The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
A 32-year-old mountaineer from West Clare who recently completed a gruelling climb of Mont Blanc in the Alps has cautioned it is not a feat to be attempted without previous climbing experience. PJ Byrne from Kilkee summited Western Europe’s highest mountain, 4,500 metres, just weeks after he climbed Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, 5,900metres. Climbing mountains was not always in the plan for the Clare man. Living in Bahrain, he generally keeps fit by playing Gaelic football with his local GAA club, the Arabian Celts and doing mixed martial arts (MMA) training. He had not previously climbed mountains but always up for a challenge, when he heard his friend Nadeem Kunwar was planning to climb Mt Kilimanjaro followed by Mont Blanc, he decided to get a piece of the action too and jumped right in. Unaccustomed to climbing however, Mont Blanc would prove to be a technically challenging climb for PJ. “Mont Blanc is more strenuous physically – it is …
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