To round out my own fundraising for Wooden Spoon and to make sure I hit my £10,000 target I decided to host a lunch in London at The Mercer on Threadneedle Street after holding a successful fundraiser there last year for Samurai RFC
I enlisted John Inverdale, a long time supporter of Wooden Spoon, as the host for the lunch and former England Captain, Wasp and Lion Lawrence Dallaglio as the guest. You don’t get much more of a rugby legend than Lawrence Dallaglio. The England, Wasps and Lions star had won just about every piece of silverware going and has gone on to have a successful media career after retiring.
It was also great to have the support of fellow challengers Paul Jordan, Matt Franklin, Miles Hayward and Jude “Jess Cheeseman” McKelvey who very kindly took places and tables at the event.
As ever Jason and the staff at the Mercer delivered a cracking lunch and Hugh and the team at Huge Events as ever made sure the event went off seamlessly. I am hugely indebted to them for making sure I could make good on my fundraising promises.
Thanks to Built Visible, ROC, Cisco, PAYE Stonework, Facelift, JDC Scaffolding, Warlingham RFC, THSP, Samurai RFC, Hugh Anthony and Elmstone for supporting the event. I am pretty sure you and your guests had a good time. Not bad for a lunch that started at 1200 in the Mercer and somehow finished, for the hardcore amongst you, at 0300 in the Forge nightclub.
I also got to meet Bryan Hodges who heads up Wooden Spoon in Surrey. What was great was that several of the people he met at my lunch, including several from Warlingham RFC, have agreed to help with the work done by the charity moving forward.
Come and do a training session at the Altitude Centre they said. It’ll be fun they said.
As usual I forgot to look before I leapt.
So before the send off for the Everest Rugby Challengers at the Wooden Spoon Rugby Ball at the Hilton on Park Lane I joined the other challengers for a “quick” training session at The Altitude Centre.
Now I have never used a Watt Bike and if I am being honest I’d not actually heard of them before this session. It is fair to say that my little legs and them do not get on. Add to that this the training session is in a room where the Oxygen content is controlled to simulate being at 2700m/12,000ft and I am seriously struggling.
Matt Mitchell asked if anyone else had found themselves “breaking wind” more in the session because of the altitude and I replied that I hadn’t been able to fart because I was using that particular orifice for breathing through.
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Riding a Watt Bike at a simulated atmosphere of 2700m is horrid but trying to walk uphill in a mask which simulates an atmosphere of 5000m altitude with no acclimatisation is a whole new level of “outside my comfort zone”. It is fair to say that at that point my muscles, such as they are, were in spasm so badly I was shaking like a shitting dog. This challenge is now very real, I have work to do and I am well and truly on the raggedy edge. I am also loving every second of it which I put largely down to the group of people involved.
Suitably knackered we went off to the Hilton to meet our respective partners and families and to help Wooden Spoon raise as much money as possible at the charities annual ball. The event also served as a send off for the challenge and the support from those gathered at the event was amazing. For sure they all thought we were bonkers as well but then almost everyone I’ve spoken to regarding the challenge thinks that anyway.
The event was top notch and certainly puts my fundraisers into perspective. Sarah, Jules, Laurie and the rest of the team put on one hell of a show and it is truly incredible how many legends of the game they get to willingly support the cause.
There are legends and then there are legends and Willie John McBride is the latter, a true great and an icon of the game. The sort of man that inspires awe in everyone who has played the game and is respected by all he played with or against. He has 17 test caps for the British & Irish Lions. To be clear that is test caps and not just match appearances. Or to put it another way he has more test caps for the Lions than any other player in the history of the side and more than most players get for their nation. During the Wooden Spoon Ball that night in the auction when an auction prize dinner with Sir Bill Beaumont and Jason “Fun Bus” Leonard, themselves bonafide legends, at a Michelin star restaurant stalled at £2500. Willie John spoke to auctioneer Jon Gould and offered to pitch up as well to see if that would help raise more money for the charity. The dinner went for £5000 around 30 seconds later. I think it speaks volumes about the work of Wooden Spoon and the standing they have within the rugby community that they have someone like Willie John McBride involved with the charity
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I would just like to thank the team at The Altitude Centre for the time they gave us – very much appreciated and no doubt I’ll be back to try and squeeze a few more sessions in before I go.
