INNISFAIL – It was back to a full vertical climb this year for Innisfail firefighters at Calgary’s sold-out ninth annual Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge.
Firefighters across Canada, the United States and beyond had been shut out since 2019 of doing vertical office tower climbs in Calgary due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020 and 2021, organizers hosted virtual challenges while in 2022 the event was held more or less horizontally at WinSport's Canada Olympic Park.
Innisfail was represented in 2022 by local firefighters and Mayor Jean Barclay, along with Coun. Dale Dunham, CAO Todd Becker, Erica Vickers, director of corporate services and Steven Kennedy, director of operational services.
This year on June 11 it was just a team of four Innisfail firefighters, including chief Gary Leith and firefighters Eric Peppinck, Ella Heistad and Adam Dingman who joined about 500 other firefighters for the annual challenge.
They were all tasked to climb Brookfield Place, Calgary’s tallest tower, with an elevation gain of 247 metres, 57 stories, and 1,370 steps. In prior non-COVID years most challenges were held by climbing the lesser 1,204 steps of the downtown Bow building.
“It (Brookfield Place) is also the highest elevation stair climb because Calgary is around 3,000 feet anyway. So it's the highest stair climb in the world in elevation,” said Leith.
However, no matter which building it was, all four Innisfail firefighters were game for the challenge; realizing the annual fundraising event is held in support of Wellspring Calgary; a registered charity offering programs and services to provide the emotional, social and practical needs of people living with cancer, including caregivers and children.
At the same time the event underscores firefighters’ occupational risks, including the heightened cancer exposure they face in their daily duty to save lives and keep all communities safe.
The four Innisfail firefighting heroes raised $3,500 this year for Wellspring, compared to $2,795 that was collected by the larger Innisfail team in 2022.
And all of them made it successfully up and down Brookfield Place with no problems, said Leith, adding each were carrying about 30 pounds of gear both ways, including breathing apparatus, helmets and boots.
“There were no problems,” said Leith, noting his team worked hard beforehand to ready themselves for the challenge. “I think most of us tried to stay in reasonable shape. We did some preparation for it and it paid off pretty good.”
