FORMER Marling student Andrew Pollard has every reason to be feeling on top of the world.

The Royal Navy Lieutenant was one of a group of volunteers who took part in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines North Ridge Expedition to climb Mount Everest last month.

Andrew, 40 a marine engineer, was on one of the three support treks arranged to give a rare opportunity to Royal Navy and Royal Marines who do not necessarily have experience of specialist climbing, to train and take part in a major expedition. The treks were to a lower level than the summit - from Kathmandu in Nepal at 5,200 metres.

"We were supposed to go to the North base camp via Tibet but at the last minute the Chinese closed all their borders due to the SARS scare," he said.

"We had to re-arrange our plans and hiked instead to the southern base camp where we climbed Kalapatthar at 5,600m before descending and climbing back up to base camp at 5,,400m.

Lietenant Pollard describes the experience as a 'landmark in life.' "My gran used to say you have to put as much in your memory box as possible while you can," he said.

"It was a very humbling experience to be there." The expedition to the summit of the world's highest mountain marked the 50th year since the first successful assault on Everest by Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing. During the trek a revolutionary new climbers' oxygen system was also successfully trialled

Andrew said: "This was the chance of a lifetime for me to achieve a major landmark in my life and I seized the chance to help others achieve the same."

Lieutenant Pollard was second in command of his trek. He has served in the Navy on HMS Fearless, a former landing ship, HMS Newcastle and HMS Exeter, both destroyers. His hobbies include ski-mountaineering, diving, windsurfing, climbing, furniture making and woodturning. His top expeditions include Peru, Morocco, Scotland and Wales and every year he goes ski mountaineering in the French and Austrian Alps.

He formerly attended Marling Grammar School for Boys in Stroud and played for many years for Stroud Rugby Club. He is now a Navy rugby coach and is married to Lisa. They have two children, Melissa, 4 and Michael,6 and they live in Hampshire.