BARTLEY'S incredible young mountaineer and Scout leader Rhys Jones earned himself a place in mountaineering's record books as well as celebrating his 20th birthday on Wednesday.

Rhys completed his ascent of Everest which made him the youngest Briton ever to climb the highest peak in each of the world's seven continents.

He also missed, by a matter of hours, the distinction of becoming the youngest Briton ever to scale Everest, with 19-year-olds Rob Gauntlett from West Sussex and James Hooper from Somerset getting to the top just before him.

His amazing 'seven peaks challenge' achievement was the signal for his family and friends to go into party mode with a special celebration at the Scout Hut at Copythorne on Wednesday night.

The party had been put on hold until his parents and well-wishers were absolutely certain that he had reached the summit.

But after the triumphant message came through, Rhys's father Alan said: "We are absolutely delighted at the news and it couldn't be better that Rhys has done it on his birthday. "He came into the world 20 years ago and now he is on top of the world to celebrate his birthday.

"It is an amazing achievement for anyone to climb Everest but for someone as young as Rhys, as well as Rob and James, this is fantastic. This has been Rhys's dream for a long time and he will be delighted. We are so proud of him."

He is hoping to mark the conquest by raising £29,035 - Everest's height in feet - for the Wessex Heartbeat charity. His trip was organised by Jagged Globe, with the six-man team led by acclaimed British mountaineer Kenton Cool.

Rhys became the youngest Briton ever to get to the top of Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America, when he was 17. He followed that by scaling Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa), Kosciusko (Australia), Ancongua (South America), Elbrus (Europe) and Vinson (Antarctica). Hampshire County Council leader Ken Thornber issued a statement congratulating Rhys on his achievements.

Cllr Thornber said: "I'm glad that Hampshire County Council was able to contribute towards the funding Rhys needed to do the climb and make this amazing feat possible. This young man is a great example to all young people that with determination dreams can be realised.

"I hope having achieved his record-breaking goal he will also raise awareness about his charity Youth Unlimited, which was set up to take positive messages of teenage achievements to other teenagers and inspire and motivate them to set their own goals and ambitions."