Here we go!

it's now july 24th. i leave tomorrow to meet with brian and brad in the pittsburgh area for a couple days before we're off to africa. it almost doesn't seem real that the time has come. i have been busy getting everything squared away here at the ranch to the point that i may not feel like it's actually happening until i get on the plane tomorrow!

wether it feels like it's happening or not...we're ready! all three of us. physically we're all peaking at a good time, with few late set-backs in training. brian and brad have had more opportunities to work together at night hikes and brad is confident in both the system and his ability to climb on summit day. everything's purchased, bought, planned, sent for and recieved, broke in, and packed up. we're ready!

i want to thank everyone once again for your support of the 3 of us on this once in a life-time excursion. we could not have made it even this far without it. and thank you to the many people who have called and e-mailed these last couple days to wish us luck on the virtual eve of our departure. we're going to try to get information out to have our progress followed on the blog daily. if you don't see anything...we weren't able to communicate from the mountain and we'll be in touch as soon as we return. at any rate, we'll be sure to wave in a northwestern direction from the mountain!!!

Colorado Trip

hello to all! first off, one more "thank you" to everyone who has shown so much support for us on this endevour. it's now july 6th, only 22 days 'til we depart pittsburgh for africa. hard to believe we can now count the time in mere days!

preparations have been coming together for us (flights, shots, paperwork, fundraising, route options, and gathering gear are all behind us for the most part) and we are now concentrating on our physical training until we leave. brad, brian and i met in denver on the morning of june 25th and trained together in the altitude of the colorado mountains for a few days. it was a terrific trip! we were able to get out and hike in some foul weather to test some of our gear, work up some steep terrain, have a couple long days at altitude, negotiate some intense boulder fields, do some more night hiking, and most importantly work together as a team learning each others strengths and weaknesses. training at high altitude was great. of course it's a good workout. but it gave us the chance to have brad and brian, who live alot closer to sea level than i, to feel what affects the altitude would have on their bodies. both of them did really well with minimal side effects, and relatively quick acclimatization as breathing was noticably easier every day we were there. high in the mountains the scenery was beautiful, but once again the most spectacular thing i saw was the determination brad had to get through a particularly difficult stretch of boulders at about 13,000 feet! with large and small boulders jumbled together at angles that create gaps and holes in the rock that provides less than adequate footing on sometimes pivoting and sliding granite, it's a challenge for a fit climber who can SEE! after a long day to this point, brad worked his way through this section with no trouble. i guess slow and steady (and alot of intense concentration) does win the race! the trip was not without disappointment though. our night work left us all feeling abit unprepared. it was a more difficult situation than we had trained on to this point, but it pointed out to us some areas we need to adjust and work toward significant improvement.

in all, the trip to the colorado rockies was a great success. brian, brad and i feel much more prepared because of the trip and are now focusing on the 19,340 ft summit of kilimanjaro!

We Did It- Thank you so much!

Crankin' it up another notch

Well..... here we go. Ready or not! We, as a group have started turning it up to the next level of training, and soon to be in the highest, heaviest training mode that we will reach. As we are EXACTLY 7 weeks from leaving for Africa from the 'states'; all of you who have shown your care and support (both encouragement and financial) of Brad, Kirk and I over all or part of the last 5 1/2 months DESERVE to know what we are up to, and to see that we are so very serious about our training efforts to achieve our goal on Mt. Kilimanjaro (IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, JUST CLICK ON EITHER OF KIRK'S OR BRAD'S PHOTO TO SEE THE DETERMINATION AND PHYSICAL EXERTION THAT IS OCCURRING, OR IN BRAD'S CASE- OCCURRED).

Our current plan is to start our highest level of training next week. We want to be at this max level of effort and training for a month, but we want it to cease about two weeks before our departure. Then those last two weeks, we will 'kick it back' several levels.... we what to continue to be active and keep our fitness, but we really NEED our bodies to heal and for our muscles to recover to the maximum extent possible prior to starting up the mtn. So... this means that from June 15 - July 12, we will be in high-gear.

As a group, we will be going to Denver in late June to climb and hike in the 13000-14000 elevation range for 3 days. Also, in early July, Brad and I will hopefully be going to upstate New York to climb some mtns in the 5000-6000 ft elevation range (FYI- that's SUPER high for the east coast). Currently, we are already 'upping' our efforts....Last weekend, Kirk climbed Crazy Woman again, but this time it was with a whopping 85# backback! As I spoke to Kirk, who has alway been very active and inshape through his life, he said, "I can certainly say it was one, if not the toughest thing I have ever done physically." Brad has been advancing his training in leaps and bounds also. Several weeks ago, he and I climbed the Appalachian Trail on the section leaving Port Clinton heading south. This stretch is very steep and has large rocks and roots to maneuver around; which he had almost perfected negotiating trail conditions such as these. He has really worked hard on the hiking techinique of the 'rest-step'; which allows the body a micro- rest between each step (the key is the body is resting on it's full-frame, e.g. both legs). This techniques help regulate pace of steps and pace of breathing. Just this last weekend, he bumped his backpack weight up to 40#. His first trip out with the new weight really put brad's legs and lungs to the test. As you can see by his photo he needed a bit of rest at the top. As for me, i have upped the weight in my pack also from 35 # up to 45#; and i also wear ankle weights when training. I also am lengthening the time and distance of each workout i do, whether it be the jogging (cardio), the stairs at the Cathedral of Learning, or hiking up the mtns of Chestnut ridge and Ohiopyle State Park.

