Latest team news

Latest news from the Everest 2007 team

Investec Asset Management sponsor the team

The team is delighted to announce that Investec Asset Management will be supporting Ben and Tori for their summit attempt.

Hendrik du Toit, Chief Executive Officer of Investec Asset Management commented:

"We have chosen to support Tori and her team, not only because we empathise with her desire to support the Prince’s Trust, but also because we continue to be impressed by her determination to achieve an out of the ordinary life. A leader in the exploration of new land, ideas and themes, Tori’s pioneering and visionary spirit epitomises the corporate culture Investec strives to develop.

"Her commitment to continually challenge herself and push the limits of physical resilience is truly inspiring. We wish Tori and team the greatest success in this impressive endeavour."

Find.co.uk become Tori's personal sponsor

"Find.co.uk, one of the UK's leading personal finance websites, is delighted to be supporting Tori James and the rest of the team from London Business School on their summit attempt.

"Find.co.uk is part of the Defaqto Group which has a strong affiliation with London Business School: three of our directors are alumni, and we have just welcomed renowned London Business School marketeer, Professor Nirmalya Kumar, onto the board as a non-executive director.

"As well as sponsoring Tori's attempt to be the youngest British woman scaling Everest, Find.co.uk will be hosting regular podcasts from the summit team, and using all our online vehicles to maintain awareness of the team's progress and successes, as well as raising funds for the Prince's Trust."

Kate Marsden, Marketing Director, Defaqto Group

Snowforecast.com support the team

The Everest 2007 Expedition are delighted that they have the support from Snowforecast.com, a free quality weather forecast service. Getting the correct weather forecast is key to launching a successful summit and you will be able to see exactly what the weather is doing at 4,278 metres (below Base Camp), 6,564 metres and on the summit at 8,850 metres. Brilliant eh?!

Cotswold Outdoor supply team equipment

The team would like to extend a huge thank you to Cotswold Outdoor, who as their exclusive kit & equipment supplier will be providing the team with a whole host of final kit requirements prior to their departure. Visit www.cotswoldoutdoor.com for more information.

Tori introduces speaker at Royal Geographical Society Lecture

Come along to the Royal Geographical Society on Tuesday 13th March to hear Paul Rose the charismatic BBC television presenter, explorer, expedition leader and British Antarctic Survey base commander. Paul will be talking about his new BBC TV series "Voyages of Discovery" and many of his other extraordinary adventures from Greenland to the Indian Ocean.

Paul is a witty raconteur and his talk is guaranteed to be interesting and great fun. Tori will be introducing him! One event not to be missed and tickets are only £10. Visit www.bses.org.uk/news_bses.php?pageid=46 for more information.

HRH The Prince of Wales sends letter

20th February 2007: The team were delighted to receive a letter from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in support of their expedition. He wrote:

"I can well imagine what an arduous challenge it must be to climb Mount Everest and I am full of admiration for your courage and determination to carry out this expedition.

"I could not be more grateful or touched that you should have chosen to raise funds for my Prince's Trust through your expedition, and greatly appreciate your remarkable thoughtfulness and generosity, as well as your commitment to our work with young people.

"This comes with my warmest good wishes and every blessing for a successful and safe expedition."

Tori on 2-TEN FM

Click the link below to download an MP3 file of Tori discussing the expedition on 2-TEN FM last November.

Download now (5.25MB, 3m49s).

Adventure First Aid provides essential training

Guy Risdon at Adventure First Aid is supplying the team with a weekend of essential first aid training.

Adventure First Aid is approved to run First Aid Training certificated by Immediate Temporary Care and Rescue Emergency Care. They are a mobile training organisation based in the South West of England delivering courses throughout the country. With over 100 years combined experience in the outdoor education industry their trainers are able to address the needs of individuals and tailor each course to the specific requirements of a wide variety of different workplaces and environments.

Their experienced and professional trainers will explain and define any terms and "jargon" used during a course. They aim to make first aid training enjoyable, systematic and relevant to your needs.

Visit www.adventurefirstaid.co.uk.

Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro

Ben, Greg and Tori have just returned from a 10 day trip to climb Mt Meru and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The purpose of the trip was for everyone to continue to spend time together climbing and working together as a team with the departure date for Everest fast approaching.

After flying into Nairobi and taking a 6 hr bus journey to Moshi, the group started off with a 3 day climb of Mt Meru (4,562m). December and January are supposed to be fairly dry months in Tanzania, but nobody must have told the weather as the rainy season was still firmly in place throughout our visit.

On Meru we were accompanied by an armed ranger throughout the trip as the mountain falls within the Arusha National Park which is home to elephant and buffalo. We spend two days ascending to the Saddle Huts and did a quick ascent of Little Meru (3,820m), however, the ranger and guide were not well equipped to handle the unexpected heavy rainfall (which became ice and snow above about 4,000m) so we did not try for the summit. Still a very scenic trek and good acclimatization for Kilimanjaro.

