More than 30 intrepid challengers, including Phil Spencer, the Channel 4 presenter of Location, Location, Location and Love it or List It have raised a combined £1m in a tough charity ski challenge staged in Verbier, Switzerland.
‘Everest in the Alps: The Second Ascent’ challenged participants to ski uphill the equivalent to the 8848m vertical height of Everest over four days with the aim of raising money for the recently established Everest Centre for research in Germany – a leading research centre into paediatric low grade tumours which opened in June 2017.
“It was a personal Everest for everyone. It was simply incredible and something I would never have thought I would have been able to achieve. It was the epic challenge of my life!” said Phil.
The four-day challenge tested all skiers to their limits. They ascended up to 2,500 metres a day to reach their target, burning off the equivalent calories of running several back-to-back marathons on each of the four days.
Along the route, the teams spent the nights in mountain huts, giving them a basic but well-earned rest and a chance to gather their strength and a short respite from temperatures as low as -30°C. Long days meant that they had to be back on the slopes as early as 5:30am each morning.
At the end of the Challenge, hitting the summit happened very quickly, according to Phil,
“The last day was a really early start. I was tired and a few things went wrong in the first 20 mins of that day and I was out of sorts. It took me a while to find my rhythm, to get my positive head on. I felt like I was letting people down and realised I needed to stop panicking, that I needed to wake up and focus. Then we hit blizzard conditions for three hours with no communication and not really able to look around. It was a surreal ‘heads down’ kind of state.”
“After a few hours, I had no idea we had climbed so far and then the call came down the line that we only had 250 metres to go. It was a shock to be honest. Then the smiles came out for everyone and the high spirits soared for the last hour. It was the ultimate elation; everyone was tired, happy, emotional – you name it. It was a wonderful feeling, finally finishing such a remarkable challenge,” Phil concluded.
The first Everest in the Alps was staged in 2015, organised by Rob Ritchie whose, 10-year-old Toby, still has to climb in his fight against the disease. The monies raiused helped establish the Everest Centre which opened last June.
Sarah Lindsell, Chief Executive of The Brain Tumour Charity, said: “We are immensely proud and humbled to support everything that Rob, his family and the teams have done with Everest in the Alps. This will make a real difference to the lives of children everywhere affected by a brain tumour diagnosis and treatment. Every year, 500 children and young people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour and they are the biggest cancer killer of children and young people in the UK.”
Pictures © Tom McShane, Adventure In Focus / Everest in the Alps