FAQs
-
How did you get into climbing?
One of the reasons that climbing appealed to me so much when I first started was that I was crap at proper sports like football, rugby or cricket. Climbing gave me something that I could focus on and try my best to excel at. I believe that we all have it within ourselves to be ‘great’ at something in life - however the hardest thing is often discovering what your passion might be.
My first experience climbing came about after a friend invited me down to Swanage for a weekends rock climbing with our school PE teacher, and I thought, ‘Why not?!’ I had the most amazing weekend at Dancing Ledge, fell in love with the sport, and I’ve never looked back (or down!) since.
-
Ahhh, the million dollar question! The truth of the matter is that there is no guaranteed way to secure funding for a trip (other than taking a high interest loan!). First of all, let me say that I have had to curtail, postpone or cancel trips due to sponsorship issues (mainly the lack of!). This is the same with all ‘professional climbers, adventurers’ etc. However there are a few juicy tit-bits that I will share:
If someone is going to sponsor you, you have to ask yourself - ‘what can I give back to them’.
Be professional. Sponsoring an expedition is no different to investing in a high risk business. Prepare some good quality literature to hand out. This should include information about the project (without going into too much detail), why a sponsor should invest in you, what this expedition can give back to the sponsor and other vital information. Telling them that you’ll have their logo on your chest is rarely enough.
Make your proposal look attractive and professional. Design a sponsorship proposal document, have it nicely bound and able to be given to anyone appropriate that you meet (I always carry a few spare in my car or briefcase, just in case!). Have a pdf version that you can email (relatively small file size so you don’t crash other peoples computers)(this will also save you a lot in printing!). Don’t mention specific amounts of money in the document. If people are genuinely interested, they will get involved, don’t bullshit with ‘£1000 gets you silver level branding…’
No one is going to pay for your holiday, if that is how you sell it to them. However, there may well be people interested in investing in a experiencial event which will (hopefully) guarentee them PR exposure and ultimately a significant return on investment.
Start small. So you want someone to pay for your expedition to climb Kilimanjaro? To be honest Cantor-Fitzgerald, Pepsi and HSBC aren’t going to be interested. Start with your family. Sit down with your parents and write out a list of all of their friends who have half-decent jobs. Go to them. The personal connection is always going to be a good foot in the door. Personal contacts are what got me round the 7 summits (or my parents contacts!). Write them all a letter or email, and then follow it up with a phone call. Even better, go and see them, or invite them round for supper. Remember… it’s not what you know; it’s who you know.
Apply to grants, awards and trusts which might be applicable for what you are doing. Make sure that you are clear of the stipulations, so that you don’t waste your time, or the awarding body’s time.. www.wcmt.org.uk, www.rgs.org etc. Very few of these grants/awards are available for funding people to go on commercial expeditions, so once again, be aware of what you are applying for.
Raise money for charity. There are numerous opportunities to ‘climb Kili or cycle across Cuba’ for free (if you raise a sponsorship minimum). Make sure you read the small print, to see exactly how much money goes to the charity, and most importantly make sure that all your sponsors (friends and family) are happy with how much of their donation is going to charity. I’d be a little miffed if I sponsored you £100 to undertake a challenge, and only 50p actually made it to the charity - lets face it; I’ve just paid for your holiday.
If you have the right experience and are confident enough, consider organising a trip yourself. An expedition to Aconcagua now probably costs around £3000. When I did it solo, it cost me around £800. Ok you have to do a little more work…
If you are a member of the ACF/CCF/ TA etc, then you may be able to get money from your unit (or MTDs in the case of TA) for the expedition if it qualifies for AT.
Shop around for tour prices. Elbrus with Jagged Globe or Alpine Ascents costs around £2000/$5000. Pilgrim tours offer it for 590Euros! Tack on airfares to Moscow and MV, and you’re probably all in for £1000. Just be clear in what you are receiving for your money.
Make sure that you fulfill your obligations to your sponsor. They are the money - keep them sweet. And never promise anything that you cannot guarantee, just be careful with the wording!
Perseverance, perseverance perseverance. Be prepared to be turned away regularly, but don’t let it knock your confidence. If someone does say no, ask them why; it might give you a better idea at how to approach the next target.
Some of this information might be obvious, and I hope to add to it as I have bright ideas (without giving away all of my secrets!). Just remember, the definition of an expedition, is ‘a holiday that someone else pays for’. Sometimes, the only option is to just do some hard work and pay for it yourself like most people do.Whole books could be written on what to do, and what not to do, so I hope that these few paragraphs might give you a couple of ideas. Google ’sponsorship for expeditions’ for more ideas, also, Paul Deegan has written a chapter on this is the RGS handbook:
www.pauldeegan.com/sponsorpublicity/eac_sponsorship.pdf
-
How many fibres are intertwined in a Shredded Wheat biscuit?
