Canadian Jeremy Frimer is one of the world’s best known climbers. Jeremy’s 12-year alpine career has taken him on 13 expeditions to the world’s greatest ranges. Here are Jeremy’s two reasons for joining Team Darfur:
First, in the Alpine Climbing world, we cherish the experience that comes with the "freedom of the hills". Ventures into the mountainous unknown frees us from arbitrary rules and conventions, and allows us to sing our own tunes. I see this theme as being a natural extension of the basic ideal of freedom, which includes freedoms of the first order---from oppression, rape, and murder. To me, Darfur is the greatest preventable human rights catastrophe in the world today. To continue my own pursuits of freedom in the hills without doing something to share the ideal would be nothing more than an exercise in self-indulgence.
Second, my mother and grandparents fought to preserve their own lives as Jews on the run in Nazi-occupied Poland throughout the War. They narrowly escaped capture and becoming victims of genocide on several occasions. I see their struggles as having not been only for their own lives, but also to provide me with the opportunity at mine. My grandparents are now gone; the best way that I can repay them is by paying that gift forward.
