The mountaineer son of a North Yorkshire businessman is missing presumed dead after becoming the youngest Briton to conquer Mount Everest.

Michael Matthews, 22, disappeared when bad weather closed in as he made his descent from the mountain's south summit.

He was the son of David Matthews, former chief executive of Plaxton's coach builders in Scarborough.

Mr Matthews, 55, said today: "Michael didn't complete his descent from the summit on Thursday.

"He was last seen by his climbing colleague about 600-700ft below the south summit descending in poor weather.

"An atrocious gale blew in and he became detached from his colleagues.

"Michael's oxygen would have run out within a couple of hours of him becoming detached.

"It has to be remembered this is the highest mountain in the world, and when the weather closes in at the top it can be savage."

He said his son was a very experienced mountaineer who had climbed all over the world.

"He was a very enthusiastic and gifted young mountaineer. He was the youngest Briton to have reached the summit of Everest, although, funnily enough, he didn't hold that as an ambition - he just did it because he loved to climb."

The international expedition to Everest included North Yorkshire climber Chris Brown, leader of the Conservative group on Harrogate District Council and a farmer at Baldersby, near Ripon.

His Conservative colleague, Coun Bob Nash, said today: "His wife Susan heard from him in a satellite telephone call on Saturday when he had managed to struggle down to base camp.

"He was very, very exhausted, but all right."He said Coun Brown had said visibility had been reduced to zero during the storm.

"I have known Chris for many, many years and he is a very cautious man. He has done a lot of climbing for charity and received the OBE for his charity work for Claro Enterprises in Harrogate."

Mr Matthews, who now runs a hotel with his wife Jane on the island of St Barth's, in the French West Indies, said he hoped his son's body could be recovered from the mountain and brought back to England to be buried.

But he said time was short because it was only a fortnight until the climbing season ended and the monsoon season arrived.

Michael grew up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and attended Uppingham School in Leicestershire, where he first developed his passion for climbing.

His father moved to the West Indies a few years ago with his mother and younger brother, Spencer, ten, while Michael settled in Fulham with his elder brother James, 23.

Both men were working in the City as options traders.

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