Tiso Employee takes on 3,280ft Greenland Challenge
Go-getting Tiso employee Cathy Alldred is set for the biggest climbing challenge of her life. This week the 40-year-old from Edinburgh will journey to the remote glaciers of East Greenland to climb the sheer granite peeks of Fox Jaw Cirque.
To help Cathy turn her dreams of climbing the cirque into reality Tiso is sponsoring her Greenland Expedition – supplying both equipment and footwear.
The ominously named Fox Jaw Cirque is one of the toughest climbing destinations in the world. With peaks standing at more than 3,000ft, only the most experienced climbers have what it takes to tackle the ascent.
During the six-week-long expedition Cathy hopes to establish new routes on the cirque – scaling dangerous peaks, which have never been touched by human hands.
For months on end Expedition Leader Cathy and her team of four seasoned climbers; Sion Brocklehurst, Robert Durran, Pat Ingram and Simon Smith have been training for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. As well as enduring tough workouts at the Edinburgh International Climbing Area in Ratho where Cathy is based, they have tackled a number of arduous climbs in Scotland, the Lake District and North Wales.
Cathy said: “I first heard about Fox Jaw Cirque through Craig Mathieson; Scotland’s ‘Explorer-in-Residence’. He asked me what would be my dream climb and I told him I wanted to climb where not many people had been before.
“Ratho is around 28 metres in height and now I’ll be going up something which is 1,000 metres up. We have had to organise and plan everything including food for six weeks and how we will set up base camp. As a team we’ll all have to work together.”
An experienced indoor climber, Cathy works as a sales assistant at the Tiso Ratho store. The store has the biggest range of climbing equipment in the country and is set within the biggest indoor climbing arena in the world.
Cathy added: “Doing something like Fox Jaw Cirque is amazing but also pretty scary and it’s certainly going to be a challenge.If I inspire just one person to go and do something that they never thought they could do then it’s been a success, it’s not always about the summit but the lessons learned on the journey.”
Cathy is making a film about her epic trip called Wall-to-Wall, which she hopes will form part of the 2015 Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival. On her return she will also embark upon a mini lecture tour about her climbing experience.
CEO of Tiso, Chris Tiso added: “We are immensely proud of Cathy for undertaking this challenge and she sets a great example to other enthusiasts to show what can be achieved through plenty of training and a passion for the great outdoors.
“For over fifty years, Tiso has been helping our staff and customers have adventures, whether large or small, with friends, family or alone in the wilds. For us the outdoors isn’t just a living, it’s a way of life and Cathy is testament to our belief that life is an adventure. We are delighted to be supply her and the team.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
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