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OUR TEAM consists of Sid & Mar, Tarah & Quinn, Ken, Tod, Ken & Rita, plus our two guides.
Our guide is Craig VanHoy. We met him on the Climb For Clean Air. He was helping RMI (Rainier Mountain Inc.) as a guide on Mt Rainier for the event. Ken had Craig as a rope lead last year on Rainier. He has an excellent program & record. His personality, expertise & knowledge is very commendable. Craig owns his own guide company call Go Trek. Check him out at www.gotreck.com .
Our other guide is Gary Talcott. Look him up on the RMI website. Another very accomplished climber/guide.
We will have a great time!
SID'S NOTE:
Dear Friend,
As you know, my wife and I are preparing to embark on what may be the most challenging activity we’ve ever attempted. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro will take six days to ascend, and two days to descend. We are doing the climb as a personal challenge, but more importantly, as a participant in the Climb For Clean Air.
The Climb For Clean Air is a fundraising event, supporting the American Lung Association of Washington. Each climber is required to raise a minimum of $8,500 to qualify for a summit attempt of Mt. Kilimanjaro this September. This will be the first year that Mt. Kilimanjaro has been included in The Climb For Clean Air. My wife, Mar, got this climb started as a result of her involvement with the American Lung Association’s Mt. Rainier climb, which she successfully completed in the summer of 2001.
These funds support vital programs. In 2004, the American Lung Association of Washington:Helped retrofit 1,450 school buses with technology to protect school children and the environment from exposure to dangerous diesel exhaust fumes.Teens Against Tobacco Use facilitators educated more than 20,000 youth about the harms of smoking.Organized summer camps for kids with asthma. At the asthma-friendly summer camps, campers learned how to manage their asthma better.
In 2004, the Climb For Clean Air raised over $420,000 for the work of the American Lung Association® of Washington . You can make a difference!
My wife and I have already committed $4,250 each in personal contributions; this more than covers the out of pocket costs incurred by the American Lung Association for the climb. This means 100% of your contributions will go to programs, not my climb costs!
Your support for my quest would be greatly appreciated
You may make your check payable to “ALAW”, or American Lung Association of Washington, and forward it to my home address below, or you can make a tax deductible contribution online with a credit card at:
http://www.alaw.org/support_alaw/kilimanjaro_climb/SidTobiason
http://www.alaw.org/support_alaw/kilimanjaro_climb/MarTobiason
(please capitalize as indicated)
Kilimanjaro (kĭl´´ĭm njä´rō) , highest mountain of Africa, NE Tanzania. An extinct volcano, it rises in two snowcapped peaks, Uhuru (Kibo) (19,340 ft/5,895 m, Africa's highest point) and Mawenzi (17,564 ft/5,354 m), which are joined by a broad saddle (alt. c.15,000 ft/4,600 m). Coffee and plantains are the chief crops raised on Kilimanjaro's intensively cultivated lower southern slopes.Thank you for your support!
Sid Tobiason
MAR'S NOTE:
Hello to all my friends and Family~
I hope this finds you well. I’m doing well but some days I’m a little sore. That’s because I’m training once again to climb another mountain. After my successful, but tough summit of Mt. Rainier in July 2002 with the American Lung Association, I wasn’t sure that I’d be climbing again. Well, I guess it kinda gets in your blood. Although this climb isn’t as technical as Rainier it has a whole new set of challenges. For one thing it’s a lot higher, at 19,340 ft, the oxygen is even less than Rainier’s 14,411! And another rather important detail is that it’s quite far away…..like almost the other side of the world. This particular mountain is called the roof of its continent. The dormant volcano stands virtually alone in great splendor and has an ice-cap that is slowly shrinking each year. She is the tallest free standing mountain, covering some 3775 square kilometers and is called the mountain of GOD by the locals. The route will take 5 to 6 days up & two or so down. We’ll be climbing through 5 different climate zones. They say it’s like climbing stairs for 6 to 8 hours everyday. Doesn’t that sound fun? Yeah, right! The local language for hello is jambo and no problem is hakuna matata. By the way, I’m very happy to announce that my dear hubby, Sid, is climbing with me. (But next year is his year & we’ll go on a promised golf trip. Fair enough.) We are climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, known to locals & climbers as “Kili”. This huge mountain is located in northern Tanzania, just touching the southern border of Kenya, near the east coast of Africa.
This is a fund raiser for the American Lung Association of Washington (ALAW). It’s similar to my Rainier climb as far as support and fundraising. We are ALAW’s pilot group for this climb. Our guide, Craig Van Hoy (gotrek.com), has climbed Kili many times. We feel very confident in his hands. He has lead many teams up Mt Rainier for ALAW, working with Lou and Peter Whittaker and RMI (Rainier Mountaineer Inc.) That’s how we met. Craig has successfully summited the seven highest peaks on seven continents, including Everest, May 2004. He has loads of experience under his backpack!
Now comes the money part. Since we are the pilot group, we’ve had to work out our financial part between ALAW & Craig’s services. We’ve purchased our own airfare (which was shockingly high) and also thrown in a good chunk of our own money towards this climb. We feel that the Lung Association is such a great investment for our future health as well as our children and future grandchildren. That is our primary reason for training our backsides off to climb this mountain. Our secondary reason is, well… because it’s there. I am very happy to be climbing again with Ken Meitzner, my Rainier climbing buddy. Also joining us is our daughter Tarah and our son-in-law, Quinn Smith from San Diego, as well as 5 others. Our group is small but we’ll be mighty! My goal is to raise $10,000 dollars for ALAW. Sid has the same goal. Add that up and you see why we need your help. This is tax deductible for you and ALAW will send you a receipt. We were provided a website where you can donate on line, www.alaw.org/kilimanjaro/MarTobiason
Or you can send me a check made out to ALAW & send to 7805 Skipley Road
Snohomish, WA 98290 Call me if you have any questions ~ (425) 334-6028
Or give ALAW a call and tell them you want to donate to my climb to Kilimanjaro, giving them my name. (800) 732-9339
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help and support!
Some of the things that ALAW will do with your money are:
~Send kids to asthma camp so they can learn more about their asthma and how to live a productive life and just be a kid at camp! Most kids with asthma don’t ever get to attend camp. This camp is staffed with nurses and doctors with asthma experience.
~Fight for cleaner air for us all to breathe.
~Send out teens to talk to other teens about smoking, how to quit or why they should never start at all.
~Research lung disease to find cures and preventions
Oh… I guess I should tell you the date. We leave home on September 1, 2005; we fly to Amsterdam and then a direct flight to Tanzania. We start our climb on the 4th or 5th. We will be returning home on the 17th. This will be an awesome experience for all of us to be able to help so many in such a unique way. Anyone who contributes to our team will be part of our team and will be included on our climb. Your name will be on our list that will be with us the entire time! We are a team and you can be part of it!
If you donate $50.00 or more I’d like to send you a small gift right away as a thank you for your support.
$50.00 - $99.99 I’ll send you a 5X7 of our team on the mountain
$100.00 – and up I’ll send you a 8X10 of our team on the mountain
If you’d like to donate $500.00 or more I’ll take your sign or small banner with your name, your team name, company or corporation name and/or logo to the top of the mountain and bring you a picture back of us holding your sign. (You even get your sign back) Now, how cool is that? Not everyone has a picture of their name on top of the highest mountain in Africa!
Thank you – Asante,
Mar Tobiason
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