Talk about highs and lows.
British explorer Oli France braved the wild heat of Death Valley, the lowest point in North America, then cycled and skied 3,500 miles to Alaska, where he summited the highest point in North America, Mount Denali.
Which is also Alaska’s deadliest peak, having claimed the lives of 126 climbers since 1932.
It took the 33-year-old father of two from Wigan 64 days to get to the top.
He completed the first leg alone, cycling across America and Canada to the foothills of Denali National Park, where he met a four-man mountaineer team who joined him to climb Denali via the West Buttress Route.
Oli, who has become the first Brit to complete the journey in 20 years, told MailOnline Travel: ‘I set out believing it would be the hardest physical, mental and logistical challenge I have ever taken on. I wasn’t wrong.’
Oli France braved the wild heat of Death Valley, the lowest point in North America, then cycled and skied 3,500 miles to Alaska, where he summited the highest point in North America, Mount Denali. He’s pictured here at Badwater Basin in Death Valley
Oli completed the first leg of the journey alone, cycling across America and Canada to the foothills of Denali National Park. He’s pictured here at Destruction Bay in the Yukon Territories in Canada
Oli said he ‘wanted to complete this expedition in a purely human-powered style’ and loaded a heavy bike with supplies to complete the cycling phase of the journey.
He cycled over 80 miles a day, through California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, then continued to Alaska via British Columbia and the Yukon Territories in Canada.
To rest, he wild camped by the side of the road and stayed in motels.
One of the scariest aspects of the journey for Oli were the dangerous animals he met along the way. While cycling alone through remote areas of Yukon and Alaska, he revealed he had a couple of close encounters with bears and came within four metres of a ‘huge black bear’ on the roadside.
He said: ‘I knew that the black bears and huge grizzlies would be waking up from hibernation. Intensely watching the dense surrounding forest [for animals] was exhausting.’
Sharing another animal encounter, he said: ‘One night in my tent, I heard the footsteps of a large animal outside in the snow. I grabbed my bear spray and slowly unzipped my tent to see a moose staring back at me 15 metres away.’
It took Oli 41 days to complete the cycling phase of the journey and reach Denali National Park (pictured)
Oli met a mountain team and covered 122km (75 miles) to reach Denali Base Camp. He’s pictured above trekking the foothills to the base camp
On the way to the base camp, he crossed rivers and glaciers filled with deadly crevasses. The above image shows Oli and his team passing through the Granite Creek River in Alaska
Oli said adapting to the bike during the first few weeks was one of the hardest parts of the expedition.
He explained: ‘I was cycling long distances into strong headwinds and snow storms, I was completely alone. Mentally, I was already wondering if this expedition was even possible. I had to go through a deep dark pain barrier just to keep on going.’
It took him 41 days to reach Denali National Park. Then he covered 122km (75 miles) on skis, crossing hills, rivers and glaciers filled with deadly crevasses to reach Denali Base Camp, where most climbers start their ascent.
Oli described the 6,190-metre (20,310ft) mountain, also known as Mount McKinley, as ‘brutal’.
During the 12-day climb, he ‘faced mountain storms, temperatures down to -30 degrees Celsius, bear encounters, nearby avalanches, snow storms, and all kinds of bodily pain’.
Oli revealed the team lugged over 300 kilograms of equipment, food and fuel up the mountain on heavy sledges and slept in the snow every night in a tent
During the 12-day climb, he faced mountain storms and temperatures down to -30 degrees Celsius. Oli and his team are pictured above at Denali Base Camp
Oli said: ‘The expedition required absolute focus. At times, it felt there were a million ways it could go wrong.’ He’s pictured above at Denali Camp One
Oli revealed the team lugged over 300 kilograms of equipment, food and fuel up the mountain on heavy sledges and slept in the snow every night in a tent.
And it wasn’t easy to relax.
Oli said: ‘One night, I heard wolves in the mountains from my tent. Another night, on the mountain, we found a moose carcass that had been savaged by a bear alongside huge grizzly prints just 20 metres from our tent. Each footprint was the size of a dinner plate.’
The days had their challenges, too. Sharing one particularly frighting experience, Oli said: ‘After climbing a steep section of ice up onto a 5,000-metre [16,404ft] ridge, we saw the body of a climber being helicoptered off the mountain after he had died in a fall.
‘It was a reminder of the fine margins that exist here and that we could not afford complacency.
‘The expedition required absolute focus. At times, it felt there were a million ways it could go wrong.’
Oli described Mount Denali as ‘brutal’. He’s pictured above on the last leg of his journey, on his way to the summit
After completing the journey, Oli said he felt ‘relief at making it through unscathed’
Oli is pictured at the 6,190- (20,310ft) metre summit of Denali. He said he felt an ‘incredible feeling of empowerment and satisfaction to have fulfilled a decade-long dream’
After completing the journey, Oli said he felt ‘relief at making it through unscathed’ and an ‘incredible feeling of empowerment and satisfaction to have fulfilled a decade-long dream’.
The expedition is the second stage of Oli’s ‘Ultimate Seven’ project. The adventurer hopes to set a world record by journeying from the lowest point to the highest point on each continent.
After completing the African leg last year and the North American leg this year, Oli intends to take on the challenge in Asia, where he’ll travel 4,500 miles on foot, bike, skis and kayak from the Dead Sea to Everest through nine countries.
To see more from Oli, visit his website, www.wildedge.co/pages/oli-france. Or follow him on Instagram at www.instagram.com/oli_france/?hl=en, or on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@oli_france.
