Success!.
I've climbed 8 Via Ferrata in 8 days! follow me on Facebook as I work to towards my £8888 target: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002489084551
If you needs an interesting motivational speaker, contact me there. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far.
21/9/2011 – Countryside Properties PLC staff raised £360.00 from a dressdown charity day AND the company doubled it to £720.00!
Many thanks to all at Countryside Properties in Warrington and Brentwood.
Tha 8x8 Via Ferratas were much harder that I thought. to prepare, I went to the Dullatur Golf Club gym (3 times a week) for two months and climbed high hills twice a week. On the VFs there was good the bad! The bad was lack of oxygen: lungs gasping for air 10 minutes into every climb with very little oxygen getting to the muscles. Not to be confused with altitude sickness, the condition was brought on by being much higher at 7/10,000ft compared to sea level and our Munros (3000ft). The good was Alan Stevenson, my neighbour, who did his ‘camel’ by carryingwater - 4 litres - and his constant encouragement and knowledge of the Dolomites.
The Collett’s organisers, the food, the guests, the chalet-type hotel were absolutely great – brilliant. A New Zealand giirl performed a ‘Haka’ on top of Col Rosa and on the top of Tridentina another girl did the Sword Dance and we all did a Highland Fling and Gay Gordons - not in the usual itinery of VFs!
The following is a short account of the two projects now completed with a plea for an idea for next year.
For my 80th birthday in the 8th month (August) I decided to climb 8 Via Ferratas in 8 days to raise £8888 for the Guide Dogs for the Blind's 80th anniversary.
To prove that age is not a deterrent, using pitons, steel cables, staples and metal ladders, I climbed, spires, towers and teetered along ledges of mountains to defy gravity and vertigo – sometimes by my fingertips!
'Via' means road and 'Ferrata' means iron: the 'Iron Road' that took me up overhanging cliffs and precipitous slopes to the high and dangerous parts of the mountains – the domain of the mountaineer.
During WW1, the Via Ferrata routes were constructed to transport troops over the almost unscaleable, ice-bound Dolomites.
Each day I walked and climbed around 3000 feet (Munro height) to get to the start of each Via Ferrata – the jagged tops were a lot higher still.
I hope, that by doing this project at my mature age, it will inspire others to dump dull monotony to do something different. Anything is better than going to sleep or queing to get into the funeral parlour! It’s never too late to make a change. I was taken for my first walk as a 75th birthday present – up a Munro.
Don't read this and murmur, 'mad' and dump the page be inspired.
Please donate to the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association – The home-based charity is not Government-funded and exists solely on donations.
Think of how it would be if YOU could not see anything. A guide dog would be your best friend.
To make a donation log on to www.justgiving.co.uk/Lorne-brown
It will be your personal transaction and your details will NOT be passed on to anyone or any business.
Last year in the frozen north
I'VE DONE IT! I've got my Husky Dog Driving Licence
Joi-JOILLLL! HREEEIIIEEEIII
Flight to Reykjavik went OK but the onward connection to Kulusuk was cancelled till Monday. Off to Kulusuk and the connecting helicopter taking me to Tasiilaq where it is freezing, but doesn't feel cold, under a cloudless blue sky.
On the first sled day, Michael, my Inuit Instructor, who couldn’t speak English, demonstrated how to put the harness on a husky. He gave me 11 harnesses and pointed to 11 huskies lying around the top of a snowy hill. I had to harness them and drag them, one by one, down to the traces linked to the sled. Successful, but shattered, I sat for a rest on the sled and WHOOSH, the sled is OFF!
Fast, exhilarating and flaming furious the sled bounces and thumps every bone and muscle in my body as it leaps over 5 foot high lumps of ice and snow to drop back down and jerk upwards in any which way it deems. The legs of the huskies are pumping like pistons as they speed the sled over the frozen lake, up gorges and over mountains. AND that’s not the only thing the huskies are pumping – jetstream, turbo-charged, aerodynamic toms! 250grams of food go in and 2500grams come out! What a nightmare trying ot dodge, bob and weave my head away from the cannonballs. Poopy scoopers in Scotland have an easy life. Why, oh why did I come here to aid the GDBA?
