Briton climbs the remotest peak on Earth after skiing 1,250 miles
Joining hands on the summit
The Spectre juts above the snow
ADVENTURER Leo Houlding has become the first Briton to scale the world’s most remote peak, so isolated only 10 people have seen it.
The renowned climber conquered The Spectre, a 6,630ft jagged mountain 280 miles from the South Pole, after skiing 1,250 miles and lugging 440lb of kit.
The climbing was the least of his difficulties as Leo, 39, revealed.
“When we arrived it was -40C with winds of 60 knots, that gives a windchill of -73C - instant frostbite,” he said.
He already survived a brush with death when his sled fell INTREPID Leo Houlding into a crevasse. A “knot in his rope” saved him.
Leo and his two companions also became the first team to complete the expedition without outside financial help or the use of a vehicle within the Antarctic. Leo, from Staveley, Cumbria, said: “I’ve been on a lot of adventures, but this was another level. Of all I’ve done, that one takes the crown as the most remarkable and extreme.
“It’s the most remote mountain in the world, when you are that far out you are completely self-reliant, no one is coming to help if things go wrong.”
Leo, only the third climber to reach the summit, said: “It’s not the highest mountain and we weren’t trying to climb it the quickest, I’m not interested in those achievements. Everest was a challenge 50 years ago, it’s not any more. Now it’s about doing things more technically difficult but not as famous.”
Shortly after he reached the top he was joined by France’s Jean Burgun, 38, and Mark Sedon, 49, from New Zealand.
The party had used kites to power their skis along on the journey. Leo said: “Kite skiing enables you to travel at speed and carry enough.”
America’s Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition discovered the peak in 1934.