Part of my trip to play rugby on Everest is a commitment to raising £10,000 for the charity Wooden Spoon. Wooden Spoon, the children’s charity of rugby, specifically work with disabled and disadvantaged children in the UK giving them opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t get in life, opportunities that most of us take for granted every day.
For the cynics amongst you the £10,000 all goes to the charity, with the cost of the trip coming entirely from each of the challengers themselves. That is a large amount of money to raise by anyone’s standards and I suspect that a lot of potential challengers shied away from coming because they felt that sort of target was unattainable. Certainly I was conscious that I would need to pull in a few favours to hit the target so I decided to start somewhere familiar.
I have had my birthday celebrations at The Gurkha Kitchen in Oxted for almost twenty years and over that time have become good friends with the founder, owner and restaurateur extraordinaire, Purna Gurung. Purna very kindly agreed to let me use his restaurant for free and provide a meal for my guests at as close to cost as he could. The result was that I could run an event in my home town, similar to what I ran for Samurai RFC in London, and hopefully raise a decent chunk of money towards my target.
I had help of course. Ollie Philips hosted the evening superbly and via the help of Chris Robshaw and Joe Marler the main guest, Adam Jones, was a barn storming success. His handling of questions regarding pressing political issues of the day, the non-selection of Danny Cipriani and the merits of different hairdressers will live long in the memory.
The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze when one of the guests at the dinner, who I didn’t know, bid £300 for £150 worth of restaurant vouchers.
“You’re mad” I told him after his winning bid.
“It’s for a great cause” he replied and who am I to argue.
I hope everyone had a good time and I certainly enjoyed hosting an event, which is a significant part of #MyEverest journey, in somewhere akin to a second home. We raised circa £2000 towards my total but as a side benefit we raised awareness in my home town of what Wooden Spoon is all about. As I said, rather clumsily, on the night:
“The truth about the Everest Challenge is that it isn’t about me, it isn’t about Ollie and the other captains, it’s certainly not about setting Guinness World Records and it isn’t even about the trip itself. We certainly won’t be changing the World on the World’s tallest mountain but the money we each raise on the way might just change the World for one person. To me The Everest Challenge is about the money raised to change the lives of disabled and disadvantaged children in ways most people cannot even imagine. It is about giving these children the sort of opportunities that you and I take for granted and providing the people that care for them the sort of assistance or respite that helps share the burden they shoulder everyday without complaint .
With 100 days left before the expedition departs for Everest I am on my way to South Wales to get some more time on the hills. The routes I had planned included the 10 mile walk in the Brecon Beacons taking in Corn Du, Pen-y-Fan and Cribyn before moving east to the Black Mountains to a walk up around the Grwyne Fawr Reservoir and then up to Waun Fach and Pen-y-Gadair Fawr. The Black Mountains walk in particular was one of my favourites and despite my legs aching on the second day it felt like a sort of homecoming.
I had walked these routes many times between 1996 & 1999 as a member of the Southampton University Royal Naval Unit and usually completed them without breaking a sweat, or at least only sweating out the rum from the night before. I was much fitter then, weighing in at around 14 stone and my knees had a great deal less mileage on them. The reality is that, since then, multiple injuries from rugby, climbing, training and quad bike crashes have taken their toll and these same routes take a great deal more effort and commitment than back then.
Day one saw a steep ascent to the ridge at Graig Fan Ddu which certainly gave a short sharp reminder of why indulgence at Christmas is not the bright idea it seemed at the time. Once up on the ridge however the route moves gently along until you reach the top of Corn Du with spectacular views back down the valley. The “motorway” up the side of Pen-y-Fan is short and steep but once at the summit (886m) you are treated to, in my opinion at least, the best views in South Wales.
