Birkdale Teacher leads Himalayan Expedition
04 July 2007
John Allen, the Head of Outdoor Pursuits at Birkdale School is leading a British Expedition to Xinjiang province in the far west of China.
The team of seven will trek in to a base camp on the Kuksay Glacier in this little-visited northerly area of the Himalayas. They hope to climb a number of previously unclimbed granite peaks of between 5000 and 6000 metres.
The group depart on the 17th July for Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. They will then make a gruelling 600km overland trip into China. The final trek to their base camp will be assisted by porters with Dabanshan camels. They are the local equivalent of donkeys, and can cope with the near desert conditions found below 3000m in the area. The team return to Sheffield in mid August.
Neil Willatt, also on the team, is a former Birkdale Physics teacher. Two other team members, Richard Taylor and Joe Howard, are former pupils.
