A BLACKBURN lecturer has scaled Everest without succumbing to frostbite and the perils of altitude sickness -- or even stepping outside.

David Oates climbed the height of the world's highest peak in the Everest Challenge at West View Leisure Centre. He and his team began the mountainous climbing-wall charity bid at 8am and had scaled the heights by lunchtime.

They then went on to climb Mount McKinley and Mount Sinai!

David, who lectures in motor vehicle instruction and computing at Blackburn College, hopes to have raised £2,000 for the Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team, which needs £18,000-a-year to survive.

Said David: "We are trying our best to raise as much money as possible.

"Although we are based in the Trough of Bowland we also get called out by other teams, as well as by the police and the RAF.

"And it's not just mountain rescue we undertake.

"We also carry out searches in urban and park areas."