For 2022  I decided that I wanted to embark on a physical challenge that was more difficult and adventurous than my usual Coast to Coast cycle rides or mountaineering expeditions in the Alps.

I asked my brother Jim for ideas and he suggested we could
attempt to summit an unclimbed mountain. What a brilliant idea! But how?

Surprisingly there are 100’s of unclimbed mountains left on
planet Earth, for a variety of reasons. Our research eventually led us to Andean expedition leader and mountaineer Max Kausch, who holds the world record for having climbed the most 6000m+ peaks in the Andes, and he has also made the first ascent of five of them.

Much of the mountainous terrain there is uncharted, and Max
teamed up with scientists to download Gigabits of NASA aeriel and GPS data to create the first accurate and digital topological map of the area. This then enabled him to work out foot approaches to the obscure mountain bases.

Bespoke for us, Max identified an extremely remote, un-named and unclimbed 5,500m volcanic mountain in the Atacama desert in Chile, and agreed to guide an expedition to attempt to summit it.

I fantasized about assembling a crack team of experienced professional mountaineers to take on this ambitious challenge with me, but I don’t know any. So instead, our humble team consists of Max, his assistant guide, myself, Jim, my close friend JP Naylor and Lauren Hooper, an adventurous paramedic who was a participant on a Mountain Leader training course in Snowdonia. Oh, and some random Brazilian dude who asked Max could he join us.

We committed to an expedition start date of 19th March 2022

Sat right on the high mountain border with Argentina, our
chosen volcano is exceptionally remote, requiring 4 days travel in off-road vehicles after we have reached the end of any surfaced road. There is no guarantee of even reaching the base of the mountain, let alone subsequently attaining its summit.  Even then, if we summit, there is a small chance that we will encounter a cairn or other man-made rock marker or archaeology there, indicating that the Incas beat us to it 500 years ago!

Max stressed that each day traversing over the volcanic ash
and untrodden terrain, we must be prepared for the unexpected, and all team members need to be resilient, robust, resourceful and able to accept and help solve problems as and when they arise. I white lied and confirmed that each of us possessed all of those skills.

Once we have left the road, we will encounter no other humans until we return, and no water, except possibly as snow on the higher summits. We should be ok, water is over-rated.

Although the summit is as high as Everest Base Camp, the Atacama
desert, the driest desert in the world, receives almost no precipitation, so we can expect nice easy grippy bare dry rock all the way up, no ropes, crampons, ice axes or climbing harnesses required 😊

The threat of altitude sickness at 5500m will be a real issue,
so en-route to locate our chosen mountain, we will climb lower (4000m – 5000m) summits each day to acclimatise. 

I hope to Raise £2000 for my favourite charity the Childrens Adventure Farm Trust in Cheshire, which caters for terminally ill, disabled and disadvantaged children in the North West

If we reach the summit we will plant a British flag, and prior to setting out I promise to write on it the name of every sponsor, regardless of the size of their donation. Its so dry up there, the flag should last a very,very long time, a bit like NASA's flag on the moon, but a Union Jack!

So please give generously. Remember that for every £10 you donate, our much-loved and generous government will reluctantly add another £2.50, provided you are a taxpayer.