Too cold!! Brrrrr!

Okay, I admit it. I'm a big wuss when it comes to the cold weather. For the first weekend in about 6-weeks I didn't go for a hike in the Gatineau Hills. However, in my defense, I think that given how I work up such a sweat, I would have froze to death in the sub -20°C temperatures! I still don't have a complete set of hiking layers for those temperatures. I need a few more visits to MEC & Bushtuka first.

Speaking of that, I found a new outdoor supply store in the Ottawa region: Atmosphere. They're part of the Sports Experts group and appear (at least on line) to have the right type of gear. I'm going to visit them this week to check them out. (Perhaps I can entice them to sponsor the team's Goretex Shells?)

It appears that the team is now down to six members as Sacha (from Québec) has apparently screwed up some important part of his leg. I'm still surprised that Stephen has not signed up, but until he does, I'm going to assume the team is made up of Kevin, Amélie, Jo Ann, Martin, Ramona and myself. Today I was jibbing Ramona about how she has passed me in the money raising front and she said she hasn't really started yet! Yikes! I better get going! As of right now, most of my eggs are in the Trivia Night basket.

I've been reading a *lot* about other treks up Kilimanjaro and am really satisfied that we're going with Tusker Trail. They seem to be THE top guide group and the most 'professional'. There are a lot of horror stories regarding other fly-by-night guide groups, whipping you up the mountain on the Coca-Cola trail as quickly as possibly, trekkers puking their guts out and screaming with headaches caused by ascending to high altitude too quickly.

I've restarted my gym membership today and I'm back on the "stairway to hell" tomorrow. Can't wait! I need to strengthen the area around my knees due to a past ACL injury. I suspect that coming down the mountain will cause me a bit of pain. If I can muscle it up a bit, perhaps I can minimise the prospect of pain. I hate pain just about as much as I hate the cold!

Don't forget that you can sponsor me here.

Fundraiser Planning

We had a fantastic hike in the snow this past Sunday. I decided to load myself down with a heavy pack - complete with snowshoes strapped to the back! In spite of the fair amount of snow already on the ground and the additional 9 - 12 inches that fell during the day, I never did put the snowshoes on. As it was so cold we shortened the lunch break and even though the footing wasn't the best, we still managed to do the Wolf Trail in record time. I did arrive home soaking wet, though! A lot of sweating took place.

This afternoon I had a pleasant visit from Connie Johnston. She is a fascinating wealth of information when it comes to organising a Trivia Night! Connie has been doing this for a while now and has become quite an expert. Ideas kept flying from her and it was all I could do to get them all down on paper! I'm going to summarise my notes and verify with Connie that I've not missed anything and then, next week I'll start my rounds looking for donations from local businesses. It looks to me that the fundraiser on January 16th is going to be a smash hit! Whoo-hoo!

Needles & Pills

I visited the Travel Clinic today and was jabbed in the arm to protect from some form of 3rd world evil. I also walked away with a handful of prescriptions for everything from pills to lessen the effects of altitude sickness to anti-malarial medication, and a couple of others things I've already forgotten (it's a good thing the doc wrote everything down for me!)

He also suggested I determine whether my blood glucose meter would work at altitude. This led to a call to Lifescan who, after answering multitudes of questions for me, told me about http://www.sebastiensassevilleinspires.com. I rang Sebastien and had a really informative chat about dealing with diabetes at altitude. He's really knowledgeable and I appreciate all of his advice. Seb is the first Canadian with diabetes to scale Mount Everest.

Sponsors!

Hurray! I've got some sponsors! I have to admit, when I first got involved in the Kili climb, I saw the gathering of $5,000 in sponsorship money a greater challenge than the physical ascent of Kilimanjaro. However, things are starting quite nicely. In addition, I have been able to arrange a Trivia Night at the local pub in Russell (January 16, 2010). We'll be working out those details next week but it will be the standard Trivia stuff and we'll add an art auction and maybe some other games. Should be fun for all!

If you want to sponsor me: click here.

Acceptance!

As I've now been accepted by Tusker Trail as a climber, I want to put in an earnest start to climbing the second mountain: raising the sponsorship funds for CARE Canada. CARE has set up a web site to aid in the fund gathering at Sponsor Me. I think the site automatically produces tax receipts!

