Here’s a quick update of what has been happening with Super7 Climbing since we completed the South America stage of The Oddessey. We had a successful series of events over the winter and paid off all of the costs of spending 11 weeks in Peru. I then decided drop running events in London and Edinburgh and to focus all fundraising efforts on Glasgow where we have regular audiences of up to 80 people at our shows.

I started thinking about how I was going to raise the estimated $27k USD for an expedition to Antarctica. It is going to be the adventure of a lifetime. You charter a yacht from Ushuaia, and then, hopefully, you cross one of the worlds most hazardous oceans to get to the Antarctic peninsular (and one of the worlds great wildernesses!). Then, hopefully, you climb something!

One of the frustrations of Super7 is that very few people outside the climbing world really understands what we are doing. When you approach marketing managers with a project like this you get questions like: ‘How high do you climb?’ And ‘Do you free climb?’. However, this works both ways, because real climbers immedately ‘Get It’, and then they usually try to help us much as they can!

Last year we were helped in our fundraising by Simon Yates, Dave McLeod, and many others, including some very talented film makers who supplied films for the adventure film festival. I took a deep breath and asked Sir Chris Bonington and Doug Scott for their support and they both agreed that if I promoted their shows in Glasgow this winter, then they would donate half of the takings on the door to the Antarctica trip.

I also asked Keith Partridge (who helped to film ‘Touching the Void’), Polly Murray (first Scottish woman to climb Everest), and Kev Shields (who is currently attempting to climb E7 – and he only has one hand!). They all said ‘Yes’.

We also have continuing support from our sponsors at Montane, and Big Agnes, and I’m also delighted to be able to welcome Trekking Encounters on board, who organise sustainable Eco Tourism in Nepal.

Then I had to assemble a team. I wanted someone to be at the helm of this expedition who was a master logistician, and who had been to Antarctica before. Tony Barton has agreed (tbc). He was on the successful South America stage of Super7 and he’s spent time in Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey. He’s also worked as a mountain guide and is the veteran of 8 Andean seasons.

I’ll keep a running total on the website of how we are doing with the fundraising as soon as we start to stack paper.

Since we made it back from South America last August, I have spent the winter organising the events.

We set out with this plan in January 2005 to climb new routes, in good style, on every one of the seven continents, and we have just two more continents left to go: Africa and Antarctica!! I guess it is kind of like a post-modern, climber’s equivalent of sailing the 7 seas!

As well as organising the events, it has also been a challenging time in personal terms, with my cousin Mark (an ex-US Navy SEAL) getting killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in Afghanistan. My cousin Mark was a Surfer-Warrior-Poet and you can read my tribute to Mark Metherell (if interested then you need to scroll down, it is number 9) at:

http://ptacklind.wordpress.com/2008/04/12/mark-and-sarah-in-mexico/

This sad news was followed 3 months later by the death of my brother Theo in Cambridge. His death occurred at around the same time that me and Tom Chamberlain came within a hairs width of getting ‘Lanched when attempting to pioneer a new route up a steep face near Huascaran (Peru’s highest mountain).

The 11 weeks we spent in Peru was both physically and financially punishing and when I got back from my brother’s funeral I had a monster surprise tax bill waiting on the doormat which kept me away from any serious climbing over the winter.

Anyway, enough of all this: I deliberately chose Super7 as a challenge because I wanted to attempt something that would push me above and beyond and then way beyond that and it has certainly done that.

Through all the challenges, the thing that has kept me going is both my passion for adventure and a line from Margaret Thatcher’s autobiography that Hempleman Adams used to motivate himself when he was crossing Antarctica: ‘It’s easy to start things. But are you a finisher?’

So, massive thanks to our equipment sponsors, as well as the Mount Everest Foundation, the BMC and the Mountaineering Council of Scotland who have supported us so generously so far. Without their support, none of this would have been possible. And thank goodness for my Edinburgh hackney carriage license, (and the considerable generosity of the wonderfull citizens of Edinburgh: The people of Edinburgh, wether they are from Sighthill or Stockbridge, I can tell you, are very generous people: None of this would have happened without them.) as by going out and grafting for three or four 12 hour shifts per week, the cash is starting to add up.

