Hey everyone,

Yesterday I did my fifth firefighter stairclimb, which benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society here in Washington. It sells out at 1,500 firefighters each year, and we climb 69 floors in full gear, on air, in the Columbia Tower in downtown Seattle.

This year I thought it would be appropriate to take one of my ausmini shirts up the tower, as a reflection of the current project. See the before and after pictures below.

You can read more about the climb at www.firefighterstairclimb.org and my personal page for the event was here: www.llswa.org/event/bmac2011

Hope all had a great weekend! Back to working on the mini this week...

Ben McC

The nemesis:


Before:


After:


Cool view from the 73rd floor, looking at Lake Washington and some neat clouds/light:

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Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

Wow!!!


Reckon i'd get dizzy half way up, and need a nap !

Tops effort though and for a good cause! Well done Ben!!

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Cheers, Kim
**purple '68 deluxe!**


***FINALLY wearing number plates----yeaaaaaah baby! ***

good work mate! top pics

bloody hell - you're a machine!

cool helmet

Nice one - we did a 14 floor dash in sports gear at work once - blokes were chucking up and I felt decidedly ill for a few hours afterwards. Can't imagine that many floors in fire gear...

Good on you for the hard work and supporting a great cause

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In full turnout gear and BA, well done!

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Your silliness has been noted.

Um, maybe a broken down machine. When people ask "how'd you do?", I say, "Any stairclimb that doesn't involve a heart attack is a good stairclimb."

My time was 25:15, and the winning time for the men was 10:53. That's right, ten minutes and 53 seconds. THAT GUY is a machine...

Speaking of helmets, the Kiwis field a team every year, and they have the coolest helmets around. I can't find a good picture, but there are a couple from last year at the end of this blog entry:

http://www.sarahalstonphotography.com/2 ... limb-2010/

They basically have the national flag airbrushed over the top, looks like cloth and really nicely done.

Ben

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Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

They are a "Pacific" brand helmet, I think they were initially made in NZ. They are very popular over here with most of the emergency services.

http://www.pacifichelmets.com/index.php ... e-fighting

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Your silliness has been noted.

Yeah, that's them, minus the airbrushing. Nice stuff. I have a similar helmet in my backup turnouts, and the one in my picture above in my primary turnouts. The one above has a cool eye shield inside the helmet, just flips down over the eyes when needed.

The Kiwis are pretty hard core in the climb too--serious competitors.

b

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Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

WOW!! full turn out gear and BA thats incredible.

The boots are heavy enough (I hate the weight of our boots) I would hate to climb a stack of stairs in our boots never the less in full turnout gear with BA.

Well done

I love the american helmets with the big badge thingy on the front i reckon they are very cool

Brenton

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We have the newer Lion Apparel turnouts that hold very little water. Still, with full turnouts and SCBA, it all weighs in at about 60 pounds. The one thing they won't let us wear during the climb is our flash hoods--to try to keep people just a bit cooler. They also have volunteers every ten floors who will pour water down your back if you like (I like) and medics all along the way who pull people out of the stairwell who are looking bad. Out of 1,500 climbers, believe this or not, they only have 3-4 per year who get a ride to the hospital.

I like the black helmet too--I would love to get a traditional leather one at some point (same style, but leather shell) but they are $$$.

b

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Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

Did anyone else look at this photo and see Mick in a Firey's suit!?



Seriously, you guys could be brothers

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

yes, they are very similar hahaha

Still the ambos would still be busy...that's 45 - 60 people carted off!
Well done mate. You look so much better in the first shot, that's for sure!

"Per Year", not "per cent"

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges