City Furniture execs scale Mount Rainier

Also help rescue another climber

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, August 11, 2010

Chad Simpson, left, with City Furniture’s Gene Lunger and Curt Nichols, on the summit of Mount Rainier.

Gene Lunger moves along a steep ridge heading up Mount Rainier to a camp at 11,000 feet.

At 14,410 feet, Mount Rainier is the tallest mountain in the Pacific Northwest.

MOUNT RAINIER, Wash. — City Furniture's Gene Lunger and Curt Nichols believe staying in peak physical condition is a business benefit as well as a personal challenge.

So why not climb the fifth-highest mountain in the lower 48 states?

Earlier this summer, that's just what the 20-plus year City veterans and friends did, climbing to the summit of the 14,410-foot Mount Rainier. Along with Chad Simpson, a former City associate and now an information technology executive, they spent five days on the peak in June and even helped with the high-altitude rescue and evacuation of sick climber, Lunger told Furniture/Today.

At 47 and 42, Lunger, vice president sales for City Furniture-Ashley HomeStores South Florida, and Nichols, human resources vice president, have grown up together at the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Top 100 company. They've been climbing and mountain biking together for years too.

"Mount Rainier was by far (our) most ambitious project," Lunger said, noting that the mountain is the most glaciated and technical of the high peaks in the contiguous states.

"We carried all of our own gear and climbed independent from any other party. We had no problems with altitude, and even after our long summit day, we were able to help with the rescue and helicopter evacuation of a climber that had succumbed to altitude illness," he said. "It just goes to show you that guys in ties can still get their hands dirty and get the job done."

He said he and his friends couldn't get enough of the scenery. On summit day, when the temperature was 12 degrees with a light breeze, they could see 200 miles in every direction.

Over the next few months Lunger and Nichols will be mountain biking and training for more climbing. Come summer of next year, they'll head to Wyoming to climb in the Grand Teton range.

Lunger said they also want to tackle Mount McKinley in Alaska and the Himalayas "before we get to old to try it."