I would like to flag up some outstanding men and one woman who have helped us to fund-raise over the past year. They are Simon Yates, Dave McLeod, Jamie Andrew, Jeremy Windsor and Jenny Pugh and they all supported us and exploratory mountaineering by speaking at our events and then donating half of the takings on the door to this project. Thanks guys. I would also like to thank everyone who has supported our events over the past three years, both everyone who makes the effort to attend and also to our fantastic sponsors.

I’ve realised that if we are going to get the funds together for this, then it totally makes sense to just focus on just one thing that DOES actually generate funds. The economy is pretty ropey right now and takings are down, maybe 15-25% from last year, but I’m doing the best I can (while also having balance in my life ) and as long as trade doesn’t get too badly hit by the recession, then we will almost certainly have the cash together for an attempt to climb a new route in Antarctica in the winter of 2010 / 11. If the economy improves, and I really hope it does, as there is a lot of pain out there, then I will be able to bring this forward.

Thanks for reading this. I will have the events programme up by the end of August and I will let you know how I’m getting on with all this and more at the start of 2010.

Thanks to the MEF for supporting this expedition:

I’ve been acclimatising out here with Tony Barton; the 41 year old Andean

guru. He is married to Rocio, a Peruvian, and they are both way cool.

Here’s the plan: Me and Tony are going to spend a month attempting to climb

in the Cordillera Blanca. In the meantime, Tom Chamberlain is in Bolivia,

trekking with his wife. We will then all go to Lima to meet up and celebrate

indepence day on the 28th. Then all three of us are going to the Oriental

for an objective that Tony has attempted before.

After one or two minor paperwork issues whose details I won’t trouble you

with (Err, thanks Neill), the first trip out here involved getting a

Collectivo to the campesino, from where the Andes power out of the Altiplano

like a snow-blasted scream set in stone.

What is a Collectivo?

It is a battered Toyota Hi-Ace (no larger than a short wheelbase VW camper

van) with seating for 19 (not a misprint). It is the law here in Peru that

they must have completely bald tyres and be piloted by a loon. Who drives

with an utter contempt; both for his own life – and that of other road

users.

Having survived this authentic Peruvian experience we set up camp,

completely by ourselves, next to a lake and near an ancient Inca burial

site. Lots of skulls in the cave-graves so an unusual kind of a campsite.

On the way we went past Yungay. You might have heard about this place. In

1970 it was the scene of one of the world’s worst natural disasters. There

was an earthquake which shook every building in this area to the ground. An

entire mountain collapsed on the town of Yungay, burying every single house:

Population c. 40,000.

We camped by the lake for 2 days attempting to acclimatise. As usual this

involved panting, appetite withdrawal, disturbed sleep and ‘pain behind the

eyes’ splitter headaches: All the things that make this sport such a fun and

relaxing way to spend ones time.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRIP SO FAR:

1. Not getting food poisoning.
2. Getting to 4650m
3. Going to where the ice harvesters work on the glacier below

Huascaran (Peru’s highest mountain). They go up there with donkeys and they

bring it down to sell it upscale restaurants. Unfortunately, the place where

they work is underneath a really awful-looking Serac (hazardous ice cliff).

It collapsed when they were working in 2003, entombing 15 of them under the

ice. Eight of them are still somewhere in the glacier: But you won’t hear

tell of this in the places where you see ‘Ice from Huascaran’ on the menu.
4. Seeing some of Tony’s top secret and completely unclimbed mountains.

We have been accompanied on this, the acclimatisation stage of the trip, by

Rocio, Tony’s wife. She’s a local and an all round nice person. It has been

great having her explain some of the many and varied strange things that are

constantly going on this wild, wild land.

They have organised us rooms in a lovely guest house, with rooftop Andean

views, and they have also done a deal with the locals. The locals are going

to help us transport all our kit up to the base camp for the next trip, and

they are also helping us out with a guard to keep the ‘bandito’s’ at bay.

The guard will bring his own food tho’. Apparently the locals don’t have

much of an appetite for the food of ‘Los Gringitos’.

 

Next Expedition: South America

Olly Metherell, Tom Chamberlain and Tony Barton are off to Peru in July. They plan to spend a month acclimatising before an attempt on a line in the Cordillera Oriental.

Thanks to the MEF, The Sports Council, The BMC and the MC of S for funding.