I will be participating in the CN Tower Stair Climb on Saturday April 23rd. It is a fundraiser for the World Wildlife Fund.

If any Outsporters would like to join me in climbing 1,776 stairs, post here or e-mail me.

If you would like to sponsor me, click here, click "Sponsor a climber" and enter my name (Mark Kari). Thanks!

[ April 21, 2005, 11:04 AM: Message edited by: canmark ]

Why don't you just take the elevator?

Anyway, break a l...ummm, good luck, Mark. wink

Done. However, I recall hearing about how Rosie Ruiz cheated at the Boston Marathon and I don't want something like that to happen. So I must humbly request that you provide video evidence that you climbed every single step. In order to verify that it is actually you climbing, and to enhance the viewing experience in general, please do not wear any disguising clothing. In fact, please wear as little as possible. Thank you for your cooperation. wink

Funny you should mention that. One of the sports channels recently did a profile of the woman who really won that race, a French-Canadian. But I don't see how I could take a taxi like Rosie Ruiz, nor would the elevator be any good, as the start and finish are inside the legs of the tower. And we Canadians, we don't cheat. wink

But thanks for your generous donation JiP! Also thanks to Marc!

For your viewing pleasure, here's a pic from the stair climb last fall. No, that's not me, but would you like a video of this guy? wink



[ April 15, 2005, 06:55 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

Ok, my contribution is in. Should I expect my VHS tape in 4-6 weeks? wink

Are you sure you want a video of me all sweaty and panting and out of breath? wink

[ April 16, 2005, 08:21 AM: Message edited by: canmark ]

I also want to thank pat125 for his donation.

I've now collected $195 in donations for the World Wildlife Fund, largely from Outsporters.

The public climb is this Saturday April 23rd, 6:00am-10:00am, and you can sign up on the day of the event at the SkyWalk.

Whoa! 6:00 in the morning?!? eek!

Good luck with the climb on Satuday!

Yes. Don't forget: wear as little as possible. wink

Mark - Best of luck with the walk. Maybe next time you should form an Outsports team to do this with you.

[ April 21, 2005, 01:27 PM: Message edited by: scottie ]

Thanks also to scottie for your donation. In total, I collected $215 in pledges.

The climb went off well. The friend I was supposed to climb with unfortunately bailed at the last minute, so I had to do the climb alone. There was plenty of eye candy, though, in the form of cute straight guys in shorts (at some times I was given renewed vigor, as I discovered that when you are climbing stairs behind a cute guy, your eyes are at the level of his butt wink ... and I managed to keep up with a couple of young guys for a time before, due to my age and lack of fitness, I began flagging and I was left behind with the teen girls and middle aged women* ). *This is certainly not meant as a slight to teen girls and middle aged women--some of whom went flying past me.

The climb website will be posting times and photos on Monday (my proof for JiP wink ), but I can tell you I finished with a time of 24 minutes, 21 seconds. I was a bit disappointed in that, but at least it'll give me incentive to train for the fall stair climb (for the United Way).

(The best time of the day was something under 11 minutes for men, under 14 minutes for women.)

[ April 24, 2005, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: canmark ]

Congratulations, Mark! Sounds like the 'view' while climbing the CN Tower was just as attractive as what you see from the observation deck! What's next, Mount Everest?

There was a similar climb for the Alberta Wilderness Foundation last weekend at the Calgary Tower. There are only about half as many steps (802) as the CN Tower. Apparently a 90 year-old woman successfully completed two climbs!

Bravo canmark. Don't bemoan your "age and lack of fitness," it's just those things that provided you with the nice views. If you were younger and/or more fit, you would have been in the lead, with nothing to view but stairs.

Bravo again.

~Adam

Don't improve too much. You want to keep just behind the cute straight boys, not move ahead of them...on the other hand, perhaps they're not all straight and your passing them might be a good thing.

Congratulations. The animals of the world thank you.

The results are in. My climber number (TT4272)... reveals that I finished in 1862nd place. Woo hoo! (They say over 4000 people did the climb, and the fastest time was 10 minutes, 34 seconds.)