A woman from Kinver has repped Kinver on the iconic slopes of Mount Everest, as she describes her journey in the Himalayas.
The woman at the centre, Leigh-Ann Adams had good reason to believe she might have set an unusual Black Country record.
The Kinver woman had taken a piece of home thousands of miles with her, proudly holding up a We Love Kinver design during an expedition which saw her trek to Everest Base Camp and climb to a height of 5,644 metres.
"I think I was the highest Black Country wench at that moment," she joked.
For Leigh-Ann, who is in her 50s, the gruelling adventure was the latest in a series of challenges designed to test just how far she can push herself.
Having previously tackled Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mount Toubkal in Morocco, the Himalayas were the natural next step.
"It is just about challenging myself really, seeing what I can get done as a woman in her 50s," she said.
"I like climbing mountains. I have done Kilimanjaro, Toubkal and now Everest. I just try to push myself a little bit, meet up with some random strangers and go and climb a mountain."
Her journey took eight days to reach Everest Base Camp, with the slow ascent necessary to allow the group to acclimatise to increasingly thin air.
From there, Leigh-Ann climbed Kala Patthar, which stands at 5,644 metres and offers spectacular views towards Everest.
"You see, from Everest Base Camp you can't see Everest quite so clearly, but if you climb Kala Patthar, which we did in the morning, you can see the sun coming up over Everest," she said.
"You're up close and personal to it."
But amid the spectacular scenery was the very real danger posed by the environment.
"Not everyone made it up. One guy had to get helicoptered off," Leigh-Ann said.
"It can be difficult because of the altitude. It takes eight days to get up there but three to get back, as you do not have to acclimatise to the altitude like on the journey up."
Temperatures can plunge to around -20C, while trekkers must repeatedly cover long distances over steep terrain.
To prepare, Leigh-Ann trained much closer to home, walking across Kinver Edge and travelling to the Malvern Hills to build up her endurance.
"You need to get used to walking 10 to 15 kilometres a day uphill, and then of course you are battling the altitude and then the cold," she said.
Although Leigh-Ann described the weather during her expedition as "amazing", she said conditions changed dramatically shortly afterwards, with heavy snow hitting the area.
Throughout the trek, she stayed in basic mountain huts while passing through remote Himalayan villages, an experience which she said was as important as reaching the destination itself.
She described the Nepalese people she encountered as "the most beautiful people" and said experiencing another way of life had helped broaden her horizons.
For Leigh-Ann, however, conquering mountains is ultimately less about reaching a particular altitude and more about discovering what she able to do
She said she takes particular inspiration from a quote by Everest mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary: "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
"That is pretty much my mantra," she said.
And while the physical preparation is important, Leigh-Ann believes fitness is only part of the challenge.
"Anybody can do it," she said. "That is just a quarter of it."
The rest, she believes, is mental determination.
"There are people a lot older than me doing these mountains and these are people who just do not know how to give up," she said.
"Sometimes just telling people they can do it works."
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