Climbing the Matterhorn for Task Brasil
Ian Cockburn is raising money for Abandoned Street Kids of Brazil - Task Brasil
“Ian Cockburn's fundraising”
on 18 February 2010
Story
Update following the climb on July 20th, 2010
Back safe & sound. The trip was partially successful - I climbed the Matterhorn but only got as far as the Solvay Hut - at 4,050 metres about two thirds of the way up from the Hornli Hut to the summit. I'm told I should be very pleased as it was only my second day ever of Alpine climbing - we had to do it early in the week as the forecast weather was deteriorating later in the week. However I didn't have enough fitness to keep going hard at it in thin oxygen for 10 hours non-stop. I blew out after 6 hours.... It also didn't help that I got only 3 hours of interrupted sleep in the mountain huts on the two previous nights.
I'm pleased but not satisfied - so I guess I'll just have to go back & finish the job next year - this time with some serious endurance training included in the preparation...
We also climbed some other stuff - the Breithorn (4,100 metres), Cosmic Ridge (Chamonix) and some 'sport climbing' on a cliff face in Chamonix. All in all a great week. See photos above.
Many thanks for your support.
Original objective
I will be climbing the Matterhorn (4,478 metres), via the Hornli Ridge, during the week commencing 18th July and have decided to raise some funds for my favourite charity in the process. The charity, Task Brasil, does truly inspirational work, rescuing abandoned street kids in Brasil, housing, feeding, educating and caring for them. I'm hoping to raise enough to help them double the capacity of 'Casa Jimmy' in Rio de Janeiro, so that they can accomodate more of these kids, saving them from an otherwise grim future of crime, drugs, poverty and worse.
Jacqueline & I have been supporting Task Brasil for over 12 years now. We lived in Brasil for 3 years in the early 1980's and two of our three boys were born there, so we feel a very personal identification with the charity and its objectives. We hope that the combination of the extremely challenging Matterhorn climb and the truly inspirational work of Task Brasil will win your generous support.
The climb will be quite a challenge as I have not done any serious mountaineering before, although I did do a few years rock-climbing in the UK - some 30-odd years ago! And skied up Mont Blanc in 2001 - not as difficult as it sounds.... So the challenge is real, but not unrealistic.
The route up the Hornli ridge is a serious technical climb involving ropes, runners, crampons, ice-axes, etc. The climb will start in the dark from the Hornli Hut (3,260 metres), around 5am. Ideally we'll be back down around 2pm, before the snow & ice get dangerously soft in the afternoon sun. It is a very long, arduous, fast climb, in thin oxygen, both up and down a very exposed ridge. The good news is that I'll have a professional mountain guide to keep me safe and on route. The guide, Pat Littlejohn, is putting me through a training program in Snowdonia designed to develop my climbing skills to the necessary level. Meanwhile I'm training hard in the gym to get up to the high level of fitness required.
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