he illegally strayed into their airspace.
The expedition saw Grylls and his co-pilot, Gilo Cardozo, take off at 11,600ft from their base camp in eastern Nepal under a parachute propelled by a four-stroke, unleaded petrol engine that was strapped to his back. After a four-hour journey, during which the pair entered the death zone - where the amount of oxygen cannot sustain human life - Grylls returned to base camp and vowed that his days of daredevil stunts were over.
The explorer, who became the youngest Briton to scale Everest nine years ago, said his priority was to return to his wife, Shara, and their young sons, Jesse and Marmaduke, after an expedition he described as the most terrifying he has experienced.
Speaking by satellite phone, Grylls said he would never have contemplated the mission had he really known how dangerous it would be. "It was the hairiest, most frightening thing I have ever undertaken in my life," he told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. "People said it wasn't possible, that we wouldn't be able to do it, but we did and it feels absolutely amazing. It's a dream come true.
"However, I think I've used a lot of my nine lives. I promise that I will never undertake anything as dangerous again. I've got a family and it's time for a bit of calm."
Grylls and Cardozo had to wait for a weather window, when the hurricane-force winds that spin around the mountain subsided, before running into the sky. That moment arrived at 4.45am. With 120lb of survival kit and oxygen on their backs, and 18 months of training behind them, they soared into the freezing atmosphere at speeds of 75mph.
At 28,000ft Mr Cardozo's engine stopped and he was forced down, but Mr Grylls climbed a further 1,500ft and looked over the mountain which almost claimed his life in 1998. "It was a very proud moment when I saw the summit again," he said. "I forgot how intimidating it can be."
The explorer, the son of the late Sir Michael Grylls, the former Tory MP, was serving with the SAS in southern Africa when he broke his back in a parachuting accident. Three years later he scaled Everest. Since then he has sailed along the Arctic Circle in an open boat.
So will his latest expedition, which was sponsored by GKN Mission Everest and raised $1 million (£500,000) for Global Angels, a charity which helps children in Africa, really be his last? His wife is not so sure.
"He's told me that that's it, that he's not going to do anything so dangerous again," she said yesterday. "But he'll probably tell me in a few years that he's got itchy feet and wants to try something else. I hope not. I really was scared this time."
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