THE 27 CLUB

Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and now Amy Winehouse; these are the names of stars who have died at the age of 27 through substance abuse and drug overdoses.

Amy Winehouse was found dead in her flat on Saturday the 23^rd of July 2011 at 4pm. Although autopsy details have not been released, it is suspected that her demise could be attributed to a drug overdose.

According to her friend Russell Brand, “When you love someone who suffers from the disease of addiction you await the phone call,” writes Brand, who battled substance abuse himself.

“There will be a phone call. The sincere hope is that the call will be from the addict themselves, telling you they’ve had enough, that they’re ready to stop, ready to try something new.”

“Of course though, you fear the other call, the sad nocturnal chime from a friend or relative telling you it’s too late, she’s gone.”

Firstly, I have a different take on drug addiction; it’s not a disease. Drug addiction is a choice. From the very first hit of a joint to the conscious and deliberate decisions one makes when choosing to abuse any substance. We are human beings, not animals and as such we are given the power of choice and what we do with these choices when it comes to drugs means the difference of demise or recovery.

This is not an isolated incident and too often worried family members do receive that frightening call in the dead of night only to find out that their loved one is dead from an overdose or complications from drugs. Like Amy’s father, Mitch. Images of him distraught at his daughter’s funeral have circulated around the world and lays testimony to how drugs destroy lives. It’s heartbreaking, it’s not natural to lose a child, especially under those circumstances.

The reality is that Amy didn’t want to get better nor did she reach out and seek help. Ironically her well-known hit ‘Rehab’ lays testimony to this, “they tried to make me go to rehab and I said no, no. no”.

You can’t force someone into treatment; they have to want help. There is a small light at the end of the tunnel; her death has prompted greater awareness of the addicts’ plight. The tragic thing about some drug addicts in South Africa is that rehabilitation units are beyond their financial means, a sentence in itself. Whilst Amy could afford to check herself into recovery, many drug addicts who crave recovery and clarity are unable to. That’s why Mountain Heights is committed to raising awareness around drug addiction and is committed to helping as many addicts as we can who are committed to the recovery process.

You can only help someone that is genuine/serious about getting help. I (Marco) tried several times and often used going to rehab as an excuse to ‘get out of trouble’ and pretend I was getting clean. Winehouse did not want to change her life. This being said, I hope her family finds peace in this tragedy and eventually come to terms with the choices she made that lead to her untimely and tragic death.

Wallonggong and other craziness, the summit to Kosi

So our epic journey to Oz began with leaving Joburg at about 6:15pm on Tuesday and we arrived in Aus at 14:00 (oz time), the flight was long and tiring. Of course we were in economy so to say we were cramped would be an understatement! We hoped that there would be some empty seats but naturally the flight was packed.

Once we arrived in Australia of course we had to overcome the challenge of customs, always a fun experience and if you have ever watched an episode of border security you will know what I am talking about! Barry in all his wisdom ticked one of the boxes on the customs declaration form to say that he had been in contact with a farm in the last 7 days, excellent! That ensured him getting pulled out of the line after which a detailed search of his belongings ensued culminating in an Australian customs official cleaning his hiking boots so as to be rid of the evil South African soil!

After the customs ordeal, we hired a car and were on our way. Our plan was to drive to Cooma, a town about 400km from Sydney and only an hour from Kosi. The drive was long  after being cramped up on a plane for such a long time. Driving in Oz is definitely an experience, no one breaks the law and speed limits are adhered too - don’t even think of stopping where you shouldn't. Having to stick to the 110km speed limit we finally reached Cooma at about 8:30pm.  By this time we were completely knackered even though our bodies thought is was still lunch-time what with the difference and all. We stayed at a hotel called the Alpine Hotel, this was the kind of hotel where the bathrooms are communal  which means 1 bathroom per floor so it was more a boarding house then a hotel really. We planned to have an early start the following morning with the hour drive to Kosi. We stopped off at Mac Donalds on the way for a coffee and a egg macmuffin, the breakfast of champions and climbers alike! We arrived at Kosi at about 08:45am just in time to catch the Ski Lift at 09:00 ( as embarrassing as it is to admit, we caught a ski lift half way up one of the seven summits!). It took us little under 4 hours round trip from the lift to the summit and back. We also felt it would be important on this trip to introduce a mascot of sorts to add a bit of a fun dynamic to the whole documentary, enter Mkhize the wonder Wombat. We aim to collect a mascot on all the summits! After summiting we drove back to Sydney which was a marathon drive of about 6 and a half hours due to the fact that it has far worse traffic then we could ever have expected to anticipate. We stayed in the Ibis hotel, quite an experience as it was in the heart of China town, a shock to the system after the tranquility of outback. The room keys weren't working so every time we needed to get to our rooms the receptionist would have to open up for us.

