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Please contact: Sara Bartlett PR Consultant on 01488 73673or 07787 571020 

 Lee Farmer on 01635 253929 or 07760 153677

 email leefarmer@leefarmer.co.uk with any media enquiries.

 Latest Press Release

 

*** December 2009 For Immediate Release ***
 
Mighty South American Giant Falls to Thames Valley Climber
 
Whilst most of us were caught up in the pre-Christmas rush.  Newbury based mountaineer and explorer Lee Farmer summitted the highest mountain in South America, making one step nearer to completing the Seven Summits Challenge.
 
Aconcagua in Argentina at 6,962 metres (22,835 ft) is the highest mountain in South America and indeed the highest in the world outside the Himalayas. Lee summitted the mighty peak known as the ´Stone Sentinel´ on the 14th December, claiming the eleventh summit of this rocky giant this climbing season.  Lee said ´It was a tough climb, battling through freezing gale force winds which roll in off the Pacific Ocean and over the Andes, but I carried on, as I desperately wanted this summit´.
 
This was Lee Farmer´s third attempt at the Stone Sentinel.  In 2004 and 2006 respectively, he had to turn around just 900 metres short of the summit. ´It just wasn´t my time in those years; she didn´t let me up´ he said.
 
Anxious friends and family in Woolton Hill were told the good news via satellite phone from the summit.  Lee´s wife Nicola Farmer said ´I was surprised when he phoned , I wasn´t expecting a call - Let alone from the summit.  I´m absolutely thrilled for him, but I knew he was going to do it.  He´s literally at the top of his game right now´.
 
It wasn´t all plain sailing though, as the night before his summit bid, gale force winds and a blizzard pounded his precarious camp at 5,900 metres.  ´I spent half the night sitting up in my tent bracing it with my arms to stop it from collapsing.  I had no sleep and was freezing cold´ he said.
 
The Seven Summits Challenge is the attempt to climb all seven continents highest mountains first completed in 1985 by American Dick Bass.  Lee has now completed six mountains out of the seven.
 
It looks like Lee is all set for his final mountain challenge; Mt Denali in Alaska, North America´s highest mountain.  Lee said ´If I´m successful on Denali in 2010 I´ll be around the 150th person in the world to complete the Seven Summits Challenge´.
 
It is a fitting end to 2009 for Lee, a year which has seen him at the South Pole in Antarctica, summitting Mt Kinabalu in Malaysia, and climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa twice.
 
***  Ends ***
 
 
 
For more information and photos please contact
 
Lee Farmer 07760 153677 / 01635 253929
 
 

 

 Lee Farmer Stock Press Photos