In reply to French Erick:
Like you I find it odd that people feel the need to do "a challenge" to raise money for sponsorship; I also find it mildly amusing when people ask me to donate to their challenge and I refuse - people just don't get it.
I have a direct debit, every month, to my two charities, have done this for years, if I want to donate to another charity I will, on occasion, just not every time someone asks me to
This year at work I was, once again, asked to participate in a fundraising challenge, this years challenge was to climb a well known local hill - the same one I have summited three times already this year, with my wife and kids on one occasion - I said I would go but would not be asking people for sponsorship for this challenge as it wasn't really a challenge - people said I was being selfish and the challenge didn't matter it was more about the raising money for the charity - I went, didn't actively seek sponsorship but due to word of mouth some work associates contributed to the work's web based "justgiving" page on my behalf so in essence I did raise money through carrying out a "challenge" and all were happy
With regards to the rower I hope he does go back and get it; carrying it up would have been some feat, the actual rowing when up there is a bit meh, carrying it back down again would be the correct things to do