After 40 kilometres we make camp where there will be no washing till we get back to Tasiilaq. Refill the noe emaciated dogs now that they have emptied themselves. Good, a lie down in the two-man tent. Yes, but the bed is over a concave hump of snow and with the temperature around -25°C I just lie there and die quietly and think about the warm-weather pensioners in Spain getting £25 a week cold weather payments. By 10am the temp is UP to -1°C so on with the show. Spend the day shouting commands, in vain, at the huskies – they don’t understand my accent. Practise the wrist action with the whip by aiming at little piles of snow. Later, heaven appears in the form of a hut with a heater. By 10pm I’m having a BBQ of ribeye steak, bacon and frankfurters under a sky lit by the yellow, blue and green Aurora Borealis. Followed by a visit from Inuit seal hunters intent on playing my bagpipes and hearing me play 'Amazing Grace'. Wonderful.
The next two days fly past, sometimes up in the air, sometimes misjudging the height and crashing down on my already near broken body. I sit my driving test and get so hoarse shouting the commands, ‘d Deee va, Yoi yoil, Ree-ii-ii’ that it takes two days before I can speak normally.
I pass and get the magic licence to drive huskies and it’s valid until 2050!
A truly awesome experience which I shall take on again if I’m around in 2050. UTTERLY BRILLIANT.
PS: What do I do next? If you have an idea, without being rude, donate £1 with your suggestion. If I take it on I'll donate £50 to the GDBA.
Why donate and why did I do this?
At 78 years of age I don't know if I'm acting maturely or not but I'm combining a trip to East Greenland to attain my Husky Dog Driving Licence with raising donations for the Guide Dogs for the Blind – CANINES RULE!
Getting to know my daughter's partner Ian Hamilton, who is blind, has made me aware of the everyday problems he faces every day.
Think about it – BLINDNESS – nothing is there! NOTHING.
No telly (a bonus), people don't see you and get irked when YOU bump into THEM; cars parked half-on the pavement; dustbins; abandoned shopping trolleys; it goes on and on. But there is help – the guide dog. It steers the blind person, in and out of lifts, stops at kerbs, increases mobility and confidence and makes sure that life is not all bruises and falling down potholes! Try walking blindfolded in your own home to see how you cope.
Don't react as I have done for years – 'Oh, shame – I'll donate something tomorrow'. NO - NOW is the time for doing.
It costs approximately £49,800 to train a puppy to become a fully-fledged guide dog and be supported throughout its life. The government certainly don't provide the cash; Guide Dogs for the Blind are a charity and do not have a magic wand to produce cash!
You and I are the ones who provide the wherewithal by being positive in making donations.
* I've already paid for the 10-day trip. ALL donations go to the charity.
The challenge starts in April 2010 when I go to Tasiilaq (Arctic Circle and -40oC await) where experienced guides, Inuits, tents and dogs will also be waiting.
Please support the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association by backing my challenge in East Greenland.
Motivation?
In July 2009, I retired for the second time having been a workaholic and always finding something to keep busy. Like many others I never had enough time in the day, week or year for that matter. Until – sitting in front of a computer screen in the office, I realised that time is finite. Response?
What am I doing here? Pack it in. Go home. I did!
Next day, I had my comeuppence with the dreadful thought: What have I done by retiring? I've shot myself in the foot!
I enjoyed working and here I am at my wits’ end after 16 hours. What can be done with all this spare time? I'll go to Ittoqqortoormiit in East Greenland and see how the mushers and Inuits live. I did go; enjoyed the experience and I'm going back this year to obtain a Husky Dog Driving Licence.
We are in for a bumpy ride!
