OK so below is the hard proof this is my heart rate and altitude record for the whole 8 hours. The first two gaps are genuine breaks for food at the car (with the second my heart rate goes up at the end as the Grouse was down and I ran down to get back to the Eagle!) The last gap, at summit height, was due to the Eagle Poma tow also breaking for a while - I guess I wore it out! I probably only queued for less than 6 of the 98 runs, it was a very quiet day despite the clear weather. I kept my feet in the secure in the board's bindings up the Pomas to save time. I am pretty satisfied with the rate I managed, and I think this may be quite a hard total to beat unless the Pomas are sped up!
With the Cairngorms closing due to high winds at the beginning of the week, and foul weather due for the rest of the week, on Monday night I spied a weather window for the Lecht for Tuesday.After some hasty planning I was there at 8am and waiting for opening.
The weather looked good, only high broken cloud, but still a hard frost. In fact there was a thick sheet of ice for 20 yards across the road just before the centre which almost took my car out before the challenge started!
I am very grateful to the staff of the Lecht. They were brilliant, very supportive although a little doubtful I would manage the challenge, since stormy weather was predicted for later. This may prevent the faster lower runs (Harrier and Buzzard) from opening , which was where I was hoping to put in most of the descent! They donated a lift pass, for which I will add an additional personal donation to FOA. The Poma station crews were great and kept my spirits high on the Grouse and Eagle. The lifts were scheduled to close by 4:25 so I had to get a move on!
I got started on the Grouse at 8:40. The slopes were hard and icy at this time so I took it a bit carefully at first: I didn't want to be an Everest casualty! I managed around 4-5 minutes per lift cycle of 110meters, so that looked like the challenge was a possible, although in a daunting 7-8 hours!
After the first 1000m I switched to the Eagle. This run is 100m in vertical height and again I managed around 4 minutes per run cycle. I took a couple of wipeouts on the hard sections in the morning and my shoulder is still screaming this morning, but the legs still worked so I carried on!
Around 11 am the snow started softening. The Eagle run was now perfect. The snow was a bit slower, but for me I could go now faster and was managing 60 seconds down the run, so 3:45 for the whole cycle.
By noon I was halfway there, 4400 meters of descent, so the challenge was definitely feasible as long as I could keep the pace up.
I had a couple of quick breaks during in the day, at 3000 and 6000 meters, for refueling and to give my aching feet a break.
It was great when I could see the end was possible, and I reached it (8850m) around 3pm, just as the lift broke down for 20 minutes.
Somehow my energy levels had stayed up all day, in fact I was really enjoying it so saw no reason now to stop. In the end I was the last one off the slopes at 4:30 after pushing the final total ascent/descent to 10,020 meters! I guess I have been really determined to do a physical challenge for the ANCHOR unit ever since my days on the ward pacing up and down the stairs.
Thank you all SO much for your support, it means a huge amount to me and to Friends of Anchor. And for anyone willing there's still plenty of time to add your donation if you wish on their site.
Thanks again
Martin (today feeling very sore but very content!)
click to go to "Photos from Everest Challenge"
click to go to Previous page "Everest chellenge for Leukaemia"
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