Mark Beevor
Having had a secret lover affair with America since my first visit to California at age 8, I headed to Upstate New York to go to university hoping for a similar experience! At the top end of Saratoga Springs you shall find Skidmore College and it is here that I hoped to live out my boyhood dream. I arrived in September and by mid-November as the temperature dropped to –20°F I thought that perhaps I had gone wrong. However, after four memorable years, most of which began with fellow climber Chris breaking the ice on Saratoga Lake in the Men’s Varsity Eight I realized my true reason for coming to America, it enabled me to see that I could do whatever I had a passion for. Skidmore gave me a sense of belonging, the rowing taught me about commitment and what it means to work so hard you want to shrivel up and fall sleep for year while at the same time reaping the rewards of your hard labor as medals hang casually around your neck. As for education I was given the chance to be guided by faculty whose office hours were 24/7 and immerse myself in a subject that I knew would prove essential to later life. Philosophy and Religion! As I finished page 121 of what should have been a 30 page thesis I headed to the one place where I knew that I could use my degree, The Four Seasons Hotel, Boston!

After living in Boston for only a year I was, unfortunately, unable to extend my visa and so returned to England to work in our sister hotel in Park Lane. Two and a half years later, I was back on a plane heading across the Atlantic to once more live out my boyhood dream but this time in the South Pacific. Here, still working for the Four Seasons I have taken up my new residency in Maui, Hawaii.

Chris Geiser
Chris became a member of the Makevek Challenge in the fall of 2001. At Skidmore College he studied drawing and graphic design with Brent, and rowed crew with Mark. After 4 years of education Chris was ready to go out on his own and rekindle his love of the outdoors. In between the hours spent in the office, as multimedia designer at Weymouth Design in Boston, and enjoying the city life he manages to find a little time to escape into the outdoors and enjoy the activities that drew him to the Makevek Challenge.

Brent Eveleth
Joining the Makevek Challenge in early 2001, Brent brings with him a 10 year on-again, off-again relationship with the outdoors. While at school at Skidmore College (w/ Mark and Chris) he hardly spent any time at all climbing and hiking in the Adirondak mountains, but rather, studied graphic design, preparing him for his current job as multimedia designer at Weymouth Design in Boston, MA

Julian Walker
Born in Essex, England an area renowned its lack of topography, Jules’ mountaineering and climbing experience so far includes an ascent of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (one of the seven summits) and various mountains in Scotland. He is described as an outdoor man who enjoys all sports especially sailing, diving and anything that involves beating the Australians and Americans. Jules is presently studying at Oxford University for a postgraduate MBA degree, which will be completed in September 2001. This coincides with his marriage to Karin Beevor, as well as his returning to the real world and getting a job.