Workplace manager goes up in the world
BBC man aims to climb North America's highest peak for Children in Need
by Adam Banbury
BBC Workplace's Rod Hogg will attempt his hardest challenge yet when he sets off to tackle North America's highest mountain on May 30.
The senior performance manager is set to ascend the heady peak of Mount McKinley - a 20,320 feet (6194 metre) mountain, now more properly referred to by its native American title Denali, or 'high one' - for Children in Need.
Though Hogg admitted that fitting in training for the trip around work commitments was tricky, he has still found time for running, cycling, gym workouts and 17-mile training walks with a 25 kg pack. 'Physically and mentally I'm strong, but the rest is in the hands of the gods as they say,' he told Ariel online.
Rod is a seasoned climber who has hoisted himself up icy ranges from Mont Blanc to Mount Kilimanjaro, which he successfully scaled in February this year. Despite this wealth of experience, he reckons Denali will still pose a challenge:
'It's definitely the hardest I've done,' he said. 'People who have done Everest think Denali is comparable because of the demands one goes through. There are no porters, you take everything yourself, and you've got to look after yourself. It's going to be tough.' So tough in fact that he recently received an email from expedition organisers Mountain Trip informing him that a member of their current expedition had collapsed and died on the mountain. Despite this, Rod is confident in his abilities and is looking forward to the expedition.
For those keen to follow Rod's fundraising climb his website provides more information on both the man and the mountain and there is an opportunity to donate to Children in Need on his fundraising page.
Mountain Trip are providing an expedition blog, where people can also leave comments to be relayed to the climbers.
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I completed a 17 mile training walk on Saturday with a 25kg pack. It took 7 hours to do and the route walked was the Ashridge boundy trail. The circular walk goes round the National Trust’s Ashridge Estate, on the northern edge of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.Much of the walk is through beautiful beech woods so typical of the Chilterns, with a few sections through fields for variety, and the highlight of the walk is probably Ivinghoe Beacon, with its extensive views over the Vale of Aylesbury and towards Dunstable Downs. |
