Scot Merriam and Matt Maddaloni climb the N.E. Buttress of Slesse from bottom to top in 6 hours. What makes this ascent interesting despite their speed is the fact that they both onsighted it with Matt soloing just about every pitch wearing only approach shoes. But the real challenge for the day was Scot's ongoing battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS. Heavy physical or mental exertion can cause a flare up resulting in sleep dysfunction, memory loss, mucle or joint pain, flu like syptoms, vision and hearing disorentation and sensitivity just to mention a few. Suffering can last 6 months or more making CFS hard to live with, made worse by the fact that it's difficult to diagnose, untreatable and one of the least understood diseases. Scot has lived with CFS most of his adult life and believes fighting it with a positive mind is the best remedy. Not stopped by the fact that a long and difficult ascent like this might send him back to the depths of his CFS, he seems to play it like a game, saying this is his life's challenge... bring it on!

Despite “intensive rest therapy” afterward, Scot went into relapse.

Scott's reply to this article, a couple of years after the climb... "Considering I didn't rebound from my relapse, and also that others with CFS might be tempted to push things too hard and end up in my situation if they read the article, you might want to change the ending to say I'm still in relapse but don't regret doing the climb and am still hoping to get back into the mountains. My body may not be cooperating, but my spirit is not dead!"