The next day we started up the Machame route of Kilimanjaro, following a slightly modified itinerary:

1 January: ascend to Machame Hut (3,032m)
2 January: ascend to Shira Huts (3,840m)
3 January: climb to Lava Tower (4,642m) for lunch the descend to Moir campsite (4,200m) for the night
4 January: move camp to Lava Tower and do an acclimatization hike to Arrow Glacier (4,900m)
5 January: trek to the Karanga Valley (3,940m)
6 January: ascend to Barafu Huts (4,681m)
7 January: starting at midnight ascent to the summit (5,895m) and then descend back all the way down to Mweka campsite (3,100m)
8 January: return to Moshi

Conditions remained pretty wet and there was an unusual amount of snow on the upper reaches of the mountain (from about 4,500m). However, Ben, Greg and Tori all made it to the top and felt strong throughout despite the strong winds and zero visibility once on the crater rim.

Only 10 weeks to go until we leave for Everest!

Omar's Training

December 6-10 (climbing in the Alps)

Omar traveled to Chamonix for 4 days to do some winter climbing and training with Cho Oyu expedition guide, Guy Willet. The weather was as Guy described it 'Baltic'! with temperatures as low as 0C in town and a snow storm on the 2nd day. It snowed 80-100cm up in the mountains which made for some interesting climbs and approaches with knee deep snow even with snow shoes. Still Omar and Guy managed to bag a couple of peaks and got through some seriously long 'beasting' days.

December 18-22 (cycling from London to Paris)

Omar and Luisa cycled the 300km between London and Paris in 5 days. 3 full days and 2 half days. Given the short winter days, they often had to start in the dark or cycle at night. The trip wasn't without its share of problems either, a flat tyre, gears that wouldn't switch and getting stuck in ghost towns made the trip more interesting. The trip ended on a high on Day 5 under the Eiffel Tower after 10.5 hours of cycling!

Day 1: London to Dover (Dover to Calais by ferry)
Day 2: Calais to Mountreil
Day 3: Mountreil to Abbeville
Day 4: Abbevile to Beauvais
Day 5: Beauvais to Paris

Training on Kilimanjaro

From 27th December 2006 – 14th January 2007 the team will visit Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to gain further experience at altitude. Not only is Kilimanjaro the highest mountain on the African continent (standing at 5,895 metres) it is also the tallest free-standing mountain in the world.

Anglo American donate £5,000 to the Prince's Trust

The Everest 2007 Team are delighted to announce that Anglo American, a global leader in mining and natural resources, has donated £5,000 to the team's nominated charity, the Prince's Trust. This significantly boosts the team's ongoing effort to raise hundreds of thousands for the UK's leading youth charity and hopefully other companies and individuals will follow suit. Thank you.

GRIM Challenge

The GRIM Challenge took place on Sunday 3rd December in Aldershot, Surrey. GRIM is an 8 mile race involving running, wading and crawling. Despite the blue skies that appeared for the morning of the race, this year was, according to the start marshal “the wettest year so far”! The Everest 2007 team encountered waist deep (at least for Tori) muddy pools and ditches throughout the course. Everyone finished in one piece and achieved the following times. Congratulations

Omar (1:08:30), Tori (1:10:23), Ben (1:13:23), John (1:41:41)

Greg – fitness training in South Africa

Greg's been mountain running in South Africa

Whilst team members Ben, Tori and Omar are having the endure the UK's wet winter weather, Greg is doing his training in South Africa where he lives. Here are a few of the events that he has taken part in:

4 November 2006

Magoebaskloof Mtn Bike race. A really cool, but seriously tough 70km race. The profile chart does not do it justice. The biggest of the climbs ascends 1,000m over 17km without any respite. That climb took me 2½ hrs to do in granny gear! Must have been pushing my lactate threshold the whole time. It was way harder than the marathon the next day...

5 November 2006

Soweto Marathon. A really cool run through the historic township past Nelson Mandela old house and all sorts of other landmarks from the struggle against apartheid. Hilly course. Ran this with a friend who hadn't done much training – so we were super slow and finished in 5 hrs 10 mins, but had loads of fun.

25 November 2006

The Sani Pass is a mountain pass on the border between SA and Lesotho. The first half of the race climbs from 1,566m (5,200ft) up to the top of the pass at 2,873m (9,500ft) and the second half is back down! The marathon is on the Saturday and I'm hoping to Mtn bike it on the Sunday – the downhill should be fun! Bonzai!

Tori LIVE on 2-TEN FM

At 07:55 on Tuesday 14th November, Tori delayed her early morning training by an hour in order to chat to Foxy and Tom on 2-TEN FM. The presenters were on the look out for a listener that had climbed Everest - instead they spoke to Tori about the Everest Team's forthcoming endeavour.

ITV Wales appearances

On Tuesday 15th August 2006 Tori appeared in a three minute feature by ITV Wales. Not wishing to forego a training session Tori is seen taking reporter John Davies for a brisk run up Pen-Y-Fan, the highest mountain in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales.

By resurrecting some of the 1953 footage of the first ascent of Everest, the news item places the team's forthcoming expedition in a historical context and highlights Tori's record breaking quest, to become the first Welsh Woman to climb Mount Everest. Tori is seen talking at the top of the mountain about the intense training regime that is in place as well as the extreme conditions that the team will face on Everest.

On Friday 13th October 2006 Tori was invited to the ITV Wales Studios in Cardiff to talk live about her recent successful summit of the world's sixth highest mountain, Cho Oyu. She spoke about her personal kit and equipment and viewers were able to see footage of Tori returning from the summit to Camp Two.

ITV Wales reaches nearly three million viewers across Wales.

Page last updated: April 23, 2007, 8:03 pm (BST)