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[trunl]

what kind of jobs do most mountaineers have. because most complain about how they dont make hardly enough money to sustain their mountaineering hobbies.

but obviously, harry, ron, daisy, mikew, and others have found the secret (even though harry continually mentions his debt).

so please guys, share with us, what jobs do you guys have???



trunl

[7summits]

I have been working for Internet companies since 1996 as well as doing consulting. (Have a degree in business mgt). Am also a photographer, some pictures I made can be found here, but I have much more travel pics from all over the world some of which are published or sold.

I just joined a new company (starting next week), where I will be kind of overall Project Leader for great multichannel interactive projects and events. Looking forward to it as it is a fun company and they do cool stuff, though it will be hard to get up and go to sleep at regular hours 

Oh, and sometimes I guide groups up high hills 

[Buddha]

Well, although I am not entitled to call myself a mountaineer yet, but more of a wannabee mountaineer I decided to reply to this Q.

I am currently employed at Radisson SAS as a mixture between Night Auditor and Night Manager. Personally I save as much oney as possible each month, although at the moment I spend most money on equipment needed. I hope to be done shopping for the most necessary equipment in January though. From then I will just save and save and work more to be able to save more money.

I will also take 4 months off from work (May '05 - August '05) and during that time I wil go to Kebnekaise which is Sweden's highest mountain for a few courses and then also to Elbrus and if my finances will allow it also to Kilimanjaro. Then I am aiming for Aconcagua in December '05 or January '06 but that is extremely hard to tell if I can get money that quick. If I don't go there then I will go to Denali in the summer '06 then Aconcagua in December '06.

[MikeW]

Hey trunl!

I'm sure being a professional guide is very rewarding and exciting, but it doesn't make you rich (not that's the only thing in life but you need money to climb mountains) and it's very complicated to have a social life and a love life (my guide on Kilimanjaro was having great difficulty maintaining a relationship while guiding and he was 35!).

You have to realize that mountaineering is not the only thing in life. Family, kids and other hobbies are important too, and when you have a regular nice paying job, you are more able to balance everything.

Btw, I'm a lawyer, having my own law practice close to home. I'm making my own schedule so I can enjoy myself in the mountains without sacrificing my adorable wife and 3 kids.

So trunl, stay in school as long as you can. University of Washington is supposed to be very good and pretty close to Rainier. 

MikeW

[Daisy]

Hi Trunl,

Like Buddha I wouldn't call myself a Mountaineer yet. As for finding the secret...I haven't found that yet either. I work for HP (software) and it doesn't exactly pay for my trips. I'm afraid I'm with Harry in the wonderful world of debt at the moment but I still have dreams of someone knocking on my door with a big sponsorship cheque  .
I mentioned in an earlier post that I did some fundraising for Aconcagua. Well, it was supposed to be for Aconcagua and Denali but we didn't even raise quite enough for Aconcagua in the end. half of the funds we raised went to charity as promised and the rest went towards my expedition. I will never do this kind of fundraising again. It was a bad experience! I was really glad to give the money to charity but it was an awful lot of effort and stress for very little. I wasn't prepared for the kind of negativity and nastiness I encountered from people either. Now all the fundraising is over and I am only starting to get into training with only 7 weeks to go  ...From now on I will fund my trips myself by whatever means I can. if it means a little less shopping then so be it..

[MoT]

A lot of people can be very negative about charity fundraising - they generally tend to argue that the money should all go to charity.

Personally i think it IS a tough ethical dilemma but there are various arguments for and against this sort of fundraising. Take for example Childline - they offer students 15% of the money they collect simply because they can't get volunteers to do this sort of collection - it needs an incentive. Without that sort of  approach there would probably be hardly ANY income for the charity, yet unfortunately the begrudgers in society go on about how easy money it is etc... Armchair charity workers who have never even paid to charity. I've done that particular type of work while in college and it is most certainly NOT easy. 8am starts and 11pm finishes with only about 80 Euro earned. Thats about 550 Euro to the charity. If you don't do it the charity will get nothing.

It's an ethical dilemma indeed...

With regard to climbing i guess people see it as a person trying to fund a holiday. It is in one sense but it was made clear that HALF would go to charity. It's not like a secret was ever made. If you disapprove then don't contribute. Like above, without donations NO money reaches the charity and that's it. It's not easy to commit to full time charity work. If you have an incentive to collect and the public have a reason to contribute, then I say "Feck the begrudgers!". It's not like you're ripping off a charity by this fundraising. You're attempting to raise sponsorship and giving a sizeable portion to charity.

Of course there's a situation I was in where i was attempting to raise funds with a group via a sponsored climb for a climbing companion who suffered serious injuries at work following a fall (ironic that he never fell off a rock face  ). A lot of people I know were reluctant to do it because it was to help an individual who was disabled from work by a simple accident that could possibly have been prevented (as if that really matters),  despite the fact that ALL the money would be going to support his recovery and bills while his income was CUT OFF. It wasn't deemed needy enough by the armchair types...

