A TROWBRIDGE school chef has cycled up and down the hill to the White Horse at Westbury 76 times – the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest – but his efforts were not without some drama.

It took Txema Garcia only 13 hours and 49 minutes to complete the challenge – called Everesting – on Saturday July 6 but he was forced to back and complete one last hill climb at 11.15pm to reach 8,962 metres.

In the process, Mr Garcia has raised more than £1,055 for the local charity Wiltshire Search and Rescue, for whom his wife Zoe is a volunteer.

Mr Garcia, 46, of Trowbridge, said: “The recent search by the team for Robert Dunn in Savernake Forest made me realise I wanted to give something back and I thought this challenge was something that fitted well.

“I finished around 8.45pm and then went home to upload my spreadsheet to the Everesting website and found I had not done enough elevation.

“My friend Justin Gate rang me to say there was a problem with the elevation and that I was still almost 1,000 metres short. We had to get back in the car and do one more hill climb just to make sure.

“It was really tough. I was doing okay for the first 30 climbs and then hit a wall between 30 and 40 when it was almost 4pm. I had to push through mentally and when I got to the last 15 it was just a case of counting them down until the end.”

Mr Garcia, who was born in Spain, works as a chef at the Silverhill School in Winterbourne, and he and his wife, have a daughter Rose, aged 16.

The Everesting challenge, which sees cyclists pedal up and down the same hill to reach a 28,029ft / 8,848m target – the same height as Everest – was invented in 2014.

Only 3,363 people across 80 countries worldwide have completed verified Everesting attempts and Mr Garcia’s name and feat will now be added to the Everesting hall of fame for perpetuity.

He started his Everesting attempt at 4.15am and burned more than 11,000 calories and drank 30 litres of water during the day with temperatures reaching 22 degrees Centigrade.

Mr Garcia added: “It was quite intense mentally because you need to concentrate on the way down, when you can reach speeds of up to 45mph, in order not to fall off.”

To donate to his fundraising cause, visit https://www.gofundme.com/not-only-mountaniers-need-rescuing