Planning Future Climbs

Capt Uberuaga and I have been doing a lot of talking about what's next. With the great success on Denali in Spring of '08, we found ourselves looking at just three more peaks in the challenge: Vinson, Everest, and Kosciuszko. We've always planned on using Australia as either a fill in peak to bridge gaps in the schedule, or as our final climb- a way to give everyone a chance to climb the last peak on the challenge with the team (regardless of experience level).

We've decided to put our best foot forward and put Spring 2010 as our benchmark for... Mt. Everest!! Between now and then, we'd like to climb Vinson and we also forsee a return to Denali (June 09?) and/or Aconcagua. What does all this mean for us and our supporters? It's time to get the fundraising and public realtions machine into gear again! In concurrence with our goal of bringing positive media attention to the Air Force and its members, as well as raising awareness for the Special Ops Warrior Foundation, we'll be looking for as much help spreading the word and gathering donations as possible. Everest will be especially important for fundraising, as the team members climbing it will need to raise $30k a person to help cover the climbing expenses. On that particular climb, we'll also be looking for corporate sponsorship to help make our biggest climb the biggest success to date!

If you have any ideas, suggestions, pledges, or support for us, please contact us at: usaf7summits@gmail.com.

Thanks again for the great support we've received in the past. This is a dream that is on pace to becoming reality: the US Air Force being the first military in the world to reach the 7 Summits and the first American military team to climb Mt. Everest!!

--Capt Rob Marshall