Grantside's Steve Davis attempts Everest in epic global challenge

Steve Davis, founder and chief executive officer of Grantside, is taking on the epic feat of climbing the highest mountain on every continent, known as the Seven Summits.

He has previously successfully summitted the highest mountains in Europe, Africa and South America, as well Manalsu and Ama Dablam in the Himalayas.

Steve Davis on his previous attempt to summit Everest.

Spurred on by personal ambition, Steve's focus is also to highlight climate change and its effects on the natural environment.

He relaunched his York company last year with a renewed focus on sustainability, integrity and wellbeing in all of its developments and investments, looking at the effects of carbon emissions on the environment.

As part of this, the company aims to deliver only carbon neutral developments by 2030.

In Steve's first attempt at conquering Everest last year, he fell ill with Covid in Everest Base Camp and had to airlifted from the mountain to a hospital in Kathmandu before returning home.

Steve Davis, of Grantside, on his previous Everest climb. Picture: Steve Davis

Record-breaking mountaineer Nirmal Purja, known as Nims, is leading the expedition along with Mingma Gyabu Sherpa, part of the Elite Exped team.

Nims, pictured below, recently led the all-Nepali team to complete the first ever winter ascent of K2, and holds the record for summitting all 14 mountains over 8,000m in the world, in a record time of just over six months, beating the previous record by nearly seven years.

His '14 Peaks' expedition was filmed and has recently been released on Netflix.

Steve has been preparing for the challenge by practising Wim Hof breathing exercises, daily high-altitude oxygen training, along with high intensity physical training with daily ice baths to aid recovery.

“This is not only a massive personal goal, but I also want to highlight the impact of changing climate on this extreme environment to highlight the pressing need to change how we live our lives and to promote sustainable growth.

"2,000 years of glacier growth has receded in the Himalayas in little over 20 years and to see the change of this first hand and the effects it has on the local communities highlights the pressing need around the globe to continue to address climate change.

"I’ve got the best possible team around me and I’m looking forward to getting to basecamp and starting the expedition.

“I’ve been training very hard for this challenge and have prepared myself as much as I can to achieve the successful summiting of Everest.”

Nims, from Elite Exped, said: “Steve is very focused, determined and his decision making ability on high altitude expeditions is amazing.”

Grantside was established in 1993 and has delivered more than £750 million worth of real estate across the UK.

Steve re-established the property company last year with a renewed focus on sustainability in development, after a career break and period of reflection took him mountaineering in all corners of the globe.

The company is currently working on major city centre developments in York and Sheffield, with various other commercial and residential schemes in the pipeline.

Progress of Steve’s epic feat can be followed on his Instagram account - @stevedavis72 and webpage at www.stevedaviseverest.com