By Susan Doran
Dave Grime
I’ve never understood what drives certain people to risk their future climbing a mountain. Dave Grime has done it. But his initial pat answer, “Because it’s there,” did little to enlighten me.
Grime says climbing mountains is “not a holiday,” but rather is about “pushing yourself, not giving up, achieving a goal.”
He’s from an intrepid family, and that must have been an influence. He works with his mother, Margorie Grime, and Cindy Zettel at Royal LePage RCR Real Estate in Orangeville, Ont. They bill themselves as “The Grime Team.”
In 2007, to celebrate her 60th birthday, Margorie decided that she and her family would do the Annapurna circuit in Nepal. It’s a challenging trek around a mountain range west of Everest, and it fired up Dave, 33, for greater things.
So last October, after less preparation than you’d imagine (“a lot of day hikes in Ontario with 45 pounds of books in backpacks,” he says), Dave and his well-traveled younger brother Mike tackled Nepal’s Mera Peak. At 6,476 metres it’s considered one of the highest trekking peaks in the world. By that definition it’s a fairly non-technical ascent with no real ice climbing, Dave says.
However, altitude sickness is definitely a concern.
The high camp on Mera at 5,900 metres.
“Once you get above 4,000 metres, you’re out of breath all the time,” Dave said in an interview with his local newspaper, the Banner. The piece was whimsically headlined, Brothers Grime go on a climb. “When you get above 5,000 metres, you can’t sleep at night. You keep waking up gasping for breath,” he says.
“The whole way up you’re questioning yourself … do I even want to do this? If you come down with cerebral edema up on the summit, you can die for sure… You see helicopters coming in and out all the time carrying people away.”
Dave and his brother were fortunate, experiencing no major problems except nausea and headaches – although one headache was bad enough to almost cause him to cancel his attempt at the ascent.
Lack of oxygen made it difficult to think clearly. Dave says that at one point when he thought the ascent was going too slowly, his reaction was to tell the climbing sherpa (their Tibetan guide) to unhook him so he could go on alone – a request that, had it been granted, could have resulted in Dave’s death.
His recollection of the night they spent at the high camp on Mera before beginning the final ascent at 3 am (in order to be at the summit for sunrise) is chilling.
“You would not want to stay there for over one night,” he says. “There were loads of other people. But everybody stays in their tents. You cook with kerosene. There are no trees. It’s pretty barren. The winds were howling.”
They used headlamps on the final ascent but they almost didn’t need them because the stars were so numerous and bright, Grime says.
Due to weather issues and altitude sickness, only a small percentage of climbers reach the summit. The brothers Grime succeeded.
“The view is unspeakably awe-inspiring. The clouds are below you and a handful of the world’s highest peaks stretch relentlessly away, making you feel like you’re on top of the world,” says Dave. Nevertheless, he and Mike stayed at the summit for only 15 minutes. The altitude was causing both of them to feel unwell (Dave’s headache was back) and was also affecting their memory.
“We took a picture with our arms around each other,” says Dave. “But I forgot to put up the Grime Team flag. It went back down with me.”
He considers achieving the Mera summit one of his biggest accomplishments, and says he would definitely go back and attempt a higher peak, although he knows it’s hard on his wife Melanie. The entire Mera trip took five weeks, including an initial trek from Kathmandu (“Filthy,” says Dave) to Lukla, Nepal, their ascending point.
“The first thing we did when we got back to Lukla was take a (much-needed) shower,” he says. He describes Nepal as “mystical,” but also “so primitive that not a lot of people could handle it.”
The mental toughness and persistence necessary to visit such places and tackle mountains come in handy in real estate as well, he says. The support of family is also invaluable in both, he says.
“In working with my family, I got a great start in the real estate business,” he says. He has been in the real estate business for six years. His mother, a broker, has 12 years of experience. “We have a client base. There’s a support network behind me. My mother was my guide, the support staff my sherpas. I couldn’t do it without them,” he says.
“We are a small team, heading up the mountain.”
