....pestering

I've got my fingers