Climb of the world’s most northerly 7,000m peak – August 2008

Oli Brown, a good friend of Jeremy, braved the tough conditions of the world’s most northerly 7,000m peak to raise £1,250 for the JWCT commenting after the climb “I think it was certainly the most tiring thing I've ever done”.

​Oli climbed the north ridge of Khan Tengri, a 7,010m mountain in the Tien Shan range on the border of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The mountain, whose name means ‘Lord of the Spirits’, is spectacularly capped by a pyramid of marble. It has notoriously fickle weather and temperatures that drop to minus 35C and the route was steep and exposed, and vertical in a few places.

Despite having a liver and gall-bladder infection which nearly resulted in a helicopter evacuation, Oli kept giving it ‘just one more day’ until the team reached Camp Three after a day stuck in a blizzard at Camp Two. Oli commented “we had absolutely perfect conditions for the summit. Not long after we left the tents at 4am it started to get light and soon we were high enough to get a stunning view over the north and south Inylchek glaciers (some of the largest in the world outside the Poles) and for a hundred kilometres in every direction across the central Tien Shan. Nine and a half hours later we were standing on top and another five or so more saw me back down at Camp Three. Very, very tired but content.”

Oli commented that “Jez was a dear friend of mine who would have loved to come on this climb. He was a remarkable guy.” He also said of the JWCT “this is a great organisation that is making a real difference”.