County firefighters compete in charity stairclimb

Firefighters from North Mason Regional Fire Authority, Central Mason Fire & EMS and Mason County Fire District's 11 and 3 competed in the 32nd Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Firefighter Stairclimb on March 12 at the Columbia Center building in Seattle.

North Mason's Mickey Cotter, Elijah Freese, Kyle Barker, Tavia Henry and Travis Wilson finished 54th as a team.

"As a whole, we did great. Our top guy, Mickey, shaved a minute off his top time and reached his goal," NMRFA firefighter Wilson said. "I brought up the rear. I have some back problems but I'm happy with the completion and to help with the cause and to raise money. That was the main goal."

The Columbia Center is the second tallest building west of the Mississippi River. It takes 69 floors of stairs and 1,356 steps to reach the sky view observatory. The event has raised more than $24 million for the charity during the past 32 years. More than 1,500 firefighters competed for more than 175 firefighting organizations in this year's competition.

Wilson finished in two hours and four minutes, with the leader, Cotter, finishing in 14 minutes, 14 seconds, and placing 35th overall. Wilson said there is a stairclimber at the station and each of the participants was putting on packs and trying to get ready for the event.

"It was definitely an extra layer that we have all in common," Wilson said. "We were checking in and seeing how training was going. It was nice to get some extra time outside of the station to hang out with colleagues and raise money."

Wilson said the goal was to compete, do as well as they could and raise money.

"There are definitely times when you're thinking, what am I doing? It was a great experience to help out with," Wilson said. "All of us are already talking about training for next year and raising more money. I was happy to be a part of it and see everybody, people from different countries joining to help the LLS cause with the camaraderie with a common goal."

CMFE's Sebastien Christiansen, K.C. Whitehouse, Mark Frazier, Jacob Schreiber, Max Hollander, Cheyenne Filer and Jenavieve Striplin finished 148th as a team. The leading climber was Christiansen with a time of 26 minutes, 47 seconds, to finish 1,127th individually.

CMFE Lieutenant and Paramedic Frazier finished the climb in 1 hour, 26 minutes, in his ninth time climbing.

"I did one of the virtual events during COVID, box deadlifts with a weight belt," Frazier said. "They were still trying to do their thing and raise money through the pandemic. It's the same smiling faces, folks you went to the fire academy with, somebody you used to work with. It's a really great chance to catch up, the camaraderie in the building is second to none."

Frazier organizes the CMFE team for the event, ensuring everyone is refreshing the page in November for signups to make sure they can register for the event. Even with the hectic signup process, the event is worth it.

"We made it to the top, so that's good, that's the goal. It went really well, it was fun," Frazier said. "A few of us have done it for quite a few years now, we had a couple people this is their second visit. It's a really good time. The actual activity is kind of boring, in a stairwell, million degrees. You get to the top, see all these smiling faces, everyone finishes, everyone is high-fiving each other. You get in a building with that many like-minded individuals, everyone celebrates. You all did the same activity and you're all there for the same activity. There's no rank, we're all there for the same reasons, volunteers, officers, everything. You're all having a really good time, it makes that pain of the workout pretty bearable and a really fantastic experience."

Frazier said he cut 10 minutes off of his time from last year, which matches his goal of improving his time each year. There's no prize for winning other than the respect of their peers.

Kimberly Gregg was Fire District 11's lone competitor. She finished in 20 minutes, 43 seconds.

Frazier and Wilson said the event is a great way to bond with colleagues and coworkers.

"We're there for a good cause. The chance to hang out with your coworkers outside of work is just a great thing and to meet other departments, teams from all over the world come to this thing," Frazier said. "To get a chance to talk, share stories, share experiences, find out how things in Cali are vs. Colorado, Oregon, New Zealand that would come up. A lot of folks come down from Canada. No matter where you are, firefighters are firefighters and there's still that brotherhood across borders and you get to meet so many different people."

The LLS Firefighter Stairclimb has raised $2,106,042 this year with a goal of raising $3 million. To donate, go to http://www.tinyurl.com/mrw2dphu.

Author Bio

Matt Baide, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
Email: [email protected]

• Email: [email protected]