The path down from the summit is steep and seemingly relentless and the view from the bottom back up to Cribyn is certainly more than a little morale sapping. That being said the views from the top of Cribyn are pretty special and the summit doesn’t tend to get anything like as crowded as Pen-y-Fan meaning you can stop and enjoy the moment. From there it was a short stroll down the ridge before descending back down to the reservoir and the car park beyond.
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Day two was a shorter route, roughly six miles, and took us up the Waun Fach the highest peak in the Black Mountains at 810m. It was a beautiful day and despite the frost and ice along the ridges the views were once again incredible. We were fortunate in our choice of days as looking west to where we had been on day one the peaks around Pen-y-Fan were shrouded in low cloud and the visibility would have been very poor if we had been walking on them that day.
The ascent up Waun Fach was hard work before the much easier leg along the familiar and perpetually boggy ridge to the prominent cairn at Pen-y-Gadair Fawr. It was the descent through the forestry plantations to the car park that was hardest on the knees however and in hindsight a longer, gentler route down would have been a good idea.
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It was nice to reminisce over the few days, sharing a part of my past with my wife that she had previously not seen . It certainly felt good to get out walking after a busy and boozy Christmas and clear all the cobwebs from the lungs. It also served as a reminder that I am not fit enough and that if I don’t lose a lot more weight my body is probably not going to be able to cope with the stresses of walking at that altitude. My right knee is swollen and stiff and I suspect the previous ligament tears and cartilage damage are flaring up as my knees take a battering. The walking poles seem to help by reducing the load on my legs but I suspect the only way I can really keep them in shape long enough to play on Everest is to shed the pounds. I see a lot of big pink smarties in my future.
I am still waiting for my report from the altitude centre following the altitude testing I did just before Christmas and I am just hoping it doesn’t pick up any potential banana skins because, being frank, I don’t need anymore hurdles at this point as the reality of the challenge I have set myself starts to sink in.
I may not actually get fit enough to succeed which is difficult to grasp if I am honest. I am a lot more confident of my ability to raise the £10,000 sponsorship for the charity than I am of playing any meaningful part in the expedition and that is what is hard to admit to myself. I guess that in the greater scheme of things this is not the worst scenario as the real aim of this expedition is to help Wooden Spoon raise the funds they need to improve the lives of disabled and disadvantaged kids in the UK and Nepal through rugby. However, It would be rather nice to dial the clock back a bit though and have a decent run out, especially as it does happen to be at 6500m.
It is 2259 and Buffy and I are checking in to the YHA at Pen-y-Pas after a horrendous journey up from London in rush hour traffic and torrential rain. I know that is always the curse of trying to escape the South East for a weekend in the hills but this trip was particularly horrid. As the YHA staff checked us in with minute to spare I nipped outside under the pretense of getting our bags from the car to sneak a look at the valley. The weather had actually cleared somewhat and the moon lit up the start of both the Pyg and Miners track. It seemed to be clearing but as I had never climbed Snowdon in anything better than low cloud and drizzle I decided to check before I jinxed it. Distracted I headed back in and arriving in the room I was too busy checking the weather forecast to stop Buffy snaffling the top bunk. On the plus side that left me closer to the bag containing the Percy Pigs.
As an aside I would highly recommend the YHA at Pen-y-Pas. The staff are friendly, the bar cosy and the rooms perfect for anyone walking in the hills. Plus they are considerably cheaper than anything else in the area even if the car park requires you to take out a second mortgage. It has the added benefit of just walking out the front door and instantly having access to three of the main routes, Pyg, Miners and Crib Goch, to Snowdon which means that you can get on the hill nice and early and therefore make it back in good time for tea and medals in the bar.
The next day was cold and clear with the tops of the surrounding peaks clear in the low early sun. What cloud there was blew through quickly and I was very hopeful of getting a decent view when we got to the top. There was some lingering mist and cloud in the lower valleys which gave some spectacular views as we made our way up the Pyg track.
