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Jan 5, 2009 6:55 pm US/Central
Teachers Climb Andes Mt., Hope To 'Reach' Students
WACONIA, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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Teachers Brian Honkomp and Christian Gilbert set their sites on Mount Aconcagua of the Andes Mountain chain, more than 22,000 feet of rough and rugged terrain. It is 90 degrees at the bottom and 15 below at the summit.
CBS
In the classroom, Brian Honkomp and Christian Gilbert are eighth grade science and geography teachers. But give them a couple weeks off and chances are good they will find themselves on top of a mountain.
"We decided this Christmas to take it a notch higher," said Honkomp, an eighth grade science teacher at Clearwater Middle School in Waconia, Minn.
The men set their sites on Mount Aconcagua of the Andes Mountain chain, more than 22,000 feet of rough and rugged terrain. It is 90 degrees at the bottom and 15 below at the summit. They trained hard, running marathons as part of their preparation.
Just before Christmas, Honkomp and Gilbert began their adventure. As they climbed, they used a Spot GPS to e-mail their coordinates to their students, while adding messages about teamwork.
"It was kind of cool because you felt like you were on the adventure with them," said eighth-grader Jeni Haler.
Watching her teachers get by in a tent and the clothes on their backs made Olivia Stiller realize the benefit of friendship.
"You have to learn friendship from these two guys because you see their tent? It's not very big," said Stiller.
The men spent hours melting snow for water. They suffered frostbite to their faces and hands.
"From the knuckle up I don't have any tactile feeling. I don't know what happened," said Gilbert, who teaches eighth grade geography.
After making it to the top, they compared their grueling adventure to running 11 marathons in 11 days.
"I would like to give it another shot. This one is tough, though. It is tough," said Honkomp.
But hearing from students at the end made it all worthwhile.
"I got messages from students saying, 'Hey Gilbert, that was awesome, I followed along.' That was a kid I just reached out to that I couldn't get in my normal classroom setting," said Gilbert.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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