And the winners are...

Congratulations to, Rose Williams, Tess Saunders, Jason Thorne, Kevin Knight, Carrie Tomlinson, Abbie Keeper, Danielle Bassett, Laura Sperring, Sarah Whatty, Ian Cox and Hannah Clay who have all won prizes in our prize draw.

The Big Vertical Marathon Tour has now come to an end. It has been one hell of an adventure with both highs and lows. We thank you all one last time for all your support and good wishes over the last year.

On a personal note I would like to say a huge thank you to Cherry, Justin, Robin and Dan who willingly gave up their time, it will never be forgotten.

Bye for now!

Paul

Prize Draw Closed.

The prize draw is now closed. Thank you so much to everyone who has entered. The draw will take place some time over the next two days and I will publish the results here as soon as all winners are confirmed.

Thank you and good luck to eveyone who has entered.

It's all worthwhile.

I recieved this email a few days ago which the author has kindly let me share with you. It perfectly illustrates the reason we decided to take on this challenge from the outset.

Hi.

I think what you guys did was great, raising money and awareness and promoting the sport in itself as a way to break free from the stresses of daily life. Climbing for me has been such an important role in finding a focus with life and moving forward as well as gaining confidence, self belief and that sense of achievement and freedom.

I was diagnosed with leukemia 3 years ago now, and at the time had only been climbing for just under a year. Having had many goals in life and having them potentially crushed was devastating. At the time you feel limited, weak and it's hard to see a light. Once things were more under control, it had already been months and I had lost 10kg in weight and a lot of muscle. My brother and sister were keen climbers and would force me to come along just to get moving. It became a center point of my life, at first as a distraction and an escape, but now, as way of life. It has shown me that you can still achieve great things and that you can fight back. Exercise is great for the mind and being outdoors, for the spirit.

I had recovered faster than anyone previously at my hospital and have taken part in various medical trials to help others benefit. I had pushed for alternative ways of taking my medicine, Glivec, for those who find it hard to swallow or have problems with nausia and taste. Where previously it was taken alone with water, now it's accepted it can be taken with any juice except Grapefruit and can be taken with a meal, lets say with mashed potatoes to protect the taste and protect the stomach lining. Though still on medication, I manage to overcome most of the side effects, which prevent many people on it from taking part in sports and having an active lifestyle. Climbing is definately something that can get those people out of bed and doing something which makes them stronger and happier. If you fight, you can achieve things you didn't even know possible.

Just for posterity.

Here are copies of the ancient way we decided to log our climbs. After testing numerous counting machines and finding that they all either ran out of battery after an hour, got clogged up with chalk or just fell apart in our hands we decided to stick with good old pen and paper. Each tick is a single climb between 7 and 12 meters, but most were 10 meters.



Undercover Rock



Dart Rock



Redpoint



Awesome Walls















NCC



NCC Overflow ticks!



The Foundry



Craggy Island



Beast of Beasts, the results are in.

Here it is, a full list of results from our very successful chin up comp. (Please click on image for large view). Thank you and well done to everyone who took part in the event, it was great to see those competitive juices flowing!

Due to a very close call at the top of the leader board we went back to the guys at Beastmaker who, after deliberation have decided that Patrick Brosnan is the most deserving winner with a fantastic 43.5 consecutive chin ups, great effort Patrick, well done.   

Beast of Beasts chin up comp results

Hi Guys,

Apologies for the delay in getting these results online and announcing the winner. I will try and get it all up online by the end of tomorrow. My fingers have just about recovered enough to put this message up! Please stick with us, we will announce the results as soon as possible.

Also, don't forget there is still time to enter our prize draw through our just giving page. For details of prizes please go to our prize draw page.

More here soon.

Paul

Craggy Finale!

Done!

42195m climbed! Paul and Robin finished at Craggy with their final routes at 8.30pm yesterday. Thank you everyone for your support, it's been immense! Video to follow...

Halfway through today's routes!

Paul and Robin are 250 routes down, 250 to go (plus the final 10 glory laps!). New shoes are helping with very sore feet, and lunch is going down to fuel the home stretch.

Final day!

We're at Craggy Island, Paul and Robin are about half an hour into their second shift of routes. Last night we did the maths to find out exactly how far they've already climbed, and how far they have to go today. By popular request the the "Everest Chart" has been updated to see where we are.

