British mountaineers Jon Gupta and Nick Valentine have their sights set on an amazing, record-breaking climbing  attempt. In July, the two climbers hope to complete The Snow Leopard Award, which comprises five x 7000m peaks, back to back in Alpine style. This is  considered to be one of the world’s hardest mountaineering challenges and, if they achieve it, it will be the first time that any Brits have completed the award.

On top of this, Jon and Nick plan to complete the challenge in less than 40 days and break the current record held by legendary climber Denis Urubko, of Kazakhstan.

Jon and Nick are two of Britain’s most promising, up-and-coming mountaineers. Having already achieved major ascents around the world including Alaska, Nepal and the Alps, the pair are keen to make history with The Snow Leopard Award.

Talking to Jon recently, he said: “We have been climbing together for a number of years, and after a great week in the Alps last year we decided it was time for the next big thing! We both wanted to do something really big; to go very high, fast and light, and to make British mountaineering history.”

The expedition will take place in July and August in Tajikistan and Kyrgystan. Training is well under away for this project, including a mixture of endurance and strength training.

Alongside the obvious physical challenge of the expedition, Jon and Nick hope to raise a huge amount of money for charity through their campaign – Inspire | Motivate | Believe – which aims to take people on a journey through the expedition, to witness the suffering and the hard times, the incredible views and the successes – all the way to the summits of the peaks! Links to their charity pages can be found on their website.

To be a part of their journey and watch the expedition develop, unfold and happen every step of the way, follow the climbers on twitter @esltwelve, Facebook  and on the website www.esltwelve.com

I’ll be adding more blogs as the pair train and focus on their mega climbing feat.