Who's coming with me?

One Daily sports columnist. As many students and faculty as he can bribe with meals at Dewick. 29,029 feet. An annual mountain climbing challenge to support free printing, ESPN and less frat discipline at Tufts.

On April 19, while President Bacow once again leads (in spirit, not in time, of course) his team of runners in the Boston Marathon to raise money for the Tufts Personalized Performance Program, I will personally lead a coalition of the willing up the summit of summits: Mt. Everest.

It's going to take a whole heap of training to get ready for The Mountain, and one round trip ticket to Nepal will cost you a bit more than that microfridge, so I suggest we practice on peaks closer to home.

Membership in the Highpointers Club -- a society of very dedicated (ahem) people who try to climb the highest point in each US state -- should help get us started.

This past Sunday, I drove down to Foster, Rhode Island to tackle the highest point in the Ocean State: Jerimoth Hill, 812 feet above sea level.

Jerimoth Hill isn't really a hill at all. It's a...a...a...a rock. Yeah, it's a big rock in some guy's back yard that's a foot and a half taller than anywhere else in that godforsaken wasteland of a state.

Chuck, the Highpointers host for the Rhode Island site, came prepared with prayer flags, climbing boots and ice picks, and he said that by the time I arrived at about noon, two people had already fallen off the rock because of the slippery conditions. Chuck made it up to Camp Two at Everest before he had to come back for work, so he knows his way around mountains.

To be more precise, The Rock and a clearing around it are owned by Brown University -- they built a telescope platform next to the rock and use the area for astronomy classes -- but all the land around it, including the property between Jerimoth and the road, is owned by good ol' Fosterites.

The surrounding owners only let tourists in to "climb" a few days a year, and luckily Columbus Day is one of them. I say luckily because as it turns out, the surrounding owners aren't the friendliest bunch.

Last year, two Alaskan Highpointers took a trip around the summits of New England, but when they showed up in Rhode Island, they were two weeks too early for visitation day. The men parked their car on the side of the road, and in the middle of the night, decided to bushwhack the 50-foot distance to Jerimoth.

When they got back to their car, two men emerged from the bushes, fired shotgun blasts into the air, and made the Alaskans wait face-down at gun-point until the cops showed up.

An experience atop Jerimoth will go a long way in preparing us for the deadly demands of Everest. But still, you may ask: Brian, how do you know you can physically be ready for Everest?

To that I say this: Go watch the IMAX movie "Kilimanjaro: To the Roof of Africa." They follow a team of seasoned vets up the highest point in Africa -- not Everest, but a bit higher than Jerimoth.

Among the climbers was a 12-year-old girl. TWELVE YEARS OLD! GIRL! If a middle-schooler can tame the Furtwangler Glacier, why can't a bunch of lanky Jumbos B.S. their way up Everest?

This past Saturday, my roommate and I hiked both Mt. Flume and Mt. Liberty in New Hampshire via the Flume Slide trail -- a trail the guidebooks say you shouldn't take on the way down or in less than perfect conditions.

At the top of the first peak we met a woman with her dog, a dog she said has climbed 36 of New Hampshire's mountains that are over 4,000 ft. above sea level. Go back and read that sentence again. When I got to the top, I didn't need supplemental oxygen, I needed a full body massage and a gin and tonic. This dog was kicking my ass.

I may be an IR major, but I can do some basic math. I'm pretty darn sure that 12-year-old girl + four-legged fur ball = mountains are a heck of a lot easier than that %&@!# rope in gym class.

So come on, who's with me? We'll do a highpoint each weekend until Patriot's Day. I hear New Jersey's peak is just a landfill off the Turnpike, so that'll be a lot easier than say, Mt. McKinley.

And besides, would you rather be part of the President's Marathon Challenge or the Bring Social Life Back to Tufts by Freezing Your Ass Off in the Himalayas Challenge?

Everest or bust!