Team Geared Up

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Tom Creaney and James Osborn work together in the Clothing Supply Chain for Tesco Stores Limited. Based at their largest distribution centre in the uk the pair struck up a friendship on a charity expedition in the Scottish Highlands back in 2006 where they bagged 5 Monroes in 36 hours for the charity ‘Whizzkids’. Between the pair of them they have over 25 years mountaineering and climbing experience and it was following this that they
found out it was both their life long ambition to climb ‘Everest’.

‘From loosing the map at 6000 ft, having no tea bags whilst stuck in the snow, being chased through valleys by raging bulls; forgetting the gas and having cold dinners all week, compass breaking… The list goes on! There really isn’t much misfortune that the pair haven’t endured, James even survived a 15 ft fall from an ice wall in 2004.’

Later this year in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care the pair are joining the Jagged Globe expedition in the Himalayas with the same team as Ranaulph Fiennes. Eoin O’D wrote about Ranaulphs 2008 Everest Expedition back in November. Setting off after the Fiennes party returns, the pair will be attempting some tough Ice Climbs on Everest over a period of 6 weeks.

One of the things that I find interesting is to see the personal equipment that a high altitude climber uses and I asked James to add some of the kit he’s bringing to our Gear Profiles. You can check their gear out right here and note that I share the same Patagonia shell layer, while Eoin has the same Crux AK47 Pack. Also interesting to spot the Spantik boots are on someones wishlist too.

Good luck the the lads - we’ll try and track them here and go see how much they’ve raised (£23k! 100% for Charity) on their expedition website www.coldfeat.co.uk. You can also see James profile on TGU.

-Robin.

(Image Credit: Tom & James on Helvellyn last weekend.)