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AB, known for a while as Captain Adventure, has started a beginner's class in playing the bagpipe. To my way of thinking, this is not so much an adventure as an astonishing foray into -- at least at the start -- making dying animal noises. (Don't misunderstand. I'm rather fond of bagpipes and the people who play them well.)

More importantly, he has entered the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb, to be held March 8, 2014 in Seattle, on behalf of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The event will take place at the Columbia Center, the second tallest building west of the Mississippi. Entrants will race up 69 flights of stairs (1,311 steps or 69 flights up from street level to the observation deck) while wearing full fire gear and SCBA breathing devices -- equipment that totals an extra 80-90 pounds. Organizers say that more than 1,900 firefighters from 300 different departments are expected to compete, making it "the single largest firefighting competition in the world."

He's already started training on his days off. The first day, he said, he did 72 flights of stairs, but he wore all the equipment -- an extra 80-90 pounds -- for only half of them, because he wanted to "ease into it." Some of us define "ease" differently.

So as I'm reading, I'm thinking, "Man.....hustling up 69 floors at speed is almost impossible to imagine". Then you add in the 80 to 90 pounds of gear! Sheesh!

BTW, at an average of 7-1/2" per step, that's about 820 feet up in the air.

My admiration for Captain Adventure has grown even more, because he's becoming a piper! It makes me want to learn the bodhran, so I could accompany him.



Oh, that stairclimb competition sounds impressive, too. (You do mean 2015, don't you?)

Silver --

Love reading Adventure Boy's adventures.

Thank you for posting this. I look forward to seeing how the Stairclimb - and training for it - goes.

Good for him. Now when he does the comp, in full gear, PLAYING the pipes, he will have made it!

Good luck...

ulysses5019 wrote:Good luck...

Found it!

And WTG, Captain Adventure.

ulysses5019 wrote:Good luck...

Found it!

Rats! Too slow!

jaybee wrote:So as I'm reading, I'm thinking, "Man.....hustling up 69 floors at speed is almost impossible to imagine". Then you add in the 80 to 90 pounds of gear! Sheesh!

BTW, at an average of 7-1/2" per step, that's about 820 feet up in the air.

The official height is 943 feet.

So what's the highest?

Spoiler

The U.S. Bank Building in L.A.

MarleysGh0st wrote:My admiration for Captain Adventure has grown even more, because he's becoming a piper! It makes me want to learn the bodhran, so I could accompany him.



Oh, that stairclimb competition sounds impressive, too. (You do mean 2015, don't you?)

Marley, I think you deserve a bodhran! You've wanted one for years. Maybe this is the year to indulge yourself.

And, yes, I did mean 2015.

One reason that I was extra-pleased to hear about this competition is that, through it, the firefighters raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which has been my personal favorite charity since 2004. That was the year Ashley, the brave white whippet, was diagnosed with lymphoma exactly one week after my show aired on WWTBAM. I learned then that the chemo protocol for canine lymphoma followed almost exactly the protocol for humans. That doesn't work for most other kinds of cancer in dogs. For Ashley, the chemo was effective for several months, but he reached a point where he could no longer tolerate the strong drugs. Alas, that sometimes happens with humans, too. Nevertheless, the treatment extended his life for months, with many more good days than bad ones.

That was the first year I made a donation to LLS, and I have continued that practice every year since then. I take the straightforward position that whatever research can be funded may very well help one of my furry friends (or me, or one of my human friends) in the future.

I appreciate that the adventurous one is taking the fund-raising part of the competition as seriously as the training. Through his Facebook page and e-mails to relatives and old friends, he already has generated sponsorship contributions from old friends dating back to high school and before, previous co-workers in Wyoming and eastern Idaho, neighbors and others in less than a week.

While I am not saying that any of you "should" contribute as well, I know some of you have lost great friends or loved ones to leukemia or lymphoma (or, thankfully, who have survived the threat of a blood cancer.) If you would be interested in making a gift to LLS through the Stairclimb (or if you simply want to make a charitable tax-deductible contribution to a good cause before the end of the year), here is my favorite link: http://www.llswa.org/site/TR?px=1688880 ... afId=25920

If you prefer, you also could click the blue "Boise Fire Department" link on that page and pick out a firefighter name at random, or check with your local firefighters to see if they are putting a team together.

One further note for those who worry about such things: any gifts go directly to the LLS, not the firefighters. Each entrant from Boise and elsewhere must pay for his or her own airfare and hotel in Seattle, so no part of a contribution will be diverted to pay personal expenses for participants.

