Student climbers get some expert advice for Everest challenge

Everest climber Ricky Munday with from left: Ellena Keigher, Renanna Davies, Callum Nussey, Josh Towers, Charlie Jones and Josh Hutton.

The students are midway through a plan to conquer 11 peaks across Britain in order to achieve an overall climb of just more than 8,848 metres, which is the height of Everest.

The students’ aim is simply one of personal development, in order to push themselves to capacity and teach them the benefits of persevering.

So far, they have completed five climbs, including Mount Snowdon at 1,085m, and their total elevation so far is 2,932.

Their next climb will be Scafell Pike in the Lake District in September and the last climb will be Ben Nevis, which stands 1,345m tall, next year.

All the climbs have been completed safely and competently and last week the students received some words of encouragement from Scottish climber Ricky Munday, who reached the summit of Everest last year.

The teenagers, Ellena Keigher, 15, Reanna Davies, 15, Charlie Jones, 13, Callum Nussey, 14, Josh Hutton, 14, and Josh Towers 14, also got to inspect the kit Ricky used during his Everest climb.

Ricky, who runs his own social enterprise, Inspire Alpine, said: “I talk to schools about what you can achieve if you show resilience and determination and these students have already demonstrated that on the way to completing their challenge.

“Climbing Everest was my life’s ambition, but it didn’t happen without me having to overcome setbacks both in life and climbing, including having to turn back when I was close to the summit during an attempt in 2017 because I feared for my safety.”

Charlie Jones, commented: “I enjoyed seeing Ricky’s equipment and his advice has helped us.

“My favourite climb so far was Snowdon.

“It was harder than I thought and I was put off by the amount of people at the top, plus my legs were really hurting when we got there.

“I’m looking forward to Scafell Pike to see what the view is like from the top, and

“I’ll feel really proud of myself when we get to the top of Ben Nevis.”

The Everest Challenge is being organised by a group of Shirebrook Academy teachers, including the school’s assistant head of science, Richard Wiles.

He said: “The challenge is taking many of our students out of their comfort zones and is forcing them to dig deep in order to get to the top of the mountains.”