I've thoroughly enjoyed the training hikes and wish I could do more than the 2-3 per week that I've been doing. It's been so invigorating that I've joined the Alpine Club of Canada to continue hiking extensively after the Kilimanjaro adventure. I did get a little confused yesterday when I noticed that the NCC had put up a warning sign for people to not walk on the ski trail (that we've been using for our training hikes). It comes with a $500 fine!! There's still no snow on the trail although 20 cm are forecast before my next hike. Dilemma.

Kili Grannies

I met with the Kilimanjaro Grannies last night. These six women - all grandmothers - climbed Kilimanjaro in 2007 to raise money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, Grandmothers to Grandmothers.

They also trekked with Tusker Trails and had nothing but great things to say about them. They had a couple of words of wisdom for me and quite a few more full of encouragement. I plan to keep in contact with Tina as she asked to be kept abreast of my progress. Gisèle also provided me with a few ideas for fund raising.

Their book, Kilimanjaro: A Purposeful Journey is available through their web site at www.kilimanjarogrannies.com

Waiting . . .

I've had a couple of sleepless nights waiting to hear back from Tusker. Apparently, there were two boxes on my medical questionnaire that were of concern to them. One was that I have diabetes. It seems that they don't allow people with diabetes on the mountain. However, I explained to them that it is Type II diabetes, controlled with pills & exercise (not insulin) and that since I've been hiking extensively to train for the Kilimanjaro mission, my blood sugar levels have been dropping! The second was the box "Have you ever had a lung disease?" Well, yes. I had Sarcoidosis. Back in the mid 1980's. Primarily for this reason, a week and half ago I went to see Gerry (my physician) to ensure that all was in the clear. He not only did a chest X-ray for the Sarcoid, but also extensive blood tests and an EKG!! Only my blood sugars were high. (Obviously, being diabetic, this was expected.) The good people at Tusker have never heard of Sarcoidosis so they asked permission to call my doctor. Of course, I encouraged them to do so. And so I wait . . .

Sign up!

After a lot of speculation regarding my health and fitness, this past Monday my doctor's office informed me that I was okay'ed to climb Kilimanjaro.

I immediately called Rosemary @ Care and let her know I was in. I then spent the next few hours on the Internet locating flights! As always, a sale by KLM ends tomorrow! I need more time!!!

This morning I chatted with Rosemary and she outlined my next steps. I've now registered with Tusker Trail and forwarded them my Med Sheet. I'm now waiting to be approved as a client! Thus, I'll probably miss out on the KLM sale but - I'm fairly certain - something else will come along.

Initial feelings

Ever since I was a young boy I've imagined trekking through the jungle and then on up to the snow-covered peak of Kilimanjaro. When my friend Donna rang me and told me of an upcoming talk by John Manley of his 2007 ascent of the mountain, of course I had to attend.

I remembered hearing Mr. Manley speak of his upcoming climb on a CBC Radio interview and it piqued my interest even then. However, timing is everything and my job was certainly in the way in those days. To the point where I couldn't find the time to even follow his blog (in the Globe & Mail).

As I walked to the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa that crisp autumn evening I was already tingling with anticipation of the possibility of finally making that long dreamed of climb of Kilimanjaro. Is it really possible? The presentation was opened by Rosemary Tassie, of Care Canada, who spoke of her 2005 ascent and then she introduced Eddie Frank, of Tusker Trail - the top guide group on the mountain. Eddie, dressed as you would expect an African guide to be dressed, talked of Africa, Tanzania and Kili with a visible passion for the region and what he does for a living. (Maybe I could really do this!) Eddie introduced John Manley, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, who spoke of his 2007 climb. Mr. Manley spoke of his preparation (45-minutes on the 'stairway-to-hell' at the gym! Yikes!), the cause (Care's project to reduce the socio-economic impact of HIV & AIDS among women and young people in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.) and the feeling of accomplishment the completion of the climb provided to him. I asked questions of both Messrs. Frank and Manley during the talk regarding what could prevent someone from summiting and later spoke privately with Mr. Manley. My walk back to the car had me convinced even more: I've got to try and do this.