We said our goodbyes to Kabelo that night as he was leaving the following morning, his shuttle was collecting him at 07:00am. We then drove to a town called Katoomba in the blue mountains near Wallonggong (yes I am serious, the names in that part of the world are crazy). We stayed at a hotel in a place called Lilianfels, a far cry from the Alpine and the Ibis hotel. It was beautiful! Alex and I were sharing a room and Barry and Mike another. The weather was a bit sucky on the Friday, so we decided to take a rest day. We prayed really hard that the weather would clear otherwise our dreams of getting in some world class rock climbing would not be a reality. Saturday we woke up to another miserable day, but we decided to get out onto the cliffs and worse case turn our climbing trip into a trekking stretch event. When we got to the mountain to our surprise the weather cleared and it was spectacular! We climbed on a crag called Mt Piddington, we did two routes that day one being a 2 pitch route that took us longer than we thought forcing us to end in the dark! The next day we did another 3 routes (more difficult) also on Mt Piddington. It was fantastic training and a great way to build camaraderie. Unfortunately time was coming to an end the following day we left for Sydney again, as sad as we were to leave I was super excited to see my beautiful wife and my amazing boys. The last day in Sydney was spent shopping for the family back home and on Tuesday we left Sydney at 10am and arrived back in SA at 16:00, totally and utterly finished.

All in all the trip was amazing, chalk another experience to those that I will remember for a lifetime!

Going Up Down Under

I can’t believe it, less than a week to go till we hit Australia and begin summitting Mount Kosciuszko. There have been some major and exciting developments to the 7 Summit Challenge team and some pretty hair-raising ones as well. Like errr, the worry of visas not being granted in time, small stuff, you know? Like we don’t have enough to worry about! But I know, as with everything, God will come through and that everything will happen in its own good time and in time!

But now for the AWESOME news! Kabelo Mabalane, frontman of TKZEE, co-founder of the SHOUT campaign, musician, songwriter, TV host, actor and sportsman extraordinaire has joined the 7 Summits Challenge team and will be joining Alex Harris, the production team and myself on all of our climbing adventures. There are two reasons I am really stoked about this; firstly, like myself, Kabelo is a recovered addict and another shining example of hope that drug addiction can be overcome and shouldn’t hold you back from being everything you were meant to be. The second reason is that through Kabelo’s , the 7 Summits Challenge campaign will be able to amplify its message of awareness thereby encouraging people to engage with the initiative and raise more funds for Mountain Heights which aims to actively reduce the number of addicts in South Africa.

We tried to scare Kabelo off, but it wasn’t working, he is determined all right! Because he is already an exceedingly accomplished sportsman (climbing mountains and running the Comrades Marathon next month is no challenge for him) he is fit and fighting for our first climb which will see us heading to the land down under next week. NEXT WEEK!? Yikes!

The interesting thing to note about Mount Kosciuszko is not the highest mountain by any means  but it is the highest in Australia and therefore qualifies as one of the world’s 7 summits if climbed. Mount Kosciuszko is the high point of the Great Dividing Range, a long mountain range that runs along the entire eastern part of Australia from Queensland to Victoria and at a climb of 7316 feet, we’ll be easing Kabs into his challenge gently!

