A colleague sent this round as an 'all' email. Thought Langie members might also think it worth dipping hands in pockets:
For Sport Relief 2010, a friend and I are attempting to become the first people in the world, ever (we believe) to climb a vertical mile.
To give that some kind of context, a vertical mile equates to around 4 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other, or 2 of the new Burj Dubai - the tallest building in the world. It won’t be a relay type system – we’re attempting a mile each.
So, we’ll be climbing 140 x 12 metre ‘grade 5a’ routes over the course of Saturday 20th March. Most people who try to climb the big walls in the world (Troll Wall, Mt Thor, El Cap, etc), which are neither close to a mile, nor vertical, take around 4 days, sleeping on the route as they go. We’re going to take, all being well, around 8 hours of pretty much continual climbing, which will be real tough, but we think is feasible.
Please visit our Just Giving page (below) if you have a moment, and give us a reason not to just give it up and go to the pub instead (I can’t tell you how tempting this idea already is). Alternatively, I’ve left a sponsor form at the OA reception, and one will be winging its merry way around the OMH.
The money we raise will be split three ways, some going to Sport Relief, some going to Tom's chosen charity and some going to my chosen charity - PHAB, which works with mentally disabled adults. Every pound raised really will make a massive difference to the lives of so many disadvantaged people, some of whom I know personally through my wife’s work. We’ve set ourselves the target of £1,600, which equates to a pound per metre, so we’ve got some way to go (in more ways than one).
Many thanks for reading this, and please visit our page: www.justgiving.com/climb-a-mile