Eleven members of the Olds Fire Department (OFD) are getting ready to undertake a daunting task that's become a tradition: climbing all 1,204 steps of The Bow tower in Calgary, Western Canada's tallest building, this Sunday.
It's called the Firefighter Stair Climb Challenge. Firefighters climb all those stairs wearing full firefighter gear, including the SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus -- those big cylinders firefighters carry on their backs at a fire).
Members of the Olds team are stair climb captain Noel D’arcy, along with Casey Bateman, Ciaran Boggan, Jamie Vasseur, Josh Watkins, Nik Neider, Sam Lutz, Sara Durocher, Stu Didyk, Thomas Della Sega and Vanessa Fahlmann.
D'arcy says all the gear they carry -- including the SCBA -- weighs somewhere around 55 pounds.
"It's almost carrying a child on your back," he says.
The goal is to raise money for Wellspring Calgary, which provides support, resources and programs for people living with cancer and those who care about them.
In turn, Wellspring Calgary says it will turn over a portion of the proceeds raised to support the Firefighters Assistance Charitable Society (FACS).
The 2018 Firefighter Stair Climb Challenge website says "there are 17 presumptive cancers that are a recognized occupational hazard of the firefighter’s job."
The climb is expected to attract about 750 firefighters from across North America. Participants will climb a total of 775 vertical feet.
"Starting at 3,400 feet above sea level, this climb is the highest elevation firefighter stair climb in the world," the website says.
This will mark the third straight year that OFD members have participated in the climb. Last year, 12 local firefighters took part.
They raised the second-highest total of all participating firefighting departments on the day: $14,845.
As of last month, about nine firefighters had signed up for this year's version and they had raised $3,906 as of that point.
In addition to raising money for Wellspring and people affected by cancer, the climb is also competitive. Participants try to go up all those steps as quickly as possible while carrying all that gear.
D'arcy notes the Olds team did pretty well in that department last year.
"We did extremely well; everybody finished. We were all kind of in the 25- to 14-minute range," he says.
"There is a competitive side to it, but we try not to forget what the big picture is here, and it's raising money for Wellspring."
D'arcy is proud of the fact that the climb has become something team members look forward to each year.
"It's just become part of our annual tradition here," D'arcy says. "Once it hits Christmas we're already talking about the stair climb, because it hits pretty quick."
He says participants have done their best to train for the event.
"We have a stair stepper in our gym that everyone's been kind of jumping on lately and trying to make use of," D'arcy says. "It doesn't really compare to the real thing, but it's something that you can do while it's minus 40 outside."
