Success!.

I've climbed 8 Via Ferrata in 8 days for my 80th birthday! https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002489084551

If you need an interesting motivational speaker, plus video, contact me by email: lorne999@sky.com. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far.

This year's venture is to climb Mount Cook in New Zealand. In October I'm going to Australia to visit relatives and on to New Zealand while in the southern hemisphere. Luckily, two climbers I met in the Dolomites are in Christchurch and will take me to Mt Cook and the surrounding mountains. I've been training hard by climbing big hills in Scotland and doing work in Dullatur Golf Club gym. Being fit is one thing but getting to next standard is tough. Updating to follow.

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