A COLWYN Bay schoolboy and successful skier is taking on a daunting challenge to raise money for a prominent North Wales tourist attraction.

Cameron Pye, a Year 6 pupil at Rydal Penrhos, is attempting to scale the equivalent of Mount Everest from the comfort of his own home during breaks in-between his online learning.

The challenge involves going up his household steps 4.466 times to reach the required vertical steps of 58,065.

He is raising money for the Welsh Mountain Zoo in Colwyn Bay, who are currently facing an uncertain future as the impact of Covid-19 is hitting the site hard financially.

The UK Government has put in place an animal welfare grant of up to £100,000 for England.

The Welsh Government is not intending to replicate the scheme in Wales and is encouraging attractions to apply to its economic resilience scheme.

Cameron, said: “The Welsh Mountain Zoo is suffering financially as many tourist attractions are but in Wales they aren’t receiving the same government support that other UK zoos are.

“I have been visiting this zoo since I was a toddler and last year I was even lucky enough to get to experience feeding the penguins, one of my favourite animals.

“My lifelong favourite animal however, is the snow leopard as my friends and family will know. For this reason, I am challenging myself to climb my stairs at home over 4,466 times to complete 58,065 vertical steps to the home of the snow leopards - Mount Everest.

“Any donation however small will be appreciated to help this wonderful zoo open its doors after all of this is over.”

Cameron has achieved a wealth of high finishes at national skiing competitions up and down the country in recent months both within an individual and team environments.

Anyone that wishes to donate can do so on his JustGiving page situated at: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cameron-pye1.