The Courageous Journey

This past Friday (Sept. 17th) two friends of mine and I climbed for 24hrs straight. The reason: to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House (Southern Alberta). I got the idea from a friend of mine/coach (Will Gadd) who did something similar last year and figured it was a great way to apply my climbing to something "better".

About two weeks prior to the event I still wasn't sure if i was going to pursue doing it or not. I felt as though I had way too much on my plate and figured, maybe it wasn't a good idea to add another thing onto the pile. After a couple of days tossing the idea back and forth I decided–what don't i have time for? I mean, of course my job, climbing, family is all important but for some reason, this idea, what was behind it, it seemed like it needed to happen.

There was a lot that needed to come together in order for this fundraiser to work: a website, advertising, fundraising, making the right contacts in order to work with the Ronald McDonald House, seeking out volunteers, acquiring the supplies needed to build the wall, all these aspects needed to be in place and quickly.

After a week of hauling some serious ass, what needed to come together, surprisingly, was coming together. The website was serving its purpose, volunteers were coming out of the woodwork, donations were rolling in, the community was in huge support in various manners, supplies for the wall were practically all donated. In amongst all this hype, it was working–the idea, the vision, the support.

Thursday, the day before the event, was intense. It was wall building day. The idea: to build a 35ft climbing wall in the middle of our down town park (Cranbrook, BC). The idea sounded fine and looked good on paper, but when we started to build the actual wall and structure...we definitely didn't expect to be taking on such a huge project...for it only being used for a day (24hrs).

3:00am had just rolled around when we finally had a chance to rest/get to bed. Myself, Travis, Jesse,(the three climbers) and a few crew had finally finished the climbing wall, holds and all, in the park. We wanted/needed to get way more rest then we did before the big day, but 5hrs was going to have to be enough.

The 24hr climb started at noon on September 17th. The weather was ok, but not great. The three of us were excited, however slightly hesitant as we didn't really know what was to come. 4hrs into the 24hr climb, it became apparent to what we had gotten ourselves into. And then 3am showed up, again, but this time...there was no crawling into bed.

Climbing for 24hrs is no easy task. We had a plethora of holds on the wall so there were many options as to which path to take to the top. I don't think any of us got that pumped throughout the 24hrs, but what challenged us the most was the mental struggle, the will to keep climbing, to keep moving, to stay focused on why we were out there doing what we were doing, to not focus on the fact that no matter how hard you tried, eventually you were going to climb the same "route" many times. I think several things made it easier for us though to keep moving–the children that are out there battling for a better life and the support we had throughout the entire 24hrs from people routing us on, whether belayers, massage therapists, people dropping off coffee at all hours of the evening, etc. The way the community supported this event was inspiring to keep going, not only when we were climbing, but to keep trying in every way i can to help this foundation, The Ronald McDonald House.

At about 4am(ish) we had climbed the height of Mt. Everest, from sea level. Our goal was merely to climb 15,000ft. After 24hrs of climbing not only did we climb the height of everest but we kept going to just shy of 40,000ft. In the last hour alone I climbed 2200ft to finish off the marathon (completely adrenaline based).

This event, climbing for 24hrs, revealed a few things about my climbing. 1) that climbing for this long makes my hands raw. 2)You need to wear real comfortable shoes to climb this long. 3) You need mental toughness to get through such a slog. I've been working a lot on mental toughness with my climbing and I was able to apply it directly to this adventure. There were times during the 24hrs where i didn't want to go on. There were times where i was getting delirious, times where i wanted to puke my brains out. At about 4:00am i just didn't want to climb anymore. But I tapped into something deeper, something stronger: my mental ability to keep pushing, to try harder, to do my best. That ability enabled me to climb more laps in the last hour than any other hour of climbing during the entire 24hr period.

For being thrown together in just under two weeks, The Courageous Journey rose just shy of $5000 and myself, Jesse, and Travis climbed approx. 40,000ft in 24hrs. A special thanks goes out to the businesses that donated what was needed to make this event happen. A huge thanks goes out to all the belayers that stayed up with us for 24hrs, as well as all the other volunteers that made appearances throughout the duration of "The Courageous Journey".

It was an amazing event, in the end, and successful on all fronts. Next stop- Calgary, to drop off all the money, in person, at the Ronald McDonald House. This I am excited about.