I honestly have no idea. 3,076? 12 long ones? 40,230?
-
In which order did you climb the 7 Summits?
Footloose Expedition to Mt Kilimanjaro 5,896m/19,340ft
December 1999 aged 15
Footloose Expedition to Mt Kilimanjaro 5,896m/19,340ft. The first of his continental high points, Jake travelled to Tanzania with Hugh, his father, to climb Africa’s highest mountain. Jake (then aged 15) and Hugh arrived at the summit to watch the dawn of the new Millennium; the 1st January 2000.
Marlborough College Expedition to Cerro AconcaguaDecember 2000 aged 16
With a team made up almost entirely of 16 year olds, Jake was struck down by severe altitude sickness at the final camp at over 6000m. With the help of his team, he descended back to Basecamp, and rapidly recovered. Unfortunately, none of the expedition summited, but the trip proved invaluable as an experience of teamwork in the mountains.
7summits.com Expedition to Mt Elbrus 5,642m/18,481ftJuly 2002 aged 18
With his father Hugh, Jake travelled to the Caucasus on the Russian/Georgian border to climb Europe’s highest mountain. All of the international team (which included British, American, Australian and German climbers) summited.
Cerro Aconcagua 6,962m/22,835ftNovember-December 2002 aged 18
Jake returned to South America’s highest mountain in Argentina for a solo unsupported ascent. After 10 hard days of battling through storms and unusually cold weather, he reached the summit, and became the youngest person in the world to solo the Aconcagua (the highest mountain outside Asia).7summits.com Expedition to Mt McKinley/Denali 6,194m/20,230ft
June 2003 aged 19
With a team of Dutch climbers, Jake managed to climb North America’s highest peak in half the time of a usual ascent. After only 11 days, they reached the summit, and Jake still had the energy to do a headstand on the highest point in the Alaska Range.Mt Kosciusko 7,316 ft
September 2004 aged 20
Australia’s highest mountain, located in the Great Snowy Mountains in New South Wales is regarded as by far the easiest of the 7 summits. However, when Jake decided to attempt a solo winter ascent of the mountain, the unusually severe weather conditions forced him to have to make two attempts and was nearly the end of him. Expecting a walk in the park, and experiencing ‘the worst conditions he’d ever encountered in the mountains’ made the trip, ironically, one of the more memorable of his adventures.Adventure Peaks Vinson Massif Expedition 4,897m/16,067ft
December 2004 aged 20
On A/Ps first ever expedition to Vinson, the highest mountain in the Antarctic, Jake became the youngest person in the world to climb the mountain aged only 20. Despite temperatures as low as -70ºC, and having to have a team mate evacuated after he fell down a crevasse, Jake, Martin Doyle and Lee Farmer made it to the summit.Adventure Peaks Everest North Ridge Expedition 8,850m/29,035ft
April-June 2005 aged 21
On the 4th June 2005, Jake stood on the summit of Mt Everest, becoming the Youngest Briton to climb Everest and the Youngest Man in the world to climb the 7 summits. He reached the summit at 6.30am Nepalese time along with his expedition leader Di Gilbert and 2 Sherpas. Battling against the worst weather the mountain has experienced in 45 years, the team summited on day 64 of the expedition. -
What kind of watch do you wear?
I wear a Bremont Alti-P. Bremont are a relatively new British Company (but the watches are all made in Switzerland of course) owned by Nick and Giles English. I cannot say enough good things about the English brothers, or their amazing watches, and I am incredibly proud to wear such an indestructable yet beautiful timepiece on my wrist.
-
Who manufactures tyres for the batmobile?
Michelin? Man these are hard..
-
Although I very much started out as a rock climber (and I would still say that this is where my real enjoyment of the sport at its base level stems from), I was about 14 when I first found out about this challenge known as the 7 Summits. I had been reading the Jagged Globe expedition guide, and there was an article about a British climber called Sundeep Dhillon who, aged 28, had just become the youngest person to climb the 7 Summits.
Naturally, being only 14 myself I thought that 28 was practically ancient, and I decided that I could beat this record. The fact that I’d never climbed a mountain, or outside of the UK before didn’t seem to deter me, and I quite literally set my sights as high as possible. Naturally, at that stage, I would have never expected to have climbed Everest and completed this challenge by 21!
I get loads of emails every week, and most of them ask the same few questions. See if the FAQs and Answers below help you, and if not, or you have a unique question do get in touch.
