French climbers pip Kiwis

A New Zealand mountaineering expedition on the Antarctic Peninsula has been beaten in the race to be first to scale one of the biggest ridges in the region by a group of French climbers.

Lydia Bradey, of Lake Hawea, near Wanaka, her partner Dean Staples, a Mt Everest guide, and ski patroller Penny Goddard - who has dual New Zealand and British citizenship - were trying to make the first ascent of the West Ridge of Mt Parry, at Brabant Island.