Climbing Kosciuszko means that we have bagged an extra peak. Now ‘peak-bagging’ which is an official mountaineering term is used when you want to add a summit to your belt in the event that one of the more difficult climbs is not achieved. This could be due to reasons such as political conflict or unrest which means that it is unsafe for climbers to enter into the territory of a specific mountain, bad weather conditions or one of your team members falling ill, so it’s a ‘bonus mountain, if you like. This by no means makes it less of a challenge in case you were wondering. So essentially we are ‘peak-bagging’ Mount Kosciuszko.

It’s not long now till I leave my wife and boys behind for this next adventure but thankfully it’s not a long one. We leave on the 26^th of April, we summit on the 28 8and we are back on home soil on the ^3rd. This however does not mean that we will take 7 days to climb but as Alex-the Machine-Harris is in charge of training we will also be rock climbing some of the awe inspiring routes in the Blue Mountains and just for fun, a couple 100km sessions on the mountain bike.

Quick work! And as mentioned in the previous blog post, we will be keeping you abreast of all our anecdotes and challenges as we embark on every climb. So stick around because the next post will be coming to you from the land that brought you Vegemite, didgeridoos and Steve Irwin.

So this is Mountain Heights...

Hi

My name is Marco Broccardo and I am a recovered drug addict. I am also a little crazy. Not crazy because I was a drug addict (although yes, that was not my best judgment call) but because my journey of addiction and recovery has led me to the challenge of summiting the world’s 7 highest mountains to achieve the goal of funding a self-sustaining drug rehabilitation centre to give addicts who truly want to recover the gift of hope and the chance of leading a successful, fulfilled and normal life as I have.

I am CEO of Eurocom, a communications and digital strategy company which is being used as a vehicle to fund the lunacy of my summit dream which I have called Mountain Heights and under Mountain Heights falls our 7 Summit Challenge. Now I know this all might sound very rosy and structured but believe you me, the journey to get where I am now, to acknowledge and make this dream a reality has been messy, violent, lawless and deceitful. But this blog is not about the horrors of drug -taking and its effects (well, ok, to a degree it is and a very important part of why I’m writing this) but this is more about bringing a message of hope to users and their families and to take you on the emotional journey as we train for the grueling physical challenges of climbing and to actually take you up the mountains with us.  Our swan song summit will be Everest, which we are hoping to achieve in 2013.

My story began like any other addict’s story. Picture it, Joburg, the early 90’s. An athletic young boy from a loving home starts dabbling in a little weed here, a cheeky line there and so quickly, so very, very quickly my using got out of control, the lights went out and my dark path through the belly of Joburg’s underworld and full blown addiction began. I did my first line of coke when I was 15, scary, huh? The crack cocaine and heroine days were particularly fun, my life was a smorgasbord of drug cocktails and using opportunities. But it’s this resolute tenacity and commitment to my addiction that was the same strength I drew on in my recovery. That and my faith in God.

To give an adequate account of the horrors I witnessed and the hell I put my family and loved ones through, I have written a book which is in its last stages of editing changes, I will keep you posted with developments, it’s a pretty gripping read if I do say so myself but it’s not for the faint-hearted. It’s a scary but accurate depiction of what a drug addict goes through and the horror their families witness as they systematically try and destroy themselves, but it’s not all doom and gloom, there is hope and recovery which is afforded to every addict if they are truly committed to a drug-free life.

So to make sure I keep you fully updated at all stages of this journey, anecdotes and the really bad stuff too, we’ll be using a satellite phone when we summit as we feed all our information to our 7 Summit Challenge Twitter and Facebook pages. We’ve already climbed Kiliminjaro where we blogged for IOL via the same satellite technology, there are some awesome pictures you can check out which I have uploaded to this blog and trust me, although there are smiles and jollies in the photos, it was one of the toughest challenges I have ever taken on as a first climb.

This journey is going to be epic and a thrilling read, THAT I can guarantee you. So please stick with us, the 7 Summit Challenge team which includes Alex Harris one of the first South African to conquer the seven summits as well as walk unassisted to the South Pole (talk about an underachiever), Barry and Michael our production team who will be creating a documentary of the entire process.

There are further exciting developments which I will be filling you in on during the course of the next week and I mean REALLY exciting. So till then, keep the faith and know that there’s hope, otherwise these crazy men would not be climbing 7 mountains.