You read it here first: Steven Perezluha, who this summer rode his bicycle from Florida to Alaska and back, has blown away the record for climbing the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning. His uncle, Danny Chew, had held the record at 101 times; that was broken earlier this month by triathlete Diana Marongiu-Lutz. I hope to have more details (and perhaps a link to a news story) later.
Steven's record-setting climb: 132 times!
UPDATE December 31, 2009
Nothing yet from the Pittsburgh papers, but Danny Chew's website has more details than you want to know and some pictures. Several other people joined them for the climb; too bad the former record holder wasn't there to defend her title.
Steven and Danny began their climb at 6:00 a.m. on December 26, and finished 23 hours and 52 minutes later at 5:52 a.m. December 27. Danny broke his own record by ascending 112 times. Steven's record-obliterating climb was a Double Everest: twice the distance from sea levelto the top of Mount Everest.
Not all sports photos show athletes looking their best. But I think I'd look this bad after being awake for 24 hours—never mind climbing Mt. Everest twice.
Photo credit: The Perezluha Family
To put that in perspective, he climbed a total altitude of about four times Pikes Peak - from sea level.
Thanks for the perspective. That's incredible.
Note the update above.
From Jaque Lutz ("Former" record holders son):
What makes you think that, that the "Former" holder has anything to defend ....
Webmaster's Note: I have removed the remainder of this rant. Lift Up Your Hearts! welcomes comments and conversation, but foul language and hate-filled attacks are completely out of line.
Mr. Lutz, you are free to post a reasonable comment here, but really you are in the wrong place. This is not Danny Chew's website, nor to the best of my knowledge does he read it, so comments here directed to him are inappropriate.
I apologize to our readers in earlier time zones and those whose feedreaders picked up this comment before I was alerted to it.
Excerpt: Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall (Knopf, New York, 2009) A book about running? Not my thing. On my daily walks (where by "daily" I mean five days a week and only when I'm not on the road) I've managed to work my wa...
Weblog: Lift Up Your Hearts!
Date: January 6, 2010, 11:57 am
