Blizzard conditions forced Mike Strange and his crew to abandon a climb of the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

While he wasn’t able to conquer one of the highest peaks in Europe, the setback didn’t deter the three-time Olympic boxer and Niagara Falls city councillor. He simply turned his attention to nearby Breithorn mountain.

“It was very scary for someone who never wore crampons or used an ice ax before,” he said Sunday after spending eight hours climbing the 4,175-metre mountain.

“I was really out of my element.”

Strange, together with council colleague Victor Pietrangelo and friends Mike DiCienzo and John Ventresca, arrived in Switzerland late last week and were planning to scale the 4,478-metre Matterhorn on Saturday.

On Friday, however, guides told the group the weather conditions on the mountain were too dangerous and the climb would have to be cancelled.

Two British climbers sent out a distress call from the slopes of the Matterhorn on Friday. Their frozen bodies were discovered Saturday.

Strange was determined to climb a mountain with a similar elevation to the Matterhorn and set out to scale Breithorn on Sunday.

The group placed a Canadian flag, filled with the names of children who have died of cancer and those who have survived, once they reached the summit.

The names included Stevenville’s Kelsey Hill and Matteo Mancini, of Thorold, who both succumbed to cancer at a young age. Many names were children Strange met or heard about during his cross country Box Runs.

The goal of the Box Climb is to raise $50,000 each for Ronald McDonald House in Hamilton and stem cell research for childhood cancer. 

“I think some of our children that we were climbing for were watching over us that day,” Strange added.