Richard Parks during his Denali expedition

A former Wales international rugby player who was forced out of the game by a shoulder injury climbed into the record books today with an ascent of Mount Elbrus.

Ex-Barbarians player Richard Parks’s successful summiting of Europe’s highest peak set a world record for climbing the highest mountains on each of the world’s seven continents, and the North and South Pole.

His challenge was completed in six months, 11 days, 7hrs and 53mins. He reached the top of the Russian peak at 11.53am local time, easily beating his target of seven months.

The 737 Challenge, so named because Parks aimed to summit seven peaks and three ‘poles’ in seven months, was completed for Marie Curie Cancer Care, with a goal of raising £1m for the charity.

Speaking from the top of Elbrus, he said: “It hasn’t sunken in yet. I am sure when I am back home and I have got the team around me I guess it will sink in then.

“My energy levels went from a quarter of a tank to pretty much bone dry today. The final hour of the summit climb I had to dig pretty deep; my legs were quite tired and mentally it was quite tough.

“I had every confidence that I would be able to do it from day one. However some of the hurdles and dramas that we have had over the last seven months, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t had my doubts. Physically my body has just about held up, I am not sure I have another mountain in me for a couple of months!”

He suffered frostbite after summiting Everest, nearly died on Denali after falling down a crevasse and had to cope with fuel strikes and delays in Antarctica.

After retiring from rugby, the former flanker sank his savings into the two-year expedition project, even moving back in with his parents.

“I feel incredibly privileged to have experienced the last seven months,” he added. “To stand on the top of the world’s highest mountains and see some of the most beautiful places on earth – I am just so grateful to so many people who have made the 737 Challenge possible for me, from the challenge team, to the sponsors to my parents to everyone who has made this a reality and to everyone for following and supporting my challenge.

“My friends, family and parents have been absolute rocks throughout this journey for me, from my forced retirement in rugby to this challenge; I know I have put everyone through the ringer, I am just grateful to have done it. Hopefully now I’ll get back in one piece safe and sound and be able to share it with everyone.”

The challenge began with the South Pole in December last year, followed by the ascent of Antarctica’s highest peak Mount Vinson; Aconcagua in South America; Kilimanjaro in Africa; the Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia; the North Pole; Everest; Denali in North America and finally, today, Elbrus.

To date, about only 170 people have completed the Seven Summits; fewer than 20 people have stood on all three ‘poles’, only a handful claiming all the Seven Summits as well.

Parks’s feat is the first to achieve the latter in the same calendar year.

The three poles concept emerged late last century, with Everest being rated the third ‘pole’. Norwegian Erling Kagge was the first to achieve the challenge in 1994, with Swede Tina Sjögren the first woman in 2002.