UCLan graduate one step closer to World Record after death defying mountain climb in minus 40 degrees

The UCLan graduate is now back at home in Lancashire after becoming the first man in 20 years and the first Brit to both cycle solo across America and summit one of the world’s most dangerous mountains – Mount Denali in Alaska.

Consistently in the World’s top ten most dangerous mountains, many consider Denali to be the world's coldest mountain because of its high elevation and subarctic location at 63 degrees north latitude with the summit regularly reaching minus 40 degrees.

Remarkable feat

Returning to the UK this week, what makes Oli’s achievement so extraordinary, is that he summited Mount Denali from the very bottom, traversing a mountain range, fording freezing rivers, and several dangerous glacial and crevasse fields (where crevasses have a depth of 1000 meters) on the dangerous West Buttress route to reach the summit - where all other climbers are flown into basecamp at 1300 feet below the summit.

Each year only 1,000 people are given permission to attempt to summit Denali, and less than a third make it, and all are flown into Base Camp making Oli and his team the only four men to summit Denali from the bottom this year. 

Tragedy

The day before UCLan graduate-Oli reached the summit of Mount Denali - 20,000ft - a solo climber died while trying to reach the top, another climber was taken off the mountain with a broken leg and another group had their camp ripped to shreds by the gale force winds.

During the expedition, one of Oli’s team fell through the snow into a crevasse and it was only because the four men were roped together that they were able to pull him out. At other times, as the team skied across the snowy tundra, their heavy 60kg sleds that contained all their kit, would often pull them down the mountain dangerously fast. They were also tracked by wild bears and found a moose carcass that had been savaged by bears close to their camp one morning. During a gale the team had to wait for five days in their tent for a storm to blow over before they could continue.

What’s next?

Adventures ahead include a 2,000- mile cycle across the Australian Outback an ocean row in Oceania, and Everest in Asia.