Some of Tarka’s friends have been quoted saying they first realised that he wasn’t ‘normal ‘ when he turned up on foot to a holiday gathering in the South of France, having run all the way from the UK because he couldn’t afford the air fare.

Born in 1981, Tarka has grown up in the French Alps giving him his fascination with mountains and the great outdoors. He is the oldest of 3 children and having his education split between France and England has allowed him to grow up bilingual. His adventurous streak may be as much nature as it is nurture with his ancestors showing a penchant for adventure. His Grandmother (Diana Evans nee King) walked to Everest Base camp at the youthful age of 60 and after sailing around the world in a 42ft junk boat at the age of 58 his great uncle Bill King (Commander William D. Armstrong de Courcy King) decided that 80 was a good age to take up hang gliding.

Tarka spent much of his childhood growing up in the Savoie region of the French Alps. This exceptional playground allowed him to discover the joys of climbing and from there his adventurouse spirit proliferated. As his skills and knowledge grew he was able to begin exploring a new world broadening his spectrum of sports to include: rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, touring, telemarking, cross country skiing, mountain biking, road cycling, paragliding, skydiving and BASE jumping to name a few.

At the age of 9 he was excited to be offered the chance to move his education from the French Alps to the settings of rural England and started boarding at Red Rice (Farleigh). Through-out his education he kept his love of the mountains, returning home frequently to ski competitively and continue his passion for climbing. It was some years later when he reached Cheltenham College in 1995, that he also developed a love for rugby.

In 1997 at the age of 16, along with a great friend, Tarka took a bicycle out of a skip, put it back together in the school design labs and began a 1000km journey to the South of France. Although the journey was a logistical disaster it added exponentially to his love of challenging sports and wild environments, bringing him ever closer to his expeditions. At this time he was also taking off as a rugby player with prospects of playing at top level. After finishing school he studied Industrial Product Design at the University of Brunel and played a season of rugby for London Wasps, he then transferred to Bath Rugby Club and Bath University where he studied Sports Technology. Despite a promising career in professional rugby, he gave it up to follow his dream.

His thirst for adventure continued to expand and in 2000 as part of an experiment in human endurance and intrinsic motivation he ran 8 consecutive marathons in 8 consecutive days. He Followed this with continuously more ambitious journeys. In 2001 he set his sights on the Poles and begun the long and arduous preparations. Not coming from a wealthy family Tarka was left to find the £250,000 needed for the expedition from scratch.

In 2005 he became the second person in history to attempt to trek to both the North and South Poles solo and consecutively. Sadly the expedition ran into financial difficulties before the Poles could be reached. Tarka’s life journey has not exactly been a shining example of uncompromising success. In fact failure became his driving force for a number of years. Later that year Tarka had a chance encounter with a young model, Katie-Jane Cooper, and after a rather brief first meeting a relationship grew between them. Following a training trip to Mt. Blanc in the French Alps he cycled to her home in Devon (England) and on seeing an untamed potential in Katie-Jane, Tarka asked her to join him on his next adventure.

In 2006, as part of the EverestMax expedition, he set out to join an elite group and summit the world’s highest mountain on earth without oxygen. During this expedition, at more than 7km above sea level on the highest and most inhospitable mountain on earth, Mt Everest, he developed High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE). In 2007 Katie-Jane finally joined Tarka on what was to become her first ever expedition as they successfully journeyed 4500km through the Taklimakan desert and across Northern China along the Great Wall of China.

Tarka feels exceptionally privileged to have lead and been a part of all his expeditions and he has every intention of continuing to push the boundaries and discover how far he and others can go. All his expeditions provide a platform to perform scientific research and he hopes that some of the data collected on his journey will help expand our understanding. Some of the more comprehensive studies he has been a part of include polar studies on ‘The physiological effects of isolation under extreme conditions’, ‘Core body temperature and its effect on blood flow’ and ‘The effects of air temperature on oxygen consumption and VO2 max’. Tarka has also been a part of a number of high altitude studies including an Everest study on ‘The relation between dilation of the optic nerve and AMS’ (Study Conducted by Dr. A. Sutherland).