Jon takes stairs to charity peak
AFITNESS coach proved he had a head for heights by climbing the equivalent of Mount Everest on his stairs - in under 24 hours.
Jon Hall, 40, from Macclesfield, started his gruelling challenge at 6am on Saturday, January 9, and finished at 12.30am on Sunday.
In between times he had gone up and down his flight of 12 stairs 3,400 times to equal the 29,000ft summit of the world’s highest mountain.
He had previously tried this challenge on Macclesfield’s 108 Steps but come up just short so was determined to succeed this time.
Jon said: “It had been in the back of my mind since and I thought if I don’t do it now in lockdown when would I.
So I was pleased to have done it although it was a little bit anticlimactic finishing on my own in the dark going up and down.
”I was going to set off at 8am but I woke up at quarter to six so thought I may as well get on with it.
”More than anything it was a mental challenge and having the willingness to keep going hour after hour. I was pretty sore the next day and took it as easy as I could, I just playing board games.” Jon lives near Macclesfield Hospital with his wife Alex, three children and his step-daughter so did have people to cheer him on some of the time.
He also live-streamed parts of the challenge so he could interact with people online.
But for some periods he was on his own so things did not get too crowded on the stairs with people wanting to go up to use the bathroom.
During the climb he was allowed breaks for food, a bath, painkillers and deep heat.
Jon has his own fitness firm called RISE, with a base at Waterside, in Macclesfield, and was back at work on Monday.
He said: “In a few weeks I will be 100 per cent recovered. You have to be pretty fit, I was not getting out of breath it was a steady discomfort rather than intense pain.
”On some levels I enjoyed it, it was a challenge and doing something I’d not done before.”