RESCUER Ian Ridley (right) is attempting to climb the highest mountain in the world and hopes to raise almost £9,000 in aid of two charities.

Ian, who is a member of the Ashburton Dartmoor Search and Rescue team, is attempting to climb Mount Everest's 29,035ft via the fabled North Ridge.

If he succeeds he will join the 200 or so Britons who have successfully climbed Everest.

But he says: "Fewer than 100 have completed the harder route of the North Ridge."

He hopes to raise at least £8,850 (to equal Everest's height in metres) for Dartmoor Rescue and for The Intensive Care Society, for critically ill patients.

He will be away for 10 weeks with the summit attempt taking place at the end of May when there is traditionally a brief weather window as the jet stream moves away from the summit.

During the first six weeks of the expedition Ian will be acclimatising and helping to stock up the higher camps.

Ian said: "One of charms of the Everest North Ridge approach is that it offers a view of virtually the whole route from the base camp."

Ian, a keen climber, has been walking and rock climbing since the age of the 11 when he first climbed Snowdon in the pouring rain.

"I wasn't put off by the wet weather and mist, only by the dreadful raincoat I had to wear which was like a nylon bin liner," he said.

Ian has reached the summit of Mont Blanc in the French Alps and has also climbed the Matterhorn — in the Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy — and the Eiger in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland.

In the autumn of 2009 he climbed Ama Dablam (6, 856m) in the Himalayas.

The expedition will be professionally led by Adventure Peaks, a Cumbrian mountaineering company.

A donation to Ian's Everest climb can be made online via www. charitygiving.co.uk and searching for Ian Ridley's Mount Everest 2010.