Thank you for taking the time to visit my just giving page,
at the end of August I will be climbing the iconic Swiss mountain ‘The
Matterhorn’, with the aim of fundraising for a fantastic charity in which is incredibly close to my heart.

I will be fundraising for the Archie Lloyd Charitable Foundation, which aims to raise funds in order to inspire and influence the lives of talented young people. The funds raised will be used to support a series of programmes/awards that will provide an opportunity for young people
to be given the chance to undergo specialist coaching in order to further firstly their own skill sets, and secondly for them to use these skills gained in order to help motivate and inspire others. Funding will also be provided for mentors to help the selected candidates to become ambassadors to the Archie Lloyd Foundation. For more information on the Archie Lloyd foundation do take a look on its just giving page- https://www.justgiving.com/archie-lloyd

Archie was a great friend of mine, who tragically passed away on the 6^th of August last year. Arch has a real zest for life and made the most of all opportunities available to him, he was an extremely talented sportsman and was determined to be, and often was, the best at everything he put his mind to. Arch and I became the best of friends from an early age at Cheam together and spent many happy times enjoying each other’s company, although we went our separate ways to Marlborough and Harrow respectively, both of our competitive natures came out regularly be it on the slopes, tee, peg or court with one and other! These memories are ones in which I will always look upon fondly and treasure.

More about the climb-

The Matterhorn is one of the most recognisable mountains in the Alps if not the world (It’s the mountain on a bar of Toblerone chocolate!), it’s on the border between Switzerland and Italy and stands at 4500m above sea level. The Matterhorn was first climbed in 1865, although four of the group who made the ascent fell to their death on the descent! I am going to attempt to climb the Hornli ridge of the Matterhorn on Tuesday the 23^rd of August, weather dependant, and it should take approximately 8-10 hours. I am doing it with renowned Swiss guide Kurt Lauber and we will be staying at base camp the night before prior to starting the climb in the dark in the early hours of the 23^rd. If all goes well I will hopefully be placing an Archie flag at the summit around 4/5 hours into the climb whilst taking in the beautiful views and most definitely catching my breath!

Here are some interesting links regarding the climb including a well written telegraph article and a climb filmed from a GoPro, if you have a minute do take a look!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/switzerland/zermatt/articles/How-to-climb-the-Matterhorn/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matterhorn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGcyfyAfxfM

Any donations no matter how big or small will be incredibly gratefully received by both myself and the charity, I will be training hard in the meantime and will create a blog soon in which I will post the link on here!