Aviemore climber Jamie is 'top of the world'
We all have a mountain to climb with this appalling pandemic upon us – but some are still managing to scale the heights, despite the lockdown.
Take Jamie Graham, who's just managed to scale Mount Everest while observing the regulations!
The 31-year-old Aviemore joiner decided to devote his daily periods 'allowed out of the house' to running up the rock which looms over his house on Grampian Road, accompanied by his faithful spring-ador Brora.
"I'm self-employed and still waiting to hear if I'm going to get any help from the government to tide me over the lockdown," he told the Strathy, "so I needed something to focus on, to take my mind off my worries."
An added frustration for him was his long-held love of mountaineering. Jamie is a serious outdoor type.
"It was the thought of climbing Everest that put the idea in our heads."
His partner Emma Norton – an outdoor type herself, organising the Rothiemurchus Quad Bike explorations for a living – agreed that it would be a brilliant to figure out just how many up-and-down trips on Craigellachie would equate to climbing the biggest mountain on the planet.
"We decided it would effectively be 29 and a quarter, so Jamie just rounded it up," said Emma.
And, just to make it a 'real' challenge, he thought he'd do it carrying a 20 kilo weight vest!
Thus did Strathspey witness the great Craigeverest Challenge.
It ran until today (Thursday, April 23) and a triumphant Jamie confessed: "I'm going to need a couple of days' rest now. My legs are pretty tired!"
Not surprising, he agreed, after "160km/99 miles of hill running on a 9060m vertical ascent – we reckon that it was actually 212 vertical meters higher than Mount Everest from mean sea level."
During the challenge he burned 23,000 kcal.
"I'd be really delighted if it gave some other people the idea of scaling their own favourite peaks. I can assure them it really works in getting your mind focussed. Much better than just sitting at home!"
