The Expedition

We are undertaking this expedition with the aim of raising at least £3000 (£750 per climber) for the John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation. This is a high altitude, tough expedition involving 15 days of trekking on foot through the Himalayas staying in basic mountain huts. The aim is to reach Mount Everest Base camp, and to climax with the ascent of Kala Pattarto (5545m) which overlooks the camp, on day 12 of the expedition. We will climb through the Gokyo Valley, cross glacial lakes and navigate the Cho La Pass while ascending through smaller peaks on our tight schedule before hopefully reaching the route to Base Camp used by the great climbing parties, with enough time for the return trip of the remaining 3 days.

The Foundation - http://www.jtyaf.org/

Lt John 'JT' Thornton RM, from Ferndown, Dorset, was tragically killed, aged 22, in southern Afghanistan on 30th March 2008.
John lived his dream and died doing the job he loved.
The charity has been founded with the simple objective that John wanted as his legacy: to encourage and assist young people to 'climb as high as they can dream'.
They award an annual grant and a number of scholarships and bursaries to each of the organisations that they support. This will allow nominated individuals or groups to achieve specific goals, or to encourage personal development.

As ex-members of the organisations the Foundation supports who knew John, this is a charity we all believe strongly in and want to contribute to achieving it's goals.

The Group

When I asked around at the end of 2008 for who might be interested in doing an Everest expedition in 2009 I was delighted when there was an instant response from 3 very good friends. It became clear straight away that this wasn't just going to be an idea. The 4 of us have known each other through combinations of School, the Air Training Corps and The Junior Leaders and have all been away together at some point (though when we were much younger!). So not only is this trip a fantastic chance of a lifetime to see Nepal, the Himalayas and Mt Everest but it's a reunion of sorts since we all went separate ways. One thing became clear when the organisation started and that was that we all wanted to raise money for the JTYAF. We had all decided this independently prior to discussion, no surprise given our common origins.

Team Members

Alex Pearson: Age 23, Pension Fund Administrator from Poole.

Dave Symonds: Age 23, Development Test Engineer from Ferndown.

Matt Worledge: Age 23, Defence Medical IT System Administrator from Wareham.

Stewart Bradshaw: Age 23, Royal Air Force Intelligence Analyst from Poole.