On Monday night The Everest Test took over The Comedy Store in Piccadilly and once again showed how charity events should be done. Firstly a huge THANK YOU must go to Paola Fudakowska, Charlie Campbell and Chris Martin for putting in the hours in order to secure the location and acts, as well as Loki Mackay and all the team at the venue who were endlessly helpful.

Thanks must also go to the guys who performed, all of whom did so for free so that we could send all proceeds to charity – and it looks like we have raised around £6000, so that’s a brilliant effort. In a line up of eight there was no weak link so thank you Russell Howard, Jack Whitehall, Carl Donnelly, Matt Grantham, Jarred Christmas, Lloyd Langford, Maff Brown, MC Rich Wilson and once again Chris Martin.

Now all our attention turns to March 19^th and the send-off party High on Ice. If this event is even half as good as the two events we’ve had so far then we’re in for a cracker, and I’m promised it’ll be twice as good…so the mind boggles! Click here to get your tickets and we’ll see you there!

On Friday we heard the news that the Events Committee were all hoping to hear - the comedy night has sold out! There will be 40 tickets on the door for those of you how may have missed out, so be sure to get down there early to avoid disappointment! Doors open at 6:30 and the show kicks off at 8pm.

A huge thanks must go to all those on the committee, this promises to be a brilliant evening and they have pulled out all the stops for this one.

See you there!

On Friday The Everest Test received confirmation that ITN are the latest big name to join this ever snowballing expedition. They have signed a contract which states:

ITN will broadcast on London Tonight, a daily update, every day of the expedition, right up to the World Record attempt and then a 20 minute special upon the return. ITN will also broadcast the team training in preparation, and the return of the expedition to London.

It is worth pointing out that London Tonight is watched by approximately 3.7 millions viewers every night and in the email that went out just before the weekend expedition leader Kirt said:

“As I sat in the ITN offices, watching the days news studio “go live”, I was left truly speechless as some of the biggest men in UK news thanked me (and duly all of you) for creating such a wonderful World Record, and leaving such a touchable legacy for London, UK and of course the antipodean states we are delighted to team up with.

“I was stunned further when our cameraman mentioned his last ‘high-altitude’ filming was an emergency evacuation across the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan, whilst being shot at by the Taliban. ITN are definitely taking this seriously and you will all meet the cameraman Mark Jordan shortly as he becomes a fully fledged member of The Everest Test.”

There is some information below on Mark, but his CV is pretty impressive. ITN will be covering all their own costs and will be providing equipment that will help enormously with spreading word of the trip, so a huge thanks to all those involved in making this partnership come to fruition.

Mark Jordan is a senior reporter for Five News and has been with the news team since its launch in March 1997. In that time he has covered a wide range of home and foreign news stories, including extensive coverage of events in New York after September 11th and reporting from the frontline during the war in Afghanistan.

Mark now works on special reports from world hotspots and has recently reported on child poverty on Malawi, Sierra Leone, Cambodia and the US.

Last year, Mark won the prestigious Genesis award in Hollywood for a series of Five News special reports on animal cruelty around the world.

Mark started his journalistic career in 1982 as a reporter for Capital Radio and in 1986 at the age of 24 was named the Radio Reporter of the Year at the national Sony Radio Awards. He then made the move to television and worked as a reporter on the BBC’s ‘London Plus’ news magazine programme.

The following year, in 1987, Mark joined LWT where he worked as a presenter/reporter on the BAFTA award-winning programme ‘Network 7′ and as a producer on ‘The London Programme’.

In 1991 he joined Granada Television as a reporter on the current affairs series ‘Out of Order’ and the following year returned to LWT where he started producing special report strands from around the world for London News Network.

Everest Test Send-Off Party - March 19, 2009

Our Events Committee has today released details of our send-off party on March 19, 2009.

Called High On Ice, this concept party will be held at the exclusive Soho nightclub 24:London.

There will be a free cocktail reception, entertainment, celebrity guests, professional theming and audiovisual production, Ibiza Angels on hand, a raffle, free wristbands and MUCH MORE.

This is our flagship event for friends of the team which has been in the making for several months and will be a superb night, held exactly three weeks before we depart for Nepal. We are all really excited about it and cannot wait to see all our friends there. All proceeds are going to our charities.

Below is our E-Flyer and under that are some FAQ’s that we have answered for you.

How do I and my friends buy tickets?

As detailed on the e-flyer just click on this link, then pay.  The tickets are e-tickets so make sure you and your friends either bring a print out of the e-ticket or the e-ticket number on the night.

Will there be any food?

There will be some very light snacks, but essentially you and your friends should plan on eating elsewhere beforehand, if poss.

Should I bring cash to the event?

We’re putting on as much for free as we can, but yes bring some cash with you, as there will be great items of entertainment to get involved with, for which you’ll need cash.

Which celebrities are attending?

We won’t know for certain until the week of the event, but think famous cricketer and famous adventurer and hopefully you won’t be far off.

Wow, this sounds amazing.  Do you think it will be the best night ever in the history of the world?

Yes.

Can I meet the girl who did the photo shoot for the e-flyer?

No.

Taken from ‘Spinning a yarn’ by Kiwi Palmer

Mood swings - not just for girls

I emerge from the office all decked out in running skins and bag snugly strapped to my back. My mind is focused at the task of running the 5 miles home and Chesney Hawkes’  ”I am the one and only…..” blares out of my headphones. I dodge through pedestrians like Brian Habana cuts through defenders, picking up pace and searching the road ahead for hazards. I start to feel good, impressed with myself for pounding the pavement again and having the mental strength not to just jump on the bus. And then it happens the moment that changes my mood in a split second……….