Despite having been here many times before the significance of climbing Snowdon was not lost on me. A great many of those who had been to the Himalaya and specifically Everest had trained in Snowdonia. Even the YHA bar, Mallory’s, at Pen-y-Pas was named for the legendary climber George Mallory who famously coined the phrase “because it’s there”. Mallory later lost his life on the North Face of Everest either just shy of the summit or, as I hope, shortly after achieving his life’s ambition and climbing the world’s tallest mountain. His body remains on the mountain.
Even with it being late November there were a lot of people on the mountain and there was the usual flow of “traffic” up the mountain. This is always one of the least enjoyable aspects of a day in the mountains for me as I enjoy a certain degree of solitude, or as my wife puts it “I am a misanthropic miserable bastard” which is probably more accurate.
We made good time on the way up the Pyg track and the weather was so good that I regretted not heading up and over Crib Goch. Reaching the ridge I was treated to a spectacular view. I had never seen it even remotely that clear before and as we slowly made our way up to the actual summit we took the time to admire the view down to the coast and back across the whole of Snowdonia. The summit was crowded but we still managed the obligatory summit shots complete with Wooden Spoon bobble hat!
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We decided to head back down the Miners Track and after the steep descent straight down to the valley bottom from the ridge we meandered back around the lakes to Pen-y-Pas and a well earned beer in Mallory’s bar. A good day and it felt like my lungs had started to get some of the their capacity back. I am starting to remember why I loved walking the mountains and I very much want to go back to Snowdonia before my trip to Everest to walk an old favourite route of mine up around Tryfan, Glyder Fach and Glyder Fawr.
Next up though for my preparation is South Wales. Three days in the Brecons and Black Mountains beckons in early January and I look forward to re-visiting Cribyn, Pen-y-Fan and Waun Fach all of which were regular climbs in my early twenties. Shortly afterwards I join up with the rest of the LMAX Everest Rugby Challenge team on Ben Nevis for another training weekend. I am hoping to get at least some snow during these trips just to get a little flavour before arriving in Tibet. Hopefully the “client lunch” heavy Christmas period will not put too large a dent in my fitness drive but if so I am sure the Welsh and Scottish mountains will soon sort me out!
As the trip comes ever closer I am still trying to define #MyEverest but despite my ongoing doubts and reservations about being ready and my concerns over whether my battered frame will hold together long enough to play that final rugby match I am starting to rediscover my love of the outdoors. For me that makes the effort worth it and I am hopeful that I will want to continue after I return from Everest regardless of the outcome.
After discovering quite how unfit I was on a team training weekend in the Lake District I decided to get as many miles/hours on a mountain as possible in addition to the usual cardio stuff in the gym. I suspected that there is really no substitute to pulling the boots on and getting out on the hill. I live near the North Downs so a few short treks up Titsey Hill to Botley Hill Farm were a decent boost but, being honest, not nearly challenging enough.
With a certain amount of trepidation I booked a “wedding anniversary” trip to Ambleside to treat my long-suffering wife, Buffy, to a spa break and purely coincidentally to have another crack at the Fairfield Horseshoe.
It started as all trips to the Lake District do when you live in Surrey; a bloody long drive. A stop off in Huntingdon to see a living legend called Mel Thompson helped break up the drive nicely. After a “few” Guinness had been sunk and he gave me some wise words of advice we drove the rest of the way wondering how on earth three people had managed to eat that much cheese. We were somewhere around Manchester when we finally remembered opening a bottle of Port at about 1am that morning.
After checking into the Low Wood Hotel & Spa we prepared for the next day’s walk. I decided to go the other way round (clockwise) the Horseshoe on this trip. This decision was entirely based on my assumption that going up Nab Scar could not be worse than descending Nab Scar. I should probably tell you that my decision-making is often suspect. For example, the previous trip had seen me drinking red wine in the hotel bar with Paul Jordan until 2am, based entirely on the premise that as I was fat and unfit there was no way I could feel worse the next day; I was wrong.
Much to my surprise I actually made a good call for once and the ascent went reasonably well.
