ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES CHARITY FEATURES
High voltage
SELECT Member Gordon McArthur recently completed an arduous climb to Everest Base Camp as part of a group that raised £50,000 for the Electrical Industries Charity. Here, the WMQ Managing Director talks us through the peaks – and troughs – of his adventure
Hi Gordon. Why did you want to take part in the challenge? I’d undertaken a few things for the Electrical Industries Charity (EIC) before, like the London Marathon, and heard about their other fundraising challenges which sounded good. I’d always wanted to try to do something out of my comfort zone, so when the opportunity arose, I jumped at it. I really wanted to see if I could rise to the challenge.
Who did you do it with? I did it with one of my friends, David Bradley, who works for Keepmoat Homes. We train together and had done a couple of marathons together and always like to challenge each other. So when this came up, David jumped at it too. I think maybe we were a bit naive, thinking, ‘OK, it’s just Base Camp, so shouldn’t be too bad.’ But the closer it got, the more we realised what we’d committed ourselves to.
Did you do any special training? We trained for around nine months, doing a variety of gym work, running and tackling various Munros and hills. We climbed places like Ben Lomond and Conic Hill, going up and down with backpacks on. We also did a number of 10-mile walks round Chatelherault Park near Hamilton. The only thing we couldn’t prepare for was the altitude, so we were quite nervous about that.
And how did it turn out? It was fine – the altitude didn’t affect us much at all. Once we started walking, we could tell the air was thinning out a bit, and we did feel a bit breathless from time to time, but that was about it. We got through everything else no problem.
What were the other challenges? The physical side was fine and really enjoyable; it was the basic accommodation and lack of heating and hot water that was more of
an issue. Psychologically, that was a wee bit harder. Some of the lows came after a day’s hike, bedding down in a 2x2m room – the spirits definitely flagged a bit then. We were staying in tea houses, which were extremely basic buildings with a communal eating and toilet area. They were the most basic conditions I’ve ever experienced, but at the same time it made a better experience too; if you’d been staying in a comfy hotel each night it wouldn’t have been the same.
And what were the best bits? The camaraderie and humour between us all was fantastic – we all made light of the situation and everyone got on and pulled in the same direction. In total, it was 14 days of getting thrown together
32 CABLEtalk DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Gordon (left) with his friend and training buddy David Bradley
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