BY KIWI PALMER

Last weekend was the first annual (and possibly last, but hopefully not) Fantasy Fitness Farm Challenge Weekend (FFFCW) at the Hern Ranch in Hereford.

Those of who made it to the weekend or have never been to a Kimbo run event in the past will testify that my explanation of the structure will not be able to reflect what actually tock place. Lets just say it was a “Kimbo Special“, taking a simple concept and making it so complicated that no one knows what is happening for the first half of the day. The end result however was absolute perfection as those present will agree.

The scoring system revolved around a Fantasy Football game where all attendees picked competitors that they thought would outperform others in the predetermined categories. The scoring system was very detailed but produced lots of support for all involved and added an extra dimension to a great time.

The weekend started with a lovely evening meal and quick briefing of the following days events. The soundtrack of the night was the four snores symphony which, combined with the tropical heat provided for some very red and tired eyes in the morning.

Event 1 - Bleep Test:
Kimbo Twist - Undertaken in an empty chicken shed
Winner: BJ with a very impressive level 14.3
Loser: Tooves for losing to a female
Point of Note: Sugar beat Tooves by a whole level

Event 2 - Highland Games
Kimbo Twist: - Throw a stone backwards over your head as far as possible.
Winner: Nick Mullineux with a massive 6.70 metres beating all competition by almost a whole metre.
Loser: Wes - for chipping his own tooth on his first throw.
Point of Note: On Hillsy’s last throw he managed to almost kill himself by throwing the stone completely vertically.

Event 3 - Michellin Man
Kimbo Twist: Relay team event, involving pushing a tractor tire around a 100 metre course.
Winner: Team Delta
Loser: Everyone else
Point of note: Team Delta was the only team with two girls so it was an especially good effort.

Event 4 - Rome wasn’t built in a day
Kimbo Twist: Manual labour involving shifting stones around the farm (Team Event).
Winner: Team Gamma
Loser: Gman for his meltdown on the rules
Point of Note: If you are looking to move heavy stones then please contact BJ on 077559………

Event 5 - Scarecrow
Kimbo Twist: Rolling hay bails down a chicken shed through a slalom course.
Winner: Hillsy and Kimbo, great command of a big package.
Loser: Helen for the continual battle with the wall.
Point of note: Well done to Paola those hay bail was actually bigger than her.

Event 6 - Tug of War
Kimbo Twist: No twist just hard to stick (team event)
Winner: Team Alpha, completely dominant.
Loser: Team Gamma, the boys kept being dragged along on their arse.
Point of note: Wes was very pleased with this W and would not stop harping on about it.

Event 7 - 5 Mile Finisher
Kimbo Twist: Actually closer to 6 miles and most of it seemed to be uphill.
Winner - CWRP
Loser - Everyone
Point of note - a really tight finish resulted in all runners being very tired at the end of the days play.

Event 8 - Pub Quiz
Kimbo Twist - A very tricky picture round
Winner: Team Alpha
Loser: Team Gamma
Point of note - Very good end to a great weekend.

The results of the weekend are that Simmo came away with the top spot and £75 towards his fundraising total, Toovey came second with £50 and Nick 3rd with £25. Congrats to you all.

A very large thank you must go out to the whole Hern family (except Jonny) for truly great hospitality.

Also I would like to take the opportunity to thank MET-RX who supplied lots of suppliments to keep us all going.

Yesterday in Trafalgar Square The Everest Test 09 was launched, and with some style.

Thanks to Alex at Captive Minds we laid out a full Flicx cricket pitch and drove two Lord’s Taverners buses onto the square and played out several overs.

We also had a large scoreboard on display, just in case people failed to figure out what was going on, and more press than I think many of us had expected. Added to that we had three former England players in Chris Adams, Mark Butcher and James Kirtley which was a real honour for a group of cricket enthusiasts.

Articles have appeared in The Times, The Guardian, BBC Online and Cricinfo to name but a few, along with the front page of the Himalayan Times - so we seem to have reached across continents as well!

On top of that both the BBC and ITV were present and featured us several times during the day, so thanks for that!

Credit to Kinsey who kept his nerve bowling in front of a large audience, Charlie BN for smashing Kinsey into the fountain, and James Markby, for actually playing a half decent shot!

All in all I think the day was highly successful and shows potential sponsors what we are capable of, certainly the Taverners, MKK and North Face gained a lot of publicity and this is just the start.

The response to what we are doing continues to astound us, and although the presenter on ITV thinks we are utterly mad, he also agrees the project is utterly marvellous!

A couple of new videos. The first is a whizz bang tour of Kathmandu that Kirt and Al took recently in in preparation for the main event.

The second is an edit of the Cricket Freeze’s we undertook in December at Parliment, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square.

Big shout to Miles for the Freeze edit with a great choice of music I think you will agree. The Nepal Trip is my first edit of the project which I thoroughly enjoyed doing.

On Tuesday 27 January The Everest Test are holding an official Press Launch.

The launch is taking place at 10am in Trafalgar Square and it looks like the worlds media will be watching. Thanks must go to Alex, Lara and Marcus at Captive Minds who have worked tirelessly to make this happen and assure us that it will be quite an event.

Thanks must also go to a couple of our major partners, MKK and Qatar Airlines who will be supplying various things for the launch, and of course to the Lord’s Taverners, who continue to throw everything behind this project.

So wish us luck, there will be quite a mix of people ranging from those on the trip, the media themselves and some prominent figures in the game. Needless to say there will be an update here afterwards.