A SOUTH Lakeland adventurer has teamed up with a Canadian to complete a one-day climbing first on three formidable granite towers in British Colombia.

Staveley's Leo Houlding and Will Stanhope linked up and ascended all three west faces of the imposing Howser Towers in 23.5 hours. It is the first time all three of the iconic summits have been reached via their demanding west faces by the same team during one day.

Located in the mountainous wilderness of British Columbia, the Bugaboos have long been a destination for hardcore climbers and the idea of linking the three tallest, most impressive features has been a coveted prize for years. The link-up consisted of more than 2,000 metres of vertical climbing and all the associated complications of a challenging alpine environment.

Will had been contemplating it since 2009, after completing the first free ascent of the west face of the central tower.

He invited Leo, 37, to join him and the pair, accompanied by Waldo Etherington, Wilson Cutbirth and Adrian Samara, helicoptered into the East Creek base camp with 20 days of supplies. in early August.

Houlding and Stanhope began their climb on Central Tower and had reached the summit after four hours and 20 minutes.

They then descended and moved on to North Tower, which is the highest point of the Bugaboos (3,412m). The peak forms a true alpine summit and the west face soars for 1,000m over the vast, uninhabited wilderness of British Columbia.

Leo and Will then rapidly descended the alpine north face of the peak and moved on to tackle a classic route on South Tower. They reached the third and final summit with just 30 minutes to spare at 6:30am on 30 August.

“Climbing like that over such distance with a partner like Will was a joy," said Leo. "Although it was a serious challenge with its fair share of hardship, it was nothing but fun.

"It was a bit stressful in the run up to the ascent as I thought we may have set the bar just a bit too far beyond our reach. However, as it turned out and in no small part thanks to Will’s incredible talent, we pulled it off. It was the ultimate challenge, so hard we nearly didn’t we do it, but on the last day of the trip we managed with just minutes to spare!”

During the trip, the team shot a virtual reality film on the Becky/Chouinard route on South Tower, as well as a short regular film about the link-up while training and practising on the climbs. Both films are in post-production.

Leo is now preparing for his next expedition. In a major trip sponsored by Berghaus, he will lead a three-man international team on an ambitious 70-day, 2000km trans-continental journey to climb the spectacular 750m south buttress of a peak called the Spectre in the Gothic Mountains, Antarctica, arguably the most remote mountain on Earth.

The team will leave the UK in early November – full details of their plans will be released in the near future.