The breakdown today is there are 7240m to go, the guys are doing laps on a 7m slab and aiming for around 500 each to get the bulk done, then for the finale they'll switch to a 10m vertical wall for the final routes. They're off to a flying start this morning but, as ever, progress slows through the day as they burn off their fried breakfasts and start pushing into energy reserves that, by this stage, they don't have left.

Here's a quick video diary from Robin filmed in their morning break, we'll keep you posted later!

Day 6

Video diary from Day 6 at the Foundry.



The guys have started climbing at Craggy, 100 routes each on a 7m slab down, 400 to go, we're on track!

Day 5 Video Diary

Here's the video blog from day 5 at Newcastle Climbing Centre:



We're just finishing up at The Foundry, Paul's finished his daily allowance, Robin's trying to catch up on missed mileage from yesterday.

Day 4

Here's the video diary from the end of Day 4.

Check out our facebook page for photos!



The boys are just finishing up at Newcastle, we're about to get on the road to Sheffield, thanks for reading!

On the move...

Hi

We're currently on the road, the M62 to be exact, heading north from Liverpool up the Newcastle. Sat nav is currently predicting a 1.30am arrival, with the next batch of routes ready for Paul and Robin at 10am...

Apologies for the lack of updates things have been pretty hectic and there just hasn't been time (or a decent WiFi connection!). Below is Paul and Robin's video diary from last night, they're filming tonight's as I type this but not sure when we'll have time to get that online.

We'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who's been so kind and supportive to us on the trip, it makes a real difference to a fairly daunting challenge. And a massive thanks everyone for your donations, you make the whole thing worthwhile.

Day 2

Two days down, five to go! The second day of the challenge went well with Paul and Robin storming up their routes in record time. Helped out by an almost continuous stream of belayers - thanks everyone for your support! The Beastmaker chin-up competition drew more entries today too, well done to everyone who took part. (Click right to see more)

From a personal point of view I am continually amazed and impressed by the support everyone is giving us, from the climbing wall staff to everyone who's thrown their change in the collecting tin. Most people have their own reasons why Cancer Research is a cause close to their hearts and I know as a team we are being continually humbled by the support and good wishes from all that we meet.

Paul and Robin's video blog:

First day done!

The marathon is underway! Paul and Robin pulled onto their first climb at 11.30pm today, and by 7.30pm 6000m was ticked. They're still finding their feet in terms of pacing the climbing to get enough done without burning out, mostly climbing in hour-long sessions with 20-minute breaks to rest and refuel. It's tiring stuff and already the miles are taking their toll on skin, muscles and toes. Spirits are high, though, and we're confident the boys can pull it off.

A big thank you to all the guys at Dart Rock, our outstanding volunteer belayers and everyone who's donated so far. See you in Bristol tomorrow!


Day 1 of the Tour! from The Big Vertical Marathon Tour on Vimeo.

At last, it's time to climb!

After eight months of preparation it is finally time to start. We are now itching to just get started. Thanks again to everyone who has supported this event and we look forward to meeting some of you on the road.

Don't forget to keep your eyes on this website and our Facebook page as we will update both with progress reports, videos and more every day.

I'm off to pack now!

Just to clarify...

Hi all, we hope you enjoy the video below. Just to clarify, the images of us training in the video show us leading the routes. Come the actual event however, we wont be doing any leading, it will all be top roped.

It will be hard enough without the added complications of stopping to clip in which takes up energy and, just as importantly, time. Also, we will be getting pretty knackered and it would become all too easy to make a stupid mistake like back clipping or even forgetting to clip altogether!

Hopefully though, by doing some harder leading as part of the training, it will help increase our stamina. Train hard, fight easy and all that! (wishfull thinking I fear)

Robin

Don't Miss Out

Happy New Year,

I hope you all had a fantastic festive period. Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated, we really appreciate your support.

If you would like to donate don't miss out on our fantastic prize draw, (details of which can be found on our website). Remember, all you need to do is make sure you supply your email address when donating on Just Giving and you will automatically be entered, once for every pound you donate. Or, if you would rather, come down and see us during our trip and donate in person, we would love to say thank you in person. While your there you can try and win a Beastmaker fingerboard in our search for the Beast of Beasts.

If you don't fancy digging deep please come along and support us by donating some belay time, we need as much help as we can get!

We all look forward to seeing you in a few weeks time down at the wall.

Best go, I've got some training to do.

Paul