A woman who climbed 32 Irish peaks in 32 days is set to climb Western Europe's highest mountain and it's all for a good cause. Samantha Toner, 38, made history last year after she climbed 32 of the highest peaks in Ireland in 32 days — all while working a full-time job. Sam raised €3,000 for animal charity Husky Rescue Ireland in memory of her late Akita, Trooper.
Now, the Wicklow-based woman wants to take on a more gruelling challenge to raise much-needed funds for the charity once again . She plans to climb Mont Blanc in the French Alps. Standing at over 4,800 metres tall, Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe.
Samantha, who is originally from Rathfarnham, told Dublin Live: " It’s the highest mountain in Western Europe so I feel I need to conquer this one after doing all the high peaks in Ireland." Sam hopes to raise another €3,000 for Husky Rescue Ireland this year. Sam has been undergoing a gruelling training process since January.
She explained: "It’s going to be six days of climbing through snow and ice and all that jazz. It’s a technical climb. You need to be roped on and we have to do rock climbing training.
"Of course, there are a lot of risks with Mont Blanc. It would get quite a lot of avalanches and recently they’ve had issues with rock fall. "There’s the altitude sickness which can be quite severe so they actually don’t let you go up the mountain unless you have helicopter rescue insurance so that was a scary purchase.
