Woolton Hill mountaineer conquers 3 peaks US challenge

Washington State's highest mountain summited

A Woolton Hill mountaineer has completed his personal United States Three Peaks Challenge by climbing the highest mountain in Washington State.

Lee Farmer recently climbed Mt Ranier, having previously – in 2006 – climbed Mt Whitney in California, the highest mountain in the lower contiguous 48 states of North America at 4,421m.

In 2011, he led a six-man team for 20 days to reach the summit of Denali in Alaska, the highest mountain in the United States at 6,168m.

Mr Farmer said his Alaskan challenge proved the biggest challenge.

“Without doubt this was the coldest and hardest expedition I’ve ever been on.

“Climbing Everest was just good training for Denali.”

His most recent, four-day expedition took him to the USA’s largest glacier, and along the Eammons Glacier route on Mt Rainier (4,392m) – a stratovolcano (conical in shape), located 54 miles south east of Seattle.

It is considered by some to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.

The 11-hour summit day saw Mr Farmer and his team ascend from their high camp at Camp Shurman, at 1,497m, to gain the highest point, Columbia Crest, which straddles the east and west craters of the volcano.

“While we had ideal weather conditions, the mountain is not without dangers and we had to carefully negotiate a dozen or so major crevasses on the mountain,” he said.

“I am thoroughly delighted to have bagged my third major American peak.”

Since returning home to the village of Woolton Hill, he has had no time to rest, as the first weekend in July saw him leading a team of 10 hopefuls on the Three Peaks Challenge, climbing Ben Nevis (1,344 m or 4,409 ft), the highest mountain in Scotland; Scafell Pike (978 m or 3,209 ft), the highest mountain in England and Snowdon (1,085 m or 3,560 ft), the highest mountain in Wales.