O/T but worthy: Aconcagua and the NDCS

I blame Quins for this. It was as we relaxed with our beers on the turf at the Stoop after the Premiership final, waiting for the team to arrive with the trophy. That was when my mate Jeremy talked me into climbing a mountain with him. Mrs Poorfour, clearly giddy with the euphoria of the day, encouraged me to do it.

Jeremy and I have previous form for this sort of thing. 5 years ago we trekked to Everest Base Camp as part of a group raising money for VSO in Nepal. So, next January, we're going to try to climb Mount Aconcagua in aid of the NDCS. What? Who? You're all busy people, so I'll keep it short:

1) Aconcagua is a mountain in the Argentinean Andes, near the border with Chile. At 6,962m, it's the highest point on earth, as long as you ignore the bit being squeezed between China and India...
2) ...in fact, since we'll be climbing during the northern hemisphere's winter (when people don't tend to climb high mountains) there is a good chance that if we summit, we will be the highest people on the planet at that precise moment in time
3) There isn't any technical climbing involved, but the altitude and weather make it difficult - only about one third of attempts are successful
4) It's a private trip, and we're paying for all the expenses ourselves, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to raise funds for the National Deaf Children's Society. My youngest daughter is hearing impaired and the NDCS has been a huge help. Any and all the money I raise will go direct to them.

My fundraising page is here. I've set a target of £6,962, the height of the mountain in metres

And if you're interested, I'm keeping a blog.

I do hope you'll support me... As an added incentive, I'm going to post this on a range of rugby boards (here, and the rugby network ones). If people mention which team they support in their donations, I will wear the shirt of the one that raises the most money on the mountain.

If you'd like to help in a more active way, too, I am trying to put a charity go-karting evening together. It'll be a weekday evening in October, somewhere near London. I need around 15 teams to make it work. If you'd be interested, get in touch by PM.

Thanks for listening (and, I hope, donating)

Jason / Poorfour

What is NDCS?

The National Deaf Children's Society - it's highlighted in bold and I've explained why I'm supporting them half way down the post.

Sorry, should have read your post a little more carefully.

Aconcagua. One day maybe for me. Good luck.

By the way, if anyone was thinking of making a donation but hasn't done so yet, now's a really good time to do it. If I can raise £750, I can get my employer to donate a matching £750... and I'm currently just £26.56 short!

a worthy cause, best of luck!

Thanks to all of you who've donated so far - I've reached my first big fundraising milestone in only a week... Here's a blog post about it

In fundraising terms, we've now gone past the top of Scafell Pike and we're on the summit ridge of Snowdon (but still 100m from the summit) - two new posts to celebrate

Well. in fundraising terms we're now just outside the Top 10 mountains in Britain and closing in on Ben Nevis - I've added some posts to the blog to celebrate.