Thomas "The Tank" Dade

September the 10th 2019.

As this is my first offical blog update I feel I should give a quick recount of where I’m at, how this all started and where I’m going.

As of today I’ve reached the top of 2 summits, Mount Elbrus (Europes Highest Peak) & Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa’s Highest Peak). If all goes to plan by the end of the year I would have reached 3 summits, with a potential Mount Kosciuszko (Australia’s Highest Peak) summit in November 2019. I’ve also booked in an Aconcagua (South America’s Highest Peak) attempt with Climbing The Seven Summits for an expedition start date of February the 1st 2020. Lastly if I can get the funds I plan on an Denali (North America’s Highest Peak) attempt sometime June – July 2020.

With all that being said how did I get here? It all started with the Kokoda Track (a difficult trek in Papua New Guinea) at the start of the year. For some reason whilst swimming the idea of trekking the Kokoda Track came to mind. Why it came to my mind I don’t know, I had little hiking and camping experience but I felt something was pulling me to do the trek. I’d saved plenty of money so could afford it and I was fit due to my constant training regime. After a couple hours thought, a little bit of research and a whole lot of naivety I booked the trip. Also because my brain makes no sense I wanted to do it the hardest way possible, so I did. I booked the “Extreme Version” which just means instead of doing the trek in the usual 6-9 days I did it in 5 and elected to use no porter. A couple months later I was in Papua New Guinea and to keep it short it was an enlightening experience and changed me forever. 12-16 hours a day of difficult, steep, muddy terrain with 22kg on my back, I’d been pushed harder than ever before and loved it. After a couple weeks recovery I decided I needed a new challenge and that’s when I stumbled across the idea of the seven summits, I was instantly drawn to it. Further showing my impatience after only discovering the idea of the seven summits the previous day I booked in 2 trips for June and July. Mount Elbrus and Mount Kilimanjaro, both trips where successful and I not only fell in love with the idea of the seven summits but with the “sport”? of mountaineering. Since then I’ve booked in Aconcagua for next year and practised my alpine snow camping and mountaineering skills within the Victorian Alps at places such as Mount Feathertop. I’m still very inexperienced, still struggling to pitch my own tent but I love it and believe my positive attitude will eventually get me to where I need to be for future expeditions.

What am I doing right now at this current moment? Working and training. Saving money, keeping a high level of fitness and learning the basics of mountaineering are all hot priorities for me right now. In a little over a week I’m attempting my first 100km ultramarathon to test myself physically and mentally, in October I’m hopefully heading over to Kosciusko National Park to further improve my mountaineering skills and in November I’m attempting my first half IRONMAN followed by a Mount Kosciuszko summit attempt. I’m not going to lie working as a labourer/gardener/paper boy (jobs I don’t particularly enjoy) can suck at times as I’d imagine a lot of you know, but the funding is needed if I want to participate in all these trips and competitions. I’m training daily, running, weights, hiking with a heavy pack, swimming & using the stair-master at my local gym.

So there you have it a quick introductory of how I got here, my plan moving forward and what I’m currently doing. Will update you again soon.