It’s a long way to the top of the Columbia Tower in Seattle, especially wearing 60 pounds of firefighting gear, but it’s all worth the heat and exhaustion to help raise money to fight cancer.
This past Sunday, close to 1,800 firefighters from around the region, including a team from Renton, took part in the annual Scott Firefighter Stairclimb to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
During the annual event, firefighters from around the region raise money by climbing the tower’s 69 flights and 1,311 stairs in full gear.
A team of eight Renton firefighters from Renton Local 864 participated this year, climbing the stairs in honor of members who have lost their battle to the disease, including retired Deputy Chief Art Larson and firefighter Donovan Eckhardt, who died last year.
“The sooner we get the cure, the better we will be,” said Renton firefighter Chris Krystofiak who completed the climb for the fifth consecutive year.
Krystofiak finished in 30:41, seventh among the Renton climbers.
Josh Brown led all Renton Firefighters with a time of 15:35.
Krystofiak said sign-ups for the event begin in the fall and Renton firefighters have been in training since. Krystofiak said he hits the gym and works the stairmaster and other cardio-based exercises, but some guys head up to Seattle with full gear to practice the stairs.
Krystofiak said the hardest part of the climb is “getting over the hump” where the body starts to revolt. There’s an air-bottle change at the 40th floor, which gives a brief respite, but after that, Krystofiak said it gets tougher because with every new floor he “keeps doing math” at how many are left.
“Oh look, another 29 to go,” he joked.
He said as firefighters get within 10 floors of the top, you can begin to hear the cheering for those completing the climb, which helps spur climbers to the finish.
“You are beat,” he said of getting to the top floor. “All you want is to get out of what you are wearing and get all that weight off your back.”
Krystofiak said that while research has shown that firefighters have a much higher risk of cancer than the general population because their job exposes them to hazardous chemicals and dangerous situations, the battle against cancer is something that effects everyone.
“We work our tails off to try and raise some funds for cancer research and awareness,” he said. “We don’t do this specifically for firefighters.”
This year, the eight-member team raised more than $7,840. In total, Renton firefighters have raised more than $100,000 for cancer research through their stairclimb participation.
