Pull down the duvet and what do you see? A floor? A ceiling? Four white walls closing in like a snowstorm? No horizons when you’re stuck down a crevasse.

But look a little harder and you might be able to decipher the outline of a new direction. Towards a new relationship; a better job; a worthier challenge; the top of Everest – a metaphorical Everest or perhaps even the real one?

If that sounds trite or dumb, it has been done. And if it has been done, it can be done again.

For former Wales international Richard Parks, the snowstorm began when he was forced to retire from rugby union in 2009, at the age of 31.  More\…