Every Day HEROES Conquer Mt Everest

 

 

 

  

Abseiling Mt Everest to raising funds for wounded British servicemen and women

 It takes guts to climb a 45 metre-high tower crane, walk 45 metres along its horizontal jib, then abseil down to the ground again.  It takes some higher level of insanity to repeat the exercise, finishing off in the early hours of a Sunday morning in torrential rain.  But that's what teams from the army, air force MRT, police, ambulance, coastguard and fire & rescue services did, in aid of Help for Heroes (H4H), the charity that supports wounded servicemen and women.  The aim was for the twenty participants to walk,climb and abseil the equivalent of Mount Everest,

"Working through the night in such a potentially hazardous event meant we really needed to be able to rely on the Safety Crews.

"Donald Ritchie: Although the H4H event was a huge success, we had real problems with weather – it started tipping it down at 4am on Sunday morning.  But the safety crew decided the event could carry on, to allow the teams to complete their cumulative target of climbing the equivalent of Mount Everest." many of the teams had never abseiled before and some of those taking part were seriously scared of heights.  "It took real bravery to overcome their fear, but they managed," he says.  They were also incredibly fit: "Some of them were almost running up the tower, even after 15 or 16 ascents."

Friday 24th July 2009 teams arrived at Ritchies Training Centre in Glasgow  www.ritchiestraining.co.uk our main sponsor for (Help for Heroes) Heroes Support Heroes, Climb Walk and Abseil Mt Everest charity event. They were put through there paces in Sighthill youth Centre.   

 

After the indoor training session the teams moved outside to our training area at Ritchies Training Centre where we had a training rig set up at low level so the teams could practice for the big event! each team also had intensive training on how to climb the tower cranes internal ladder system safely and most of all how to walk along the cranes jib that has a footing of only approx 4 inches. As you can see by the photos training carried on until late evening. 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 4" of steel to walk along looks a hell of a lot narrower in the dark

 

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The Big Day! Start Time: Day 1 - 09:26am

                          The teams

 

 

 

 

 Climbing the tower cranes 38 meter Internal vertical ladder system, muscles in the legs and forearms will already be feeling the strain! No matter how fit you are.   

 

 

   Raf Team Leader: Martin Chick Completes 1st Abseil

 

 

     Following suit the rest of the team leaders from each group

 

 

  Then the rest of the gang had a go! two members of each team on 2 hours rotation

 

   

       Abseiling from this height is no easy task! 

 

 

   Nicola McLean shows all the guys how a harness should look

 

 

             Just double checking to make sure!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Nicola! made to scream on the radio just for me 

 

 

                  Oh Yeah! (Private joke) Love it.

 

 

 

   

   Andy and Ben (Coastguard) 1st prize goes to Andy for getting the biggest, deepest burn blister on his hand anyone has ever seen in a long while (Abseil equipment heats up a lot, friction of the rope going through the gear) even with gloves on it can still burn through to the skin. After the medic sorted him out, he still went ahead under a lot of pain and finished the event.   

 

 

            Bob Doris MSP and some of the HART team

 

 

            Marianne & David my better half!

 

 

 

 

 Our Pamela taking things easy for a change! normally she has to abseil with the stretcher attached to her

 

 

     Lloyd Campion, front (Campion Cranes) and Lee (Bruce) helped us out big time with time keeping / ground safety etc and drinking all our beer! ha ha. Thanks lads you were a great help.

 

 

 Donald, Nicola & Jim with his new mug which does not leak, much and you can get the top of easy, honest!

 

 

   Darkness starts to fall. safety crews are on overdrive abseiling in daylight is never an easy task! but abseiling at night  requires all the safety crew and team members to double check every move is 100% safe

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Sam (Raf Mrt) and Alan (Hart) providing top side safety

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Debbie at her best: (Tower Crane Instructor Ritchies) who can talk for Scotland, even the splat test guy looks as if he wants to kill himself.  ha ha. thanks for all your help (Hart Team)

 

 

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   Day 2  it started tipping it down at 4am on Sunday morning.  But the safety crew decided the event could carry on, to allow the teams to complete their cumulative target of climbing the equivalent of Mount Everest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Debbie & Mark Hastings (London Fire & rescue Service)

 

 

              Final One! Steve Colgen (Strathclyde Police)

 

 

 

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  Lastly I'm sure everybody who attended the event would like to say a "Big Thank You" to the people who helped in making this event possible! without them "Heroes Support Heroes" Climb Walk and Abseil Everest, Help For Heroes 2009 challenge, would not of got of the ground. 

 

   

 Scottish Transport Regiment Royal Logistic Corps 221 Transport Squadron

 

 

  221 Sqn supplied the field kitchen and all the food to feed us all over the weekend, Best food we have tasted in a long while. The Guys provided food 24 hours a day and would give any top class restaurant a run for their money. 

 

 

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 52nd LOWLAND

6th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland

 

Our thanks goes to W02 Gifford form Hotspur St, Glasgow for suppling Campcots for us all to sleep on,

 

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Again a big thank you to Speedy Hire Glasgow for giving us lighting towers! They worked better than expected, as you can see they give us the lighting needed to abseil throughout the night.