SEQUIM — At 58, Sequim Police Officer Norman Simons is as fit as a man half his age, and he hopes that will help him scale Cerro Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere.
Simons, a Port Angeles resident and law enforcement veteran of 33 years who is filling in for a Sequim officer on a military tour of Afghanistan, is one of eight lawmen in an elite mountain-climbing team culled from throughout the nation that is called Cops on Top.
Together, they plan to ascend Cerro Aconcagua in January to honor fallen Officer Jonathan Schmidt of the Trumann, Ark., Police Department.
Schmidt was shot and killed April 12 when he pushed another officer out of the line of fire before he was fatally wounded.
“We come from all over the country to support a fellow police officer and his family. It epitomizes the climbing together for one officer and his family,” Simons said.
“We will take a plaque of the officer to the top, photograph it and take it to the family,” he said.
“It’s emotional healing for the family. It’s a pretty powerful healing tool.”
Simons is a retired special agent with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and has served as a National Park Service ranger.
He is an emergency medical technician and a former avalanche rescue instructor.
He was tapped earlier this year to temporarily replace John Southard, who, along with fellow Sequim Police Officer Rick Larsen, was deployed to Afghanistan last summer for one year.
Tackling Aconcagua in the Andes range is the greatest climbing challenge so far for Simons, who has been climbing mountains since high school.
At 22,841 feet, Aconcagua is the highest mountain outside Asia’s Himalayan mountain range.
Simons’ mountain-climbing accomplishments include scaling Mount Kilimanjaro’s more than 19,000-foot elevation in Africa, Mount Rainier in Washington state, Mount Whitney and Mount Shasta in California, and several other mountains higher than 14,000 feet in Colorado’s Rockies.
Simons does all he can to stay physically fit to conquer great heights.
He runs and bikes long distances, climbs stairs and works out at Clallam County Fire District No. 3’s North Fifth Avenue station gym in Sequim.
Carrying a 45-pound vest over his shoulders, he climbs Klahhane Ridge in the Olympic Mountains south of Port Angeles.
Now that there’s plenty of snow, he does cross-country skiing at Hurricane Ridge, a true full-body workout.
He has logged his training in great detail since 1977, saying fitness is a lifestyle he takes seriously.
“Climbing police officers are a little different than your normal police officers,” he said.
“Training tends to be more of a solitary thing geared toward significant challenges.”
His main concerns during the climb will be high-altitude cerebral edema and high-altitude pulmonary edema.
Both altitude sicknesses, which occur only above 18,000, can be deadly.
“The only treatment is to climb down quickly,” Simons said.
“Once you’re in the 27,000 range, you’re in the death zone, so you have to prepare physically and mentally,” he added.
To help support the expedition, planned from Jan. 8 to Feb. 4, Simons and his fellow Cops on Top officers have been conducting a fundraiser.
They are selling blue bracelets that say “Cops on Top” on one side and “2012 Aconcagua” on the other.
Each bracelet goes for a donation of $5 — $1 of which goes to Concerns of Police Survivors’ wilderness experience Outward Bound program.
Outward Bound is designed for children of officers killed in the line of duty so they can experience the outdoors and be mentored through the trauma of losing a mother or father.
Simons has been setting up displays about the expedition at Sequim shopping centers to generate donations and is talking locally to various civic groups.
Donations can be made to Cops on Top, a nonprofit organization.
Checks can be made out to Cops on Top Inc. in care of the Aconcagua Memorial Fund, 6505 Logans Cove Place, Farmington, NM 87402.
Local donors can contact Simons at 415-755-7267 or norm.simons220@sbcglobal.net or by mail at P.O. Box 1568, Port Angeles, WA 98362.
Simons said he already has contributed about $1,900 to his travel costs and about $1,000 toward climbing equipment.
Upon his return in February, Simons will continue as a temporary Sequim police officer for five more months.
He is uncertain where life will take him next.
He received special permission from Police Chief Bill Dickinson to take the time off in January.
The chief said that was no problem in light of the fact that few vacations leave his patrol squad short-staffed that time of year.
Dickinson called Cops on Top “a noble program.”
“It creates a challenge for the individual officers and helps them accomplish something,” Dickinson said.
“It helps them do good.”
Simons has one last conquest on his list, however: Alaska’s Mount McKinley, a 20,320-foot peak.
“I’ve skied around it but never climbed it,” he said.
“I’ll see what happens when I get back from Aconcagua.”
For more information about Cops on Top, visit www.copsontop.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
