Singing in the Rain

By Pierre Gauvin


On Tuesday morning before work I went for a workout on the Mount Royal stairs. It was raining, everything was grey and, apart from a lady, older and in MUCH better shape, I was completely alone!


After a just a few minutes, I was soaked to the skin. I felt depressed, lonely and a bit mad to be there.

I carried on up and passed the lady who was going down. I glanced at her and was greeted by a beautiful smile which seemed to say "We're crazy to be here but we're doing it for a reason".
That made me think about us -  Team Kili-2012, our expeditions, our fund-raising, our friendship and our team spirit. Suddenly I was happy in the rain with my aching legs. I was no longer alone.

Meet Pierre

By Pierre Gauvin

Hello,

I was drawn to the Kilimanjaro project because I wanted to travel differently - swap the suitcase for a back-pack and a good pair of boots. I've been up Mount Washington twice and developed a warm feeling for the mountains. My car engine had the same feeling but got a bit too hot. Ha! Ha! 

I'm not a great sportsman but I like to seize any opportunity for exercise - I devour stairs, the manual lawn-mower occupies my Saturday mornings and I adore moving rocks around in my back yard. Seven hours in front of a computer is quite enough inactivity.

I've been swimming at the Montreal YMCA in my lunch hour for years. It breaks up the day and helps to get the stress level down. I like racket sports so much that I even put them on my feet in the winter!

While creating strong and enriching relationships and making us leave our comfort zone to  rough it for a while, this type of travelling with a team allows us to realize how spoilt and fortunate we really are.

My father's death in 2009 woke me up to the fact that life is short and that we only have one chance to follow our dreams. So I say "yes" to life more often and that I try to make it as full and rich as possible.


Translated by Pamela Gauvin