The Irish are famous for being charitable in general - unfortunately there are too many negative begrudger types among us too

[trunl]

MOT, i admire your efforts you put forth. i ascended you. sorry for leaving you out on my original question too.

daisy, a few questions.
first, did you get sponsorship by knocking on doors, or by asking companies?
second, do you think it might work to just give 1/4 of the money? i know people would give AS MUCH but do you think you would have to work TWICE as hard?



trunl

[Daisy]

Hi Trunl,

I'll tell you what I did. I went in person, on foot all over town to friends I knew in business and otherwise. I organised a racenight so the sponsorship involved people taking out ads in the race booklet, sponsoring races and buying horses. It's like virtual horse racing in a pub! some companies donated spotprizes to be auctioned or won on the night. Most of the sonsorship I received was from my colleagues in HP. I gave a presentation on my time at Everest base camp and then sat outside the canteen for hours afterwards selling horses to people. Most people felt obliged to support me because they know me. I felt very bad about that because it seemed like I was taking advantage of people. Also, because of the fundraising it meant that my trip was very publicised which puts tremendous pressure on me to succeed and opens me up to criticism. As you know, we don't need that kind of pressure because there is no guarantee of success no matter how hard you train. I don't want to let people down and I don't want to give people another excuse to give me a hard time.
I agreed to give the charity half the money raised because they said if I do that they will help me with the fundraising. In the end, they didn't help because they said 'their hands were tied' but I stuck to my part of the bargain and gave them half.
Bottom line...I don't think it's the way to go and I suppose I learned the hard way. All I ever wanted to do was climb a mountain. Anyway, i'm not giving up yet. time for plan B 

[trunl]

if you dont mind me asking, what is plan B?



trunl

[Daisy]

Don't know yet Trunl... but I'm sure I'll come up with something 

[7summits]

I have climbed twice for charity (SOS Children's villages and Warchild), 1st Aconcagua, then Denali. In both cases I donated 100% of all proceeds to the charity but did get some personal sponsoring from people who thought it was cool what I did.

I charged the charity sponsors 1ct/meter, so Aconcagua sponsors paid 69,62 guilders and Denali sposnors paid 61,94 each.

But never again, the charities got a few thousand dollars each, but refused to help in any way with promoting or collecting the money and especially the latter was an extreme hassle.
I have no problem with connecting my name or site to a charity climb (if I agree with that Charity that is), and do not need to be compensated for that, but am not going to collect again.

In fact I have had it with the sponsor search for the same reasons Daisy mentions. I now rather pay for my own trip entirely and enjoy it myself without pressure from others.
People are of course welcome to sponsor me or advertise on the site, but I am not actively pursuing mayor sponsorship for climbs anymore, I do not want to be depending on it for a climb to happen or not.

 

[7summits]

what kind of jobs do most mountaineers have. because most complain about how they dont make hardly enough money to sustain their mountaineering hobbies.

By the way, check out the detail pages of the 7summiteers in the statistics section. If known I have placed their profession in their profile. Many educated persons with high paying jobs (lawyers, doctors, business owners) and quite some mountain guides who have done it while working.

[smrtnupp]

What do you mean by "ascending"?

[Buddha]

What do you mean by "ascending"?

Do you see the "Altitude" that each user has displayed on the left hand side of the forum? You also have the options "Ascend", which means up and "Descend", which means down. You can adjust each users Altitude by 1 point up or down every 24 hours. If a person says something that you agree on, you can ascend them and if you disagree then you can descend them.

You might also have seen those flying Yaks. Catch one of those, ie. click on it before someone else does it and you might earn extra altitude, as well as loose if you catch an "Evil" Yak.

Other forums have this type of thing as well but it is called Karma on most of them.

Hope that clears things up! 

[smrtnupp]

He! He!

I have seen those Yaks, lol, and probably caught an evil one lol!!! I hope I have not accidently "descended" anyone!!!


Thank you Budha!!! I will ascend you now ;-) for being so helpful!!

[Roger]

I am a CEO
I find my self in a position where I can now afford to climb, trek and generally go on adventures but just have to make time to do these things as i get very busy.
One thing I can tell you trekking in Africa is wonderfull.  I am keen to get into Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. I could not get in safely last time as people were still being murdered and the situation was quite dangerous. Travel by bus and train, meet the wonderful people and cultures. In Tanzania Arusha is like the wild west and I spent 3 weeks there also.  Some very cheap accomodation to be had and lots of interesting things to do. I spent some time checking out how there medical system works (or doesnt) and how people access what we take for granted in th way of medicines and treatment. I could talk on this for hours.
Roger