The Team Update - Seven

And as Pav exits stage left, Mike Sneesby enters stage right......

Based in Dubai, Mike apparently comes with a bit of mountain experience under his belt.... at least it looks that way in the photos. But anyone who has been to Dubai, knows that they can do all sorts of fancy stuff with papier mache there!












Mike comes to the team with exactly the right attitude....." I'm thinking I could do a 10km run on the treadmill - incline 15 and then drink 20 beers....... that should be a pretty close simulation for the day we get back off the climb right?"

 Love your work Mike.....welcome to the team!



Stay tuned for the next offering when I'll be checking out what all the boys have been doing for training.....


I hear Tony's been hiking on the Great Wall and UE's doing a 100km bush hike.

Gilly is reputedly cycling 300km a week, I've been hitting Gunung Nuang and Big M is still doing star jumps with the personal trainer in pink joggers.

Just what Martin has been up to is anybodies guess but no doubt he has been struggling to stay dry and focused in the land of perpetual rain and gloominess. Ironic that our only member from the mountains finds himself trapped in the UK for his pre-Kili training.....so far, far away from his favourite yodelling spot!

Kilimanjaro - ni tu ya kilima!

Orf

The Team



Tony T - Officially a US citizen but currently on the lamb and hiding out in China. Hiking 10km up the Great Wall twice a week to 'Harden the F*%# Up'

  

Extremely introverted, Tony is often seen avoiding loud raucous parties and generally 'lying low'.

Famous for breaking the Malaysian 100m sprint record whilst running down the Seremban Hwy looking for private spot to pee....

Apart from his sprinting prowess, Tony brings a talent for graphic arts and 24 kidney stones to the team!

 

Orf and Tony T...









Gilly  - A man of simple tastes and monumental intellect. Currently residing in the sleepy town of Bowral in the southern highlands of NSW ('The District').

Understated, Gilly goes quietly about his business hustling deals all around the globe and randomly quoting Seinfield one liners......"Giddy up....."

Gilly is preparing for the climb by eating Weet-Bix every morning, adapting to altitude sickness by flying regularly between Aus and KL and slipping in a heavy session of reading about how hard the climb is going to be at least once a week.

The team is relying heavily on Gilly's never say die attitude to keep us partying hard at the after-the-climb recovery!

 Big M - Champion of the disenfranchised, protector of the weak, Big M joins us to face his demons. Will he survive altitude sickness? Will his knee hold out? Will he be pretty, will he be rich......?

 Highly motivated, Big M has secured the services of a 'hard as nails' personal trainer. "Yeah, he might wear pink joggers, but he is as tough as hell.....you should see how many star-jumps he makes me do!"

 A huge sports fan, Big M can often be spotted creating beer cup snakes at the G or making a few astute investments at Flemmington.

   

 

Big M brings wisdom and a wealth of gambling experience to the Team. We will be relying on him to keep us constantly updated with the odds of our success!

  

 

  



  UE -  Based in Brisbane's Paddington, is a long standing member of the 'This is how I crash my pushy' club. With a only a few more broken ribs he will join the elite few and earn permanent membership to the club.With this kind of committment, the Team will be looking to UE for inspiration and guidance during the seven day climb.

UE brings a wealth of aviation knowledge and some wicked dance moves to the team but just how that's going to help us is anybody's bloody guess!

Fond of a red wine or two, UE is preparing for the climb by cutting back to just a bottle or two a night and has put his broken rib aspirations on a temporary hold. A true team player!

Martin H - The Team's token European and only member to have ever seen a real mountain, is currently based in the ever grey United Kingdom.

Despite the red nose, Martin is definitely a serious mountaineer. He just bought himself a shiny new Swiss army pen knife and actually owns a minus 10 sleeping bag!

    

Having successfully survived one tour of Africa already, Martin is confident he will be able to avoid sunburn, dodge the mossies and out-run the hawkers in any town or village.

Martin brings a sliver of hope for success to the team.....

Orf - Leader of this motley crew.

Hopeful that the climb will not only be a blast and something to remember always but also an opportunity to make a difference to his little mates the Linda Community Orphans in Zambia.

 

But that's only six blokes right.....?

Missing from the team is the legendary Pav. Committed to the climb only to discover that somebody couldn't count and his new baby was actually due to arrive the day of the climb! Bloody doctors.....

A few of the boys are not going to feel so secure now that the best heart surgeon in Brisbane is no longer coming for the ride......

Pav will be sorely missed but the show must go on.  The search is currently on for our new number seven....he is out there so stay tuned...

Kilimanjaro - ni tu ya kilima!

Orf

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Kili we go.....

What the...??

What's more ridiculous than 7 middle aged professional men deciding to scale Mt Kilimanjaro - at 5895m, Africa's largest peak and the world's tallest free-standing mountain? Nothing really, except including a bloke with a heart that needs a machine to keep it going!

Like the seven dwarves, we will be trudging along carrying loads on our backs day in and day out and like the seven samurai, we may not all return at the end of our adventure...... Well, we probably will but none of us is likely to be the same again after seven days of stinking it up without showers and squeezing into shared tents every night. Man, I can smell us already...

Why the... ??

Well, why not? A dirty big mountain lurking in Tanzania, tall, ominous but accessible - one of the world's 'seven summits', screaming out to be conquered...okay, so only about 4,000 people have beaten us to it (last year alone!!) but nevertheless, it remains one of the truly remarkable things to achieve in life before kicking the bucket. It's a definite bucket-lister..... and the average punter will never accomplish it.

And ...??

Yeah, so bucket-list, TICK, but why else would we travel half way round the world to attempt a seven day, 90km hike up a 6000m mountain in temperatures dropping below minus 10 and exposing ourselves to the risk of cerebral and/or pulmonary edema? Middle-age crisis I hear someone cry......yeah, well that too but for me there is also something else...

Christmas Eve, 2003 was either the luckiest or unluckiest day of my life. It all depends how you read it I suppose, but either way the lovely Mrs Orf  got me to the hospital just as my heart reached the point of no return and I was saved by a bunch of cool headed emergency doctors pumping me full of drugs and zapping me back to life. Bit of a shock...boom, boom!

It makes you reflect on life and consider your mortality. At thirty-five, I wasn't much interested in thinking about my mortality, but there it was...a heart slowly degenerating into a useless mass of fibrous tissue, unable to conduct that magic spark that turns over the pump. So, now in my early forties and with time on my hands, I've decided to try and do a bit of good for some kids who are struggling....

October last year, I went to Zambia to teach some aids orphans to play rugby. I quickly found that before they could play rugby however, they needed to actually eat! Great kids with lots of enthusiasm and bugger-all else. So from my own pocket and with a few donations from friends following my blog, I fed the kids for a month and left them with stores to last a couple more.

With the help of some sponsors and donations from mad individuals, I plan to return to Livingston following the climb with some funds for the kids that I hope will contribute to making a permanent difference to their lives. Negotiations are looking good with one potential sponsor already!

Stay tuned, for updates on our adventures.......five months of torturous training lies ahead of the team who are scattered around the globe. And for me, there is some serious sponsor hunting to be done!!

Kilimanjaro....ni tu ya kilima!