AN “EXTREME” Welsh explorer is set to take on one of Snowdonia’s toughest challenges in a brand new prime time television show.

Richard Parks, a former Welsh international turned endurance athlete, is taking viewers through a series of mentally and physically demanding challenges throughout Wales, including tackling bike routes through Coed-y-Brenin park.

Following his forced retirement from rugby, Richard made history twice with two incredible feats of endurance; a world first expedition called the 737 Challenge, where in July 2011 he became the first ever person to climb the highest mountain on each of the world’s seven continents and stand on all three poles (the North Pole, the South Pole and the summit of Everest) within seven months.

In January 2014 he became the first Welshman, and the fastest ever Brit to ski solo, unsupported and unassisted to the South Pole.

He is an extreme athlete who’s conquered some the world’s most challenging environments, so who better to show us that some of the world’s best adventures are right on our doorstep?

In the first episode, the athlete is set the taxing challenge of creating a new cycle route from ‘The Gap’ in the Brecon Beacons to the peak of Snowdon.

The show will broadcast on BBC 1, Monday 12 September at 7.30pm.

See more in this Thursday’s Meirionnydd and Arfon/Dwyfor editions of the Cambrian News