CLIMBER Rikki Hunt cheated death during an attempt to reach the summit of the sixth highest mountain in the world in the worst Himalayan weather for a century.

Two people from his expedition died after being blown off Cho Oyu and days later a German climber was killed on the same mountain in an avalanche.

Rikki, 50, chairman of retail company FuelForce and former chairman of Swindon Town Football Club, returned to Swindon at the weekend and arrived at work at 7am on Monday despite still suffering from a mild case pneumonia.

Rikki set off for Kathmandu, Nepal, in early April in his attempt to scale the mountain, which at 8,201 metres above sea level is only 600 metres lower than Everest.

He had decided to try and complete the ascent without oxygen, a potentially risky venture due to the thin atmosphere at that altitude.

He said: "The weather was so awful that I decided to stay at 7,400 metres it's the highest I've ever been. You get to that height and all the technical stuff is over and it's just a hard slog to the top.

"But I was ill with serious stomach pains and altitude sickness and coughing up blood. The weather was awful so I decided to stay put.

"An Aussie policeman in the team called me various names, and he set off for the summit, but he never came back. It was awful."

During the ascent the team of 12 experienced some of the worst conditions nature could throw at them, including winds of up to 160mph and temperatures down to minus 30 degrees centigrade.

Rikki said: "At one point I had to use my ice axe. I smashed into the ground then attached a karabiner and attached that to myself."

Swindon-born explorer David Hempleman-Adams said: "Rikki has become a very experienced climber and any attempt on these 8,000m peaks should not be taken lightly. Rikki is very capable and I think he could easily climb Everest."

Although Cho Oyu is considered to be one of the safest to climb in the Himalayas, a day after his return to Swindon disaster struck again on the mountain when one German climber died in an avalanche.

Rikki now has to recover quickly as he prepares to get on the Three Peaks Challenge in the UK.

Cho Oyu the facts

Cho Oyu is the sixth highest mountain in the world. The summit is 8,201 metres above sea level (26,906 ft) and is one of 14 with summits above 8,000m

The name Cho Oyu means the "turquoise goddess" in Tibetan and is located at the frontier of Tibet and Nepal, around 30km west of Mount Everest.

In 1954 a small Austrian expedition, under the leadership of Herbert Tichy, made the first ascent of Cho Oyu without oxygen on the peak's northwest face.

Cho Oyu is considered to be one of the easiest of the 8,000m high mountains to climb and has the lowest summit/fatality ratios of all 14 peaks 0ver 8,000m. As a result it is the most popular peak to climb.