From Kyle and Jordan’s friend, Aaron Picar:
A couple good friends of mine, Kyle Gerecke and Jordan Duncan will be climbing the 18,410-foot Pico de Orizaba and 17,158 “Ixta” in Mexico to raise money for Big City Mountaineers.
They’ve got $7500 to raise and the money will fund backpacking and canoeing
trips for at-risk inner-city teens in Colorado, California, the Pacific Northwest and the Boundary Waters. All the participants come from youth agencies like College Track and The Boys & Girls Club. and help a bunch of teens spend a week in the mountains next summer, and hopefully alter the course of their lives. An $18 donation will pay for part of the costs of a teen to spend a week in the backcountry with some positive role models.
So to raise part of their money, Kyle and Jordan started climbing the courthouse steps at 3am. It’s about 54 steps and 32 feet.
I joined in at 1pm, really to provide moral support and get a good workout. What
resulted is quite possibly the most epic thing I’ve done.
By the time we finished at 7pm, I ended up going 6 hours, climbed the stairs 200
times, for about ten miles.
Kyle and Jordan climbed for 16 hours, 500 climbs, for 26 miles each. That’s a
marathon worth of steps. I’m in good shape, but these boys are in extreme
shape.
Most of the downtown businesses donated, telling us, “We’ve been watching you
all day,” as they put money in the donation box.
Interested in climbing the volcanoes in Mexico? There’s still time to sign up!
Wilderness Musings: Big City Mountaineers 