Défi Altitude
École secondaire Pointe-aux-Trembles

Climbing the equivalent of seven times Mount Everest, that is to say 61,240 metres, in only two and a half hours is a feat that might seem colossal but this was nonetheless what students at Pointe-aux-Trembles high school accomplished at the beginning of February 2010. As part of the Altitude challenge, every day for five days 400 participants embarked on a wild 30-minute race up and down the school stairs. This was how, thanks to an original yet simple idea, the students chose to promote physical activity while creating a rallying event at their school.

Sometimes you don’t have to go to great lengths to come up with an ingenious idea that will persuade a large number of people to get involved in your project. And this is something that the twenty or so students behind the Altitude challenge definitely realized. “We all love to run and we wanted to share this passion with others. It’s not a sport that a lot of young people are interested in so we thought that creating a sort of challenge would be a good way to motivate them,” recounts one of the organizers, Secondary 5 student Mélodie Couture.

It took the group three months of preparations to set up the project, obtain the school administration’s support, find volunteers and, more importantly, attract participants. The students had to form teams of four and climb the stairs in the school’s public square – each ascent representing 10 metres per person – as many times as possible in 30 minutes. “The best thing of all is that it didn’t cost participants or the school anything. The project brought together 400 people including the volunteers, but then there were all the supporters who cheered on the runners every day,” Mélodie points out.

The instigators of the project above all wanted to show their fellow students that it is indeed possible to take part in a physical activity at little cost but reap huge benefits. It was also an opportunity to make a tangible gesture towards fighting obesity and the lack of exercise among teenagers.

It should be pointed out that the organizers’ commitment to physical activity goes far beyond the boundaries of the Altitude challenge. In addition to the project they set up at school, the 20 teenagers are getting ready to take on another challenge, that of running the 600 kilometres separating Montréal and New York City. Accompanied by their teachers, the students will each take it in turns to cover one kilometre. They estimate that it will take them five days, at a rate of 10 hours of running per day, to reach their final destination, namely the United Nations New York headquarters.

Last year, the same group of students, or nearly, carried out a similar project, this time running from Montréal to Ottawa and back, the equivalent of over 400 kilometres.  On this occasion, they took advantage of their trek to raise funds for Right to Play, an organisation that promotes sports and peace in developing countries. They managed to donate $3,000 to the organization and hope to raise the same amount again this year, if not more.

“It’s a huge team effort. We train together twice a week and at least three or four times individually. We constantly encourage each other and there’s a good spirit within the group. We’re really looking forward to embarking on this new adventure,” Mélodie asserts, adding that other high schools in Montréal, inspired by their endeavour, have also set up the same kind of project.

The 20 running enthusiasts will be graduating this year but they certainly will have left their mark at Pointe-aux-Trembles high school. Thanks to their initiative, the Altitude challenge could very well become one of the school’s annual events. At the very least, that’s what they hope.

“When I look back at all the time I devoted to the Altitude challenge and the long relay races, I think that these will be my fondest memories of high school. We invested a lot of effort and built our self-confidence. And, if all this has enabled us to encourage other students to be physically active, then we can be proud of ourselves,” concludes the group’s spokesperson.

Défi Altitude
École secondaire Pointe-aux-Trembles