Everest Challenge

On June 16th CRAGS ADVENTURES took part in the ‘EVEREST CHALLENGE’ at Sunderland Wall. The event was launched by Ben Gilbert to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. The story behind the climb is explained in Ben’s Just Giving page and quoted below:

“My Name is Ben Gilbert and I’m part of a group raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Just before Christmas my Godfather Dave passed away following a long battle with a rare Cancer Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs).

In June of last year Michelle a MacMillan Nurse was introduced to Dave and his wife Linda. The support and advice Michelle gave them was invaluable. She was a regular visitor and was only a phone call away for any help that they needed. At the latter stages of Dave’s illness Michelle was able to arrange for expert care at home and it was here that Dave passed away peacefully surrounded by his wife Linda and family.

So to raise money in Dave’s memory for MacMillan Nurses and to give the much needed help and advice to any other family going through similar circumstances a team of five of us are planning to climb Mount Everest in a day! Well, not quite.

Using an indoor climbing wall we are going to climb 8,848m in one day which is the height of Mount Everest. Even between five of us this will still be a lot of climbing!

Details of the event are as follows:

Date: 16th June 2012
Venue: Sunderland Wall (http://www.sunderlandwall.co.uk/)
Climbers: Ben Gilbert, Craig McMahon, Graeme Read, Scott Gibson and Steve Lynch.

If anyone feels like this might be worth a few quid, a Just Giving page has been set up here:

http://www.justgiving.com/Everest-Climb

Support at the wall on the day would also be greatly appreciated – we’ll be the knackered one’s doing laps in the corner!”

The huge undertaking started as soon as the wall opened at 10am. We were one man down and the easiest route was a 6a! I teamed up with Ben, Graeme teamed up with Scott and our 220 laps each were undertaken as follows:

50 laps without rest (500m)

60 laps without rest (600m)

60 laps without rest (600m)

50 laps without rest (500m)

The amount of sweat we all lost was hideous, we just couldn’t get the water back inside of us quick enough. We must of consumed around 4 litres each.

“Percy Pigs” were the fuel of choice and they really were the stars of the show for me!

I did my last 24m on lead and then a further 24m just because Vickie turned up late with Neve and she wanted to see me “climb up the big wall” (kids can be cruel).

Me and Ben finished around 2pm followed shortly afterwards by Graeme and Scott. Graeme’s brother in law did the few extra laps to reach the 8848m required.

There was a goal of £500 and we soon passed that and ended up raising around £900.

A massive thank you is required to everyone who supported us.

Glen Nevis Lilo Race 

One half of CRAGS ADVENTURES and his team took ghyll scrambling to a new level by taking part in this years Glen Nevis Lilo Race to raise valuable money for the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team.

The Glen Nevis River Race is an extreme challenge involving navigating through the icy waters of a two-mile stretch of the River Nevis on an air-bed (Lilo). You begin by launching yourself off a small ledge on a rock face, plunging into the freezing waters of the River Nevis below. The rules are clear, you have to follow the deepest course of the river through rocks and rapids, whilst negotiating major obstacles like the Gurgling Gorge, Dead Dog Pool, the Leg Breaker and the Lower Falls Leap; finishing in the calmer waters further down the glen.

In a successful thirty year run, from 1973 to 2003, the Glen Nevis River Race enjoyed a high media and public profile as an awe inspiring spectacle. A unique challenge (for the likes of Blue Peter’s John Noakes, musician and TV presenter Dougie Vipond and star of TV’s Taggart, Blair Duff) and as a worthy fundraising event; with funds raised going to Lochaber Mountain Rescue, the UK’s busiest winter mountain rescue team. Since the events re-introduction in 2008 it has attracted a lot of media attention with Rory and Paddy participating as part of their great adventure in 2009 CNN cover the event for their Business in programme in 2010.

The Glen Nevis River Race is a timed event and the time taken to complete the hazardous course it totally dependant on the water levels on the day. Last year it took around twenty minutes and this year it took around 45 minutes.

Despite the low water level, the event was still excellent and CRAGS ADVENTURES  Craig McMahon came second in the senior males category!

Excellent weekend. Thank you everyone at NO FUSS EVENTS!