HE WALKED ACROSS MONGOLIA AND NOMINATED FOR "NATIONAL ADVENTURER"

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A Welshman who was nicknamed the "lonely snow leopard" during his record breaking solo walk across Mongolia is in the running to become the national adventurer (of the UK) of the year, reported www.walesonline.co.uk on January 6. Ash Dykes, 24, walked into the record books in 2014 after spending 78 days alone crossing 1,500 miles of the unforgiving land of the high Altai Mountains, scorching Gobi Desert and the seemingly-endless Mongolian Steppe. The world’s greatest living explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes praised the young adventurer, from Colwyn Bay, for becoming the first person to walk solo across Mongolia. Sir Ranulph, who was first to reach both Poles, first to cross the Antarctic and Arctic Ocean, and the first to circumnavigate the world along its polar axis, said it was “an example of great determination”. The National Adventure Awards are a celebration of the very best of international adventure by people across the UK and Ash was nominated by friends and family in the categories Adventurer of the Year and Physical Endeavour.