Climbing Cornish postie Ed's off to the top of the world

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A SALTASH postman will attempt to reach the peak of Mount Everest en route to the climax of a worldwide mountaineering challenge.

Ed Buckingham is heading off to Nepal in March for a 63-day-trip, during which he will attempt to climb the Tibetan north face of Mt Everest.

The 38-year-old has already reached the highest peaks of four other continents – North and South America, Europe and Africa – as well as Mount Cho Oyu in Nepal's Himalayan range.

This time he aims to raise £3,000 for The British Heart Foundation, while trying to complete The Seven Summits, a mountaineering challenge which involves topping the highest mountains on each of the seven continents.

If he reaches the top of Everest, Ed believes he will be the first Cornishman to achieve the feat.

"I'm so excited and just want to go," he said. "To put it into perspective, at the height of Mount Everest you are at the same level as a plane flies."

The postman first started climbing at the age of 26, when he was recovering from a football injury.

He said: "I was putting on weight and saw a piece in the Western Morning News about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro – so I went for it and it carried on from then. When climbing mountains, not only do you have the euphoria of getting to the top, but reaching the bottom gives you the same feeling."

He said he also enjoys being in groups of people with the same mind set, going through the same ups and downs.

But when he climbed Mount Cho Oyu at 8,200 metres above sea level, he reached the summit alone.

He said: "I ended up alone, away from the group, but I still reached the top, without oxygen and it was amazing."

This time he will be with a climbing group from Bristol called Summit Climb and will carry five litres of oxygen.

After flying into Kathmandu, he will make his way over Friendship Bridge and into Tibet. From here the group will first climb to Everest Base Camp, where they will carry out "dummy runs" up and down the mountainside to acclimatise to the altitude, eating and drinking to recover, he said.

Then, with the help of sherpas and fixed ropes, the group will make its way to advanced camp, from where members will climb to camp three and then camp four.

Known within the climbing community as the "death zone" , camp four represents the most challenging part of the feat, as the body starts to suffer from the severe lack of oxygen. It is at this stage that he will start to use oxygen, to get his blood circulating again.

Ed will next have to wait patiently for a weather window of opportunity of five days, to attempt the climb from the "death zone" to the summit and back.

Ed said his worst fears were not being able to complete the mission, set to take ten or 11 days, because of bad weather or catching an illness.

"I would be absolutely gutted to not even be able to attempt the summit," he said.

He chose to raise money for the BHF after his father suffered heart disease.

"I wanted to give something back for all the years of love my father has given to me," he said.

He added: "I've done a lot of research and I'm pretty sure that I'll be the first man from Cornwall to climb Everest, if I complete it."

To sponsor Ed, visit http://www.justgiving.com/edbuckingham" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

[Lounge Lizard]

"He added: "I've done a lot of research and I'm pretty sure that I'll be the first man from Cornwall to climb Everest, if I complete it." " and there's not that many Cornishmen been beyond Devon.