Duo ascends city’s tallest tower

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Duo ascends city’s tallest tower

SCOTT Hillis still remembers when he stood at the bottom of Melbourne’s tallest building, the Eureka Tower, and looked up.

He knew he had to run up every stair in the building, wearing 25kg of firefighting gear.

“It’s hard on the brain,” he said.

The Leongatha firefighter and his partner Tiffany Van Horick recently completed the 11th annual Eureka Stair Climb.

They climbed 1642 steps – 88 floors – to the Eureka Skydeck at the top of the 297m Eureka Tower, and raised money for the Fred Hollows Foundation while doing so to restore sight to some of the poorest people in the world.

Mr Hillis completed the climb in 42 minutes, just two minutes longer than he took in 2017, wearing full breathing apparatus gear. His heart rate peaked at 196 beats per minute.

Ms Van Horick did the climb in 25 minutes.

Mr Hillis said, “When I got to the top I was pretty exhausted. I felt like I was going to be sick. There was good camaraderie with the other firefighters and police too. They really help you push yourself to the breaking point.

“You have to be prepared not only physically, but mentally.

“It was really good to see more women firefighters having a crack as well.”

 

Job done: Leongatha couple Scott Hillis and Tiffany Van Horick after completing the 11th annual Eureka Stair Climb – all 88 floors. Mr Hillis, a Leongatha firefighter, wore 25kg of breathing apparatus gear.

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Posted by on Dec 4 2018. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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