ROCK CLIMBING NEWS ITEM

Teacher from Denver Will Scale Mount Everest

TUESDAY, 20 FEBRUARY 2007

A thirty year old teacher from Denver will scale Mount Everest to encourage more children to exercise. He plans to send mails, blogs and videos to classroom while on the mountain. The goal of the expedition is to get children to run or walk 5.5 miles, the height of Mount Everest.

Mike Haugen is a former Stillson Elementary student and moved to Ohio at the age of twelve. He took rock climbing classes at the age of 16 under his mentor Andy Politz who was part of the party who found the body of the famous explorer George Leigh Mallory.

Haugen is climbing the 5.5-mile mountain along with his buddy, Casey Grom of Ohio. They’ll leave the U.S. on March 17 for the climb in May. They both plan to go up Everest's south side leaving from Nepal and will be using climbing equipment from The Coleman Company where Haugen works as and ambassador and field tester.

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