For me. Unfortunately Buffy did not speak to me for the rest of the walk.
Fairfield Horseshoe is beautiful. Something I appreciated a whole lot more on the second attempt. The weather was perfect and the recent rain had not been heavy enough to turn the grass areas into a bog, meaning the going was very good. The best part however was the fact that I didn’t feel like I was suffocating with each step. I also didn’t think at any point that I wouldn’t make it round, something that certainly wasn’t the case on my first attempt the previous month.
We made good time along the ridge in near perfect weather watching the RAF running ultra low level training flights up and down the valleys below us. The breathtaking beauty of the Lake District was never more clear to see and it is no wonder it inspired Alfred Wainwright to explore and write so much about her. We made good time along the ridge from Heron Pike to Great Rigg and Buffy and I seemed to be the only people, aside from a lunatic running along carrying his mountain bike, going this way round. The weather closed in slightly as we arrived at Fairfield so we pressed on before sitting to “enjoy” the pack lunch from the hotel at the base of Dove Crag.
With the weather clearing up again nicely we set off on the return leg and started to encounter people coming the other way. There were less people than I expected given that the weather was so good for the time of year but then again it was a Monday in October. We took the stretch from Dove Crag along to High Pike and then down to Low Pike at a leisurely pace taking in the majestic views down to Ambleside and Lake Windermere. Worryingly we bumped into a family of four at Low Pike at around 2pm who were attempting the horseshoe in the opposite direction and who seemed very poorly prepared given the fact they only had two or three hours of sunlight left. It was however reassuring that there are still some people who are worse prepared than I am.
The descent was gentler on the knees going this way and this made the end of the work a great deal more enjoyable than the previous trip. The point of walking in the hills is, at least partially, to enjoy the experience and it is certainly fair to say I enjoyed this trip to Fairfield a lot more than the previous one. We arrived back to the hotel at around 1630 having left the car park at 1045 – a time of approximately five and a half hours was something I was comfortable with and I knew I could have gone faster if I had to.
As I relaxed the following day in the luxury of the Low Wood Spa I was pleased that progress has been made. I knew I was still overweight but recognised that I was at least fitter than I had been after years of sedentary life, injuries, surgery and all the associated self pity that inevitably goes with it. There was certainly some more work needed in the gym and it was vital I got back on the hill as soon as I could spare the time.
To my wife’s “delight” I had already booked a trip to Snowdonia to get some more miles under my belt on Snowdon. I figured that if it was good enough for George Mallory to train there before his trips to the Himalaya & Everest then it was definitely good enough for me.
As soon as I decided to give the Everest Rugby Challenge a go I knew that I would have to host a fundraiser at my local Nepali restaurant: The Gurkha Kitchen in Oxted. The restaurant is owned by my good friend Purna Gurung and I have been going there and enjoying their hospitality for over twenty years. In fact many of my friends look forward to the almost annual invite to celebrate my birthday although they often tell me they are there for the food not for me. I suspect there is probably a little truth in that as the food is certainly more interesting than I am most of the time.
So on Tuesday 2nd of February I will host seventy friends and family at “my place”. The hope is to raise in the region of £10,000 for the charity Wooden Spoon which will go towards using rugby to improve the lives of disadvantaged and disabled children in the UK. By raising that amount I will also meet my own personal target allowing me to achieve an old dream to go to Nepal and Tibet and see the Himalaya up close and personal. Not quite the mountaineering adventure I dreamt of when I was growing up but it might be a step in the right direction.
If you want to join in on the 2nd February for some great food, amazing hospitality and to find out about what the LMAX Exchange Everest Rugby Challenge is all about then please feel free to drop me an email.
As I relaxed the following day in the luxury of the Low Wood Spa I was pleased that progress has been made. I knew I was still overweight but recognised that I was at least fitter than I had been after years of sedentary life, injuries, surgery and all the associated self pity that inevitably goes with it. There was certainly some more work needed in the gym and it was vital I got back on the hill as soon as I could spare the time.
Deano's World 