One of our Sports Centre members, Ricky Munday, will be climbing the North Ridge of Everest, Tibet, from 6th April to 4th June. He is undertaking the two-month expedition to climb the world’s highest mountain (8,848m) in memory of his twin uncles, who were supported by Macmillan nurses in their home, surrounded by family.
‘This will be the most challenging expedition I’ve ever attempted and I’m excited to be following in the footsteps of pioneering British mountaineers’ said Ricky Munday from his home in Cambridge, where he works as Head of Corporate Services at the British Antarctic Survey, the UK’s national polar science and operations organisation. ‘Overall, the north side of Everest has more technical difficulty than the south side, although fixed ropes and ladders are placed on the three most difficult sections, and the north can be significantly colder and windier. Our high camp on the north side is above 8,000m in the Death Zone, where oxygen levels fall to 30% of sea level values.’
To prepare for this expedition, Munday has spent the last decade organising and completing fifteen expeditions to the world’s greater ranges – he has climbed four of the seven continental summits and reached a maximum altitude of 6,962m on the summit of Aconcagua, the highest peak outside of the Himalayas. He has climbed on some of the world's most iconic peaks, including Mont Blanc, Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, the Matterhorn, Aconcagua, Elbrus and Damavand. He has also trained extensively in the Scottish Highlands and the mountains of Snowdonia in North Wales.
After flying into Lhasa and travelling 900km overland to Chinese basecamp (5,200m), Munday will spend six weeks slowly climbing up the mountain to set up and stock the higher camps and to acclimatise fully, before descending back down to base camp to rest and recuperate. He’ll then spend up to seven days climbing back up through the camps to make his final summit bid.
A Chartered Accountant, Munday also had a successful club rugby career in Scotland with Glasgow Hawks, winning three consecutive national championships and winning the Scottish Cup twice. He now harbours an ambition to climb the Triple Seven Summits – the three highest peaks on each continent – a feat that has only ever been completed once before.
For further information, photographs or to request an interview with Ricky Munday, please contact:
Tel: + 44 (0) 7867 143 657
If you would like to make a donation to Macmillan Cancer Support, please go to Ricky’s JustGiving page.
If you would like to support Ricky’s expedition directly to offset his £31,000 expedition costs, please go to his Crowdfunding page. Individual sponsors can benefit from a range of rewards, including signed posters, a satellite phone call from Everest, or a motivational talk at an organisation of the supporter’s choice.
Adapted from an original article: http://pressreleases.responsesource.com/news/92839/adventurer-to-climb-north-ridge-of-everest-to-raise-funds/