If there is one thing everyone can agree on, it's that taking the stairs is not fun. Now imagine if you will, climbing 55 flights of stairs wearing full firefighters gear, plus your own weight rounding to a whopping 300 pounds. That was the reality for two Kindersley residents Adrean Palm and Nathan Ward. Volunteer firefighters who attended the 5th Annual Fire Fighter Stair Climb Challenge this past weekend. The event was held in Calgary Alberta at The Bow, a skyscraper with 1204 steps. Starting at 3400 feet above sea level, this climb is the highest elevation firefighter stair climb in the world. Adrean and Nathan both raised around $1200 for charity.

Nathan Ward talks about what he did to prepare for this gruelling task. "[I] Should have prepared more for it, is what I should have done. Just lots of cardio before we went well we should have trained more it was a little bit overwhelming when we got there once you started going it was really overwhelming the training. But it was a good experience met lots of people, well there were 600 firefighters there."

But what would interest a man to put on 50 to 60 pounds of equipment and risk life and limb to fight fires? Ward goes into detail telling us about his choice and the feeling when he receives that call, "I always was curious about it when I noticed that our department was getting very very busy, and they always were looking for volunteers I just finally up and called the chief and wanted to do it. I plan to be here for the next thirty years, I love the job love helping people and it's just a good experience and good to do all around."

Ward also says the first thing he feels when that call comes in is the adrenaline, "You're adrenaline is just through the roof every time the tones go off, my pager goes off your heart just starts racing. You go to the hall and you get in the truck and you never know what you're going to and what you're going to come across on the call but it's very exhilarating that's for sure."

Finally, Ward finished off by saying "I encourage other firefighters to look into that climb for next year for sure."