Climbing For Awareness is an organization whose mission is to attempt to raise awareness of eating disorders and change peoples perceptions of eating disorders by attempting to climb The 7 Summits of the world.  In this mission we hope to show the world that eating disorders are NOT about vanity and beauty, but rather about something deep, personal, dark and often misunderstood.  By educating and raising awareness we hope to bring about understanding and maybe change to a disease that is often neglected and ignored.

To accomplish this feat, I hope to create a team of climbers made up primarily of persons who have recovered from an eating disorder to show that having or had an eating disorder is not debilitating.  While a person suffering from a eating disorder may be struggling now, they are still capable of great things if the opportunity and desire to do so is there.  The faces may change as the project progresses through the years, but the mission will always remain the same.

While The 7 Summits may not be the hardest or most difficult climbs in the world, they are special in the fact that they are the highest points on each of the seven continents and that alone makes them unique.  The choice of The 7 Summits is a symbolic gesture by which their unique trait unites them to each other in much the same way that persons currently with or have had in the past an eating disorder, including their friends and family, are united to that experience despite language, culture and distance.

We may fail in our efforts.  Some may reach summits, while others do not.  We may never achieve all 7 summits.  We may never even reach the peak of one summit, but at least we tried.  The worst kind of failure is the kind that comes about from not even taking the first step towards your dream.  Backed by the determination to accomplish something, what is hard can be made easy, and the seemingly impossible, possible.


To find out more or to apply to become a member of our climbing team, please email me at justin@climbingforawareness.com or you can mail your inquiry or application to:

Climbing For Awareness
P.O. BOX 16488
Saint Paul, MN 55116