Anthony Soles and William Stone-Barney are leaving Montreal on May 1 to summit renowned mountains while raising money for ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
"We really just want to spread awareness while doing stuff we love," said Soles
The cause is personal for Soles: In 2021 his father lost a 16 year battle to ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Michael Soles was a well-loved fullback with the Montreal Alouettes in the 90s.
Six days before he died, he sent his son an email about the importance of seeing the world while he still had the chance.
"There's a lot of memories I have of my dad obviously, but I was very young, so there's a lot that I don’'t really remember and it's just really special to find things like that email to bring him back into my life a bit," he told CTV News.
Soles said his father's words provided a whole new outlook and inspiration to the bucket list trip. Over the next month, the 21-year-old's plan to summit and ski renowned peaks in California, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver Island.
"We wanted to make sure it was something that kind of incentivized that fact that expressed our gratitude for the situations we've been in, while also raising awareness and funds for people that don't have that same privilege,”" said Stone-Barney.
While they love to ski, each climb takes two to three days and the total vertical is over 25 thousand feet.
"So it's going to be really challenging for sure and there are gonna be days when we want to take a break and get a hotel and take a rest day and we might do that a couple times, but I think that having this charity behind us, and seeing the support that it has gotten already, is really going to push us to at least try to carry out our goals," said Stone-Barney.
The university students are paying for the trip on their own, but they're receiving help from sponsors Beaconsfield Pizzeria Casa Rita, Canadian Tire, Instagram page pick6athletics and RPM Online.
As for their fundraising goal, its already been surpassed. Over $15,000 have been raised for ALS Quebec.
"The support has been unreal whether its just through donations. All my dad's old friends, all my friends. The whole community has been donating and it's just been fantastic," said Soles.
Donations for the "Big Mountains, Bigger Cause" fundraiser can be made on the organization's website.
Soles says his father would "be very proud" that he’s using his abilities to raise awareness for the disease that took his life.
