Scottish Adventure: The Winter Slog
Fundraising campaign by
Jen Crook
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£470.00raised of £1,000.00 goal goal
No more donations are being accepted at this time. Please contact the campaign owner if you would like to discuss further funding opportunities
THE EXPEDITION
So I'm going to walk the length of Scotland via the mountains this winter, during the coldest months of the year, along with my best animal pal, Haggis. Haggis is a big, floppy, cuddly labrador who adores all people and who was obese, unfit and very under confident when I re-homed her two years ago. The first hill day I took her on was a five hour jaunt up into the Pentlands, when she stopped to lay down exhausted several times. She now loves running around in the hills and is very fit, but she does also sleep a lot, which makes me wonder how she will cope with being awake all day, but I'm hoping she will adapt as quickly as I will have to!
My motivations for completing the expedition are...
• To gain fitness and suffering as part of my preparation for an expedition to Antarctica in 2017: http://jencrook.com/the-big-one---antarctica.php
• To raise money for my two chosen charities:
http://jencrook.com/Charities-and-Fundraising.php
• To give Haggis the time of her life
• To get other people out into the hills safely this winter
On January 16th, we will start in Gretna Green and walk north through Scotland, taking in the mountains of the West, then the East and eventually finishing in Cape Wrath (a more detailed route will be posted in due course). I expect that we'll occasionally grab some morale-boosting respite in local accommodation or any vans that people are willing to park for us, but mostly we will be camping out in the often atrocious Scottish winter conditions, all in the name of adventure, of course!
The route will be over 550 miles long, plus a lot of ascent, and I hope to complete it in around two months. Walking low level, we would be able to do it in six, but we want to take in as many of Scotland's beautiful mountains as possible, so are allowing a bit of extra time. We will leave mid January and finish sometime in March, when it will be absolutely baltic - perfect Antarctica training! I will have to carry a lot of weight and I also expect to get very good at pitching my tent in horrific conditions.
SUPPORT
I'm lucky enough to have a small team of amazing people helping me out, http://jencrook.com/The-Expedition-Team.php, including Becks, who is helping with PR, Media and Fundraising beforehand and Logistics during, Lucy, who is helping with Logistics and Planning and Holly, who is helping with the behind the scenes work of fundraising. Sarah Outen is all a personal sponsor of the trip and has agreed to sponsor me nutritionist Rin Cobb Julie Jones, an NHS Physiotherapist who previously helped me through a very bad and persistent climbing injury has also offered her time to help with general conditioning, fixing my broken bum (another climbing injury) in preparation for the walk and giving advise on any niggles during the expedition. We are also lucky enough have Rab, Lowe Alpine, Ruffwear, Mountain House and Eat Grub UK (yes, I'm eating bugs on my trip) on board as expedition sponsors:
http://rab.equipment, http://lowealpine.com/uk/, http://www.ruffwear.co.uk, http://www.mountainhouse.eu, http://www.eatgrub.co.uk
WHAT WE NEED!
Since May this year, when I first committed to Antarctica, I have been juggling my time, sometimes fairly precariously, between real work and planning. I have used some savings to keep existing during this time and am contributing the final few thousand I have to the Scotland expedition next year. In short, I am paying for as much of it as I possible can but by the end of it, will be approaching zero and beyond fast!
If you are able to make a personal donation, it would be hugely appreciated and, ultimately, will lead to raising more money for charity since we will have the resources to make more noise along the way! More info on my two chosen charities and on other ways that you can get involved can be found on my website http://jencrook.com/Charities-and-Fundraising.php or on their own home pages http://www.internationalanimalrescue.org, https://www.soidog.org.
PRIZE DRAW
For donations of less than £25, you will still be included in our wonderfully fantastical prize draw, which we are working hard on gathering an array of brilliant prizes for from local businesses and elsewhere. Winners to be announced on reaching our target and prizes to be announced in due course!
Many many thanks,
from J&H and The Team!
