ACCOUNTANT Gary Parker will be leaving behind his cosy office this Spring for the forbidding climate of the world's highest summit.

And the experienced mountaineer will not be treading the well-beaten tracks to the top but taking a more adventurous course, known as the 'climber's route'.

If this was not enough, he has also set himself the huge challenge of raising money for CLIC Cymru (Cancer and Leukaemia in Children).

"I had been putting off confirming my place on the team waiting for the last part of the puzzle to fall in place," explained 47-year-old Gary.

Funds were in place, he had just tested himself in the Himalayas on a shorter route and his wife and family were behind him, but there was something missing.

"Then I was reading the Argus one day and read that CLIC were trying to raise £36,000 for a local nurse for one year. It seemed perfect."

He had never before used his expeditions as a platform to raise money, but the article convinced him it was the right thing to do.

"Besides it will give me all the more incentive to get to the top. The puzzle was complete," said Gary, of Parker and Co, Chepstow Road.

He is heading out for Tibet in the middle of March to prepare for the expedition with the other members of the team.

Many commercial expeditions go from Nepal in the south but Gary and his fellow climbers will be taking a more technical and challenging route from the north. They will have no guides but will rely on their own experience to get them to the top.

Gary, who has led both civilian and military expeditions all over the world, has climbed in the Himalayas, Alaska, Russia, Africa and even the Middle East.

He would like to complete the Seven Summits, the highest summit on each of the seven continents.

After a solo climb of Aconcagua in February and hopefully Everest in May there will be only two left, Vinson in Antarctica and the Carstenz Pyramid in Australasia.

He is keen to climb Everest but also very keen to raise the money for CLIC as he now realises how important the role of the local homecare nurse is for families who have a child with a life-threatening illness.

He hopes to make it a long-term project and follow up the expedition with more fund-raising events.

Gary and his wife Lisa have three young children and she supports him in his ambition. "She allows me to have my passionate affair with the mountains."

She used to climb with him until, while descending from Mont Blanc in a storm, she damaged her back when she fell into a crevasse. "Now she is my base camp. A place where I will always return."