Bob Juch wrote:

jaybee wrote:So as I'm reading, I'm thinking, "Man.....hustling up 69 floors at speed is almost impossible to imagine". Then you add in the 80 to 90 pounds of gear! Sheesh!

BTW, at an average of 7-1/2" per step, that's about 820 feet up in the air.

The official height is 943 feet.

So what's the highest?

Spoiler

The U.S. Bank Building in L.A.

There you go again with the unsolicited misinformation.

Jaybee was estimating the height of the stairs, not the height of the building. In many buildings, as with you, the stairs don't go all the way to the top. The stairs in the Columbia Center are 788ft of vertical elevation. Jaybee's estimate was much closer than your Googled figure.

As to your fun fact - wrong again.

Spoiler

In the U.S., there are 10 buildings taller than the L.A.'s U.S. Bank Tower. It is the tallest west of the Mississippi River, but you made no mention of that.

Estonut wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:

jaybee wrote:So as I'm reading, I'm thinking, "Man.....hustling up 69 floors at speed is almost impossible to imagine". Then you add in the 80 to 90 pounds of gear! Sheesh!

BTW, at an average of 7-1/2" per step, that's about 820 feet up in the air.

The official height is 943 feet.

So what's the highest?

Spoiler

The U.S. Bank Building in L.A.

There you go again with the unsolicited misinformation.

Jaybee was estimating the height of the stairs, not the height of the building. In many buildings, as with you, the stairs don't go all the way to the top. The stairs in the Columbia Center are 788ft of vertical elevation. Jaybee's estimate was much closer than your Googled figure.

As to your fun fact - wrong again.

Spoiler

In the U.S., there are 10 buildings taller than the L.A.'s U.S. Bank Tower. It is the tallest west of the Mississippi River, but you made no mention of that.

You are an idiot. In your obsessive quest to call me wrong at every opportunity you misinterpret my postings.

I was not stating the height of the stairs and in the context of the post that the Columbia Center was #2 it was obvious what #1 meant.

I'm sure no one else misinterpreted what I posted.

It's great to see you and Captain Adventure involved in this!

Captain Adventure continues to amaze and impress! I am a little confused, though. Is he planning to play the bagpipes when he reaches the top? That would be epic. Feel free to suggest it to him.

tlynn78 wrote:Captain Adventure continues to amaze and impress! I am a little confused, though. Is he planning to play the bagpipes when he reaches the top? That would be epic. Feel free to suggest it to him.

I hope not; someone might throw him off.

Those firefighter competitions are amazing. I saw the list of events for a national competition in Florida a while back. You would be the fittest sonofagun in the state, if the training regimen didn't kill you first.

Here's hoping for a great, injury-free race and successful fundraising effort for your youngun.

I am impressed. (I'm lucky to be able to climb up a stepping stool to change a light bulb, these days. The roofer who vaulted from my too-short ladder through the porch hatch onto the roof was also very impressive, if loony to do it. Firefighters awe me. And always have the right equipment with them, unlike my landlord's roofer, even if it does weight a lot.)

Bob Juch wrote:

Estonut wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:The official height is 943 feet.

So what's the highest?

Spoiler

The U.S. Bank Building in L.A.

There you go again with the unsolicited misinformation.

Jaybee was estimating the height of the stairs, not the height of the building. In many buildings, as with you, the stairs don't go all the way to the top. The stairs in the Columbia Center are 788ft of vertical elevation. Jaybee's estimate was much closer than your Googled figure.

As to your fun fact - wrong again.

Spoiler

In the U.S., there are 10 buildings taller than the L.A.'s U.S. Bank Tower. It is the tallest west of the Mississippi River, but you made no mention of that.

You are an idiot. In your obsessive quest to call me wrong at every opportunity you misinterpret my postings.

I was not stating the height of the stairs and in the context of the post that the Columbia Center was #2 it was obvious what #1 meant.

I'm sure no one else misinterpreted what I posted.

I am an idiot. I didn't know that I need to go 9 posts back to find the reference you failed to quote when you've provided another. If you were referring to sc's OP, why did you quote Jaybee's post? Now, you are saying your response had nothing to do with his quote. Perhaps you lack the technical expertise to quote the correct post?

As for "every opportunity" - oh, please. Nearly every post from you offers the opportunity to point out bullshit. I respond to but a fraction of them.