We all have gotten our Passports, and we will all have our immunization shots by the end of the week. We have now passed the $27,500 mark on our fundraising efforts (see chart to the right of the blogsite), and feel very confident from the letters that we have recently sent and the contacts that we have made that by the end of June we will have reached our minimum goal of $30,000 for sight-saving surgeries for infants and children through VOSH/PA.

We are grateful for each and every one of your thoughts, prayers and donations. We could not be achieving any of this without each and every one of you. We are positively-impacted daily in some form or fashion by our friends and family regarding this trip. All I have left to say is... keep posted, it is only going to get better!

Petzl supports our trip by donating headlamps

I just wanted to let everyone know that we received a sponsorship from Petzl recently. They donated two of their 'top of the line' headlamps for brad to use on the trip. As you may or may not know yet, on summit day, we will be starting to hike around mid-night; with the goal of reaching Uhuru peak around sunrise. If brad were 100% blind- he would have no illumination needs at all, but since he has only 5% remaining, and has no night vision, his illumination needs are that much greater and that much more critical. I had solicited several companies about possible donations of gear for the trip, and PETZL was the only company to respond at all, let alone positively! Just wanted to send a HUGE thanks to Petzl for their generosity, and to ask anyone who has a headlamp need, to purchase a Petzl headlamp. They are the world-wide leader in quality of headlamps, and obviously will be helping Brad in summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro. Petzl is supporting us, so please support Petzl!

2 months out

hello to all! it is now the end of may and things are coming together with only 2 months 'til we start up the mountain. i recently spent a week in pennsylvania to visit family, and to get together with brian and brad for some training. it was time well spent. brian introduced me to the stairs at the cathedral of learning in pittsburgh. we worked our way up flight after flight of stairs, with loaded packs, for several hours. brian has certianly developed a great workout regime to prepare for a mountain. later in my visit, brian and i made a trip to reading, pa to get out on the trail with brad. though we were able to get out for good, physical workouts, our time together on the trail, time to practice working as a team, was far more important. all the outings (each one designed to work on specific aspects of our climb) were very productive. to me, our most difficult and productive outing was a several hour walk in the dark. on "summit day" we will be on the trail heading up the mountain just after mid-night, walking with headlamps for the first 6 or 7 hours of the climb. this will dramatically increase the difficulty of the climb for brad, taking him from 5% of his vision during the day to total night blindness!

being on the trail, practicing in the dark, is crucial for brad to become comfortable and build confidence for summit day. with a few tweeks, the communication system we practiced through the day could also be used at night. though difficult, utilizing sound, through voice was an effective way to gather some bearings. our best discovery was an idea that brian had to use ultra high reflective tape. brian and i stuck the reflective tape on the bottom end of our trekking poles, hoping the tape would reflect enough light from brad's high-output petzl headlamp to be visible to him. it worked wonderfully! and though brad could see basically nothing else, he now had 2 bright "dots" to follow in the darkness. before long we were able to work together to negotiate some fairly rough terrain by night's end.

i say "we" because we were working as a team, and each member of that team played a role in the success of that night, but....the star of the night was brad! with all my hiking and climbing experience, i couldn't begin to do what he did that night. as we were out training in the dark i saw clearly brad's full commitment to this climb in the concentration and determination that was on his face. this climb should be (with vosh, brad and the mountain itself) fairly self-motivating...and it is. but the determination that i saw that night has now inspired me to a whole new level. way to go brad, keep it up!

thanks to everyone, once again, for all the verbal, emotional and financial support the "climb for sight" and for us personally. it means the world to us!

May 2 hike trip

Hi everyone- wanted to tell you about Brad and my trip this past weekend. We did an 8.5 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail, just east of Hamburg. We hiked the section from Reservoir Road past Pulpit Rock and onto Pinnacle Rocks. From there we looped back on another trail to the start. Overall we rose 1200 VF or so, and traversed across about 2 miles of rock morraine that the trail went through. What a great trip. Brad did awsome- out of this world! Obviously, we had a slower time in the rocky areas, but we did the entire trip in only 5.5 hrs, which included a 30 minute lunch break at Pinnacle. Brad's legs are getting stronger, but we still need to all work on our cardio increase. Our plans to group hike over the next 3 months work out nicely. Kirk is coming to PA at the end of May for a two-day trip; then Brad, Kirk and I will converge on Denver region at the end of June to climb in the 12K to 13K elevation for 3 full days. It works out nicely that these trips are about 4 weeks apart from now till departure for Africa. Also, if you haven't heard us blabbing it from the rooftops yet, Brad was the feature of an article on our trip that was on the front page of his local news paper in Reading, PA. The link to the article on-line is:http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=136850. Enjoy- it is such a nice article.