Three men from Watford survived treacherous conditions to climb the tallest mountain in Europe.

Marty Nardelli, 30, Guy Edmunds, 29 and Dominic Murphy, 29 climbed Mount Elbrus in Russia, having had to fight through blizzards and thunderstorms in order to reach the top.

They climbed to over 5,000m unguided and unaided in six days, reaching the summit on Wednesday (July 17).

Mr Nardelli, who is a development manager, said: “I couldn’t feel my toes and was starting to contemplate getting frost bite and losing them.

“By this point we were at 5,100m and had come too far to turn back if I had to lose a couple of toes in order to complete this mountain then so be it.

Watford Observer:

“There’s something about knowing you are the highest man in the whole of Europe at that one moment in time that takes any feeling of tiredness, altitude sickness and fatigue away.”

The trio are aiming to summit the highest mountain in each of the seven continents.

Mr Nardelli said they decided to start with Mount Elbrus due to its difficult conditions.

He said: “We felt that if we can summit this horrible mountain we should at least be able to do Kilimanjaro, and give a good shot at a few of the others which are smaller and have better weather conditions.

“It is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done.”

Watford Observer:

Dominic Murphy 

The trio climbed the mountain to raise money for Joni’s Army, which helps British children and young people access medical treatment and equipment not covered by the NHS.

The money will help support Watford schoolchild Shay Murray, who suffers from Pearson syndrome, and his family.

Holly Stevens, 33, who is one of the directors for the charity, said: “We are really proud for what they have done.

“All the money that comes in will help Shay and also other children like him.”

Watford Observer:

Guy Adams