4/08/06

Team No Limits Member, Roger Coffey

 

Team No Limits is excited to have Roger Coffey on their team. Roger, the team's base camp manager, is loved by his fellow team members and his great personality adds great flavor to the team's group dynamics.

Roger Coffey has made numerous winter ascents of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, backpacked the Italian Alps, and camped all over Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A few years ago he made it his life's goal to one day lay eyes on Mount Everest. Now, he has his chance. A year ago Coffey, who works as traveling physical therapist, ran into team member, Larry Rigsby, at a Chattanooga hospital, and the two struck up a conversation. When the subject turned to Rigsby's previous Everest climbing experience and the upcoming expedition, Coffey was hooked. Rigsby suggested that what the expedition really needed was a base camp manager. "For the first time in my life I was talking to somebody who had been there and back," Coffey said. "Here was a chance for me to not just stare at a map, but to be part of something bigger. I had to go. I was going to hide in a suitcase if I had to." Six weeks later Coffey got a call. He was on the team!

A Knoxville native and graduate of Powell High School, the 40-year-old Coffey will serve as Team No Limit's base camp manager. Coffey said he expects to be at base camp for about 45 days while the climbers make their way to the summit. During that time he will be constantly on call, manning the satellite telephone, keeping the team apprised of weather conditions and monitoring their position relative to the other climbing teams vying for the summit. "My goal is to provide the team with the objective information they need to make good decisions," Coffey said. "Although I'll be in one of the most majestic places in the world, I'll be stuck in one place, dealing with the cold and strange food. "I'll be working on a positive mental attitude. Under no circumstances do I want to be a negative part of the picture."

Coffey's interest in the outdoors was sparked at an early age by his uncles, who took him coon hunting at night on the Cumberland Plateau. After high school he spent three years in the Army, where he enlisted as a paratrooper. An avid runner, Coffey is currently logging 20-mile training runs to prepare for the Everest expedition. He works as traveling physical therapist, and currently is on a temporary assignment in Las Cruces, N.M. His hobbies include martial arts, scuba diving and photography. "One thing I'm looking forward to is the sea of emotions up there -- the human drama, triumph and rare experiences - in a remote part of the world."