Rewards
Donate £1 or more to the expedition to be entered into our prize draw of amazing fantastical goodies!
Donate £25 to the expedition and get the bonus reward of a Haggis mug or an expedition T-shirt!
Donate £35 to the expedition and get the bonus reward of a digital download of the expedition film!
Donate £50 to the expedition and get a bonus reward of a Haggis mug or an expedition T-shirt, plus a digital download of the expedition film!
Donate £100 to the expedition and get the bonus reward of a Haggis mug or an expedition T-shirt, a digital download of the expedition film and a walk in the Pentland Hills with Haggis (three dates will be made available after the expedition).
Donate £250 to the expedition and get a bonus reward of a Haggis mug, an expedition T-shirt and a film-making / photography session with Jen and Haggis (three dates will be made available after the expedition).
Donate £500 to the expedition and get the bonus reward of a Haggis mug, an expedition T-shirt, plus a presentation at your workplace / club / event by Jen and Haggis (within Southern Scotland or with the addition of travel expenses if further afield) and your company / club / event logo in the credits to the expedition film.
Fundraising Team
- Jen Crook
- Campaign Owner
- Edinburgh, UK
- Jen Crook
- PR, Media, Logistics
- Holly Webster
- Fundraising
Donors
- Guest
- Donated on Jan 12, 2016
- James Slattery-Kavanagh
- Donated on Dec 21, 2015
With best wishes to Jen and Haggis from James at Optivizor.co.uk
Fundraising pub crawl!
Update posted by Jen Crook at 02:53 pmWell, considering we started at 10.30pm as opposed to 3pm after a bit of a slog back up from Manchester, we managed to raise £135 in just over two hours. This weekend, we will start at lunchtime, so fingers crossed for a bit more. Anyone wanting to join, do shout!
Budget cuts!
Update posted by Jen Crook at 09:49 pmGood news - I have been chopping! I have slashed everything I can possibly slash and have found some alternative solutions to expensive items such as a sat phone. As well as this, the good will of people who were signed up to be involved with things like filming on. . . . .
More good news for Haggis!
Update posted by Jen Crook at 08:45 pmAnd finally, the Haggis section of the organisation process is complete! Pure Pet Foods, a small company based down south who make 100% natural dehydrated dog foods, have agreed to sponsor Haggis' food for the expedition. The stuff looks amazing - it's human grade (so I can nick some for
Optivizor Doggy Eye Protection!
Update posted by Jen Crook at 12:41 amMore great news today - James at Optivizor has offered to support the expedition by providing Haggis with an Optivizor face mask to protect her eyes in blizzard conditions, something that I have been wondering about and researching for a while. https://www.optivizor.co.ukI was finding it very difficult to find a. . . . .
Expedition Logo
Update posted by Jen Crook at 12:40 pmA massive thanks to those who have kicked us off with their donations - much appreciated. In other news, we also now have an expedition logo, courtesy of Oliver Burrow - many thanks Olly!
Donors & Comments
- Mark Evans
- Donated on Jan 12, 2016
Good luck Niffer. Lots of love sparky
- Guest
- Donated on Jan 12, 2016
- James Slattery-Kavanagh
- Donated on Dec 21, 2015
With best wishes to Jen and Haggis from James at Optivizor.co.uk
- Andy Morris
- Donated on Dec 06, 2015
Best of luck from Andy & Ali (Team Poole :)
- Helen Outen
- Donated on Nov 20, 2015
- Lee Mills
- Donated on Nov 20, 2015
Good luck Jenkins! :)
- Lindsay Brown
- Donated on Nov 20, 2015
First installlment. Go Crookster & Haggis. Hopefully join you at some stage.
- David Geddes
- Donated on Nov 20, 2015
- Ellie Buchanan
- Donated on Nov 14, 2015
- Jason Hoffman
- Donated on Nov 13, 2015
Good luck Niffer. Lots of love sparky