Caroline Gang Take On Pointe Burnaby

It is, of course, a foundation that’s willing to climb pretty much any mountain, setting new world records left, right and just over The Cliff Walk.

From dizzy Teddy Bear chains to naughty nautical hats, from tying a ribbon around Greystones to countrywide singsongs, The Caroline Foundation is always keen to face new, difficult and occasionally very silly challenges.

And all in the name of cancer research, and celebrating the foundation’s inspiration, Caroline Dwyer Hickey.

Not that their latest venture could be regarded as any kind of giddy foolishness, the Alpine Peaks Challenge seeing a team of hardy climbers taking on the 14,000-feet high Pointe Burnaby, way over there in sunny Switzerland.

It was on May 6th, 1884 that Elizabeth Whitshed-Hawkins and her guides, Joseph Imboden and Peter Sarbach, completed the first-ever ascent of this east summit of the Bishorn mountain in the Pennine Alps. Being ever the romantic, Lizzie named the summit after her hubby, Fred Burnaby, and it’s somewhat fitting that, 135 years later, a bunch of Greystonians will be making that very same climb in the name of another gone-but-not-forgotten Burnaby lady, the sweet Caroline.

The 7-day Alpine Peak Challenge will take place in the first week of July, starting in Zermatt, with our 18 hardy souls walking to Hornli Hut at the base of Matterhorn, where they’ll get to acclimatise overnight before climbing Breithorn the following day. After that, it’s summit day, as the gang take on Pointe Burnaby.

Leading the expedition party will be internationally-qualified guide Miles Bright, TCF Alpine Peaks Challenge’s creative force Bill Roberts and training and life coach Adam Kelly, whilst those taking part are revealed in this rather groovy video…

You can find out more about The Alpine Peaks Challenge here, about The Caroline Foundation’s shenanigans here, and donate to the climb directly right here.