Long Clawson mountaineer prepares to scale another huge peak

Chris Foster (right), of Long Clawson, with three team members at the summit of Mount Elbrus in Russia, Europe's tallest peak.
Photo supplied EMN-171220-112401001 — Chris Foster (right), of Long Clawson, with three team members at the summit of Mount Elbrus in Russia, Europe's tallest peak. Photo supplied EMN-171220-112401001

The 45-year-old has already scaled the tallest peaks in Europe and Africa, Mount Elbrus and Kilimanjaro, respectively.

And next month he jets out to Argentina to climb Mount Aconcagua, the highest point not only in South America but anywhere outside Asia.

This will be the second time Chris has attempted this particular mountain after being forced back by bad weather just 600 metres from the summit a year ago.

Chris Foster, a Long Clawson painter and decorater who is aiming to climb the highest peaks on seven continents EMN-171222-174221001

He said: “Aconcagua is a bit of an unknown quantity because it suffers from very high winds and cold temperatures, which add to the difficulty.

“We will be going up to the highest peak anywhere in the world apart from Asia.

“From an altitude perspective it makes it a whole lot harder to climb than some of the others.

“Having been there already, though, I know the route so that will help.”

Chris will be part of an international team of 12 taking on this latest challenge, alongside other climbers from the United States, New Zealand, Romanina and Denmark.

He flies out in the first week in January and it will then take a week before the party reaches base camp.

In the meantime, he is training hard, with gruelling sessions alongside former Olympic cyclist Bryan Steel, who represented Great Britain at four games between 1992 and 2004.

Chris plans to join Bryan’s race cycling team this year to maintain his fitness ahead of the remaining four climbs on his schedule.

He said: “I have been training for a year and I will also do some on Christmas Day so I’m confident, bad weather aside, that will get to the summit this time.”

He says his family have been very supportive during his quest to complete these seven epic climbs.

Chris is married to Ruth and te couple have two teenage daughters, Polly and Alice.

“I haven’t decided which one to go for next because I want to concentrate on completing this next one first,” added Chris.

The other four mountains which Chris is targeting in his seven peaks’ challenge are:

Mount Vinson (the highest summit in Antarctica), which is 15,050ft high;

Carstentsz Pyramid (Ocenania), 16,023ft;

Denali (North America), 20,310ft.

Everest (Asia), 29,029ft.

The two peaks he has so far scaled are Mount Elbrus, in the Caucasus range in southern Russia, which stands at 18,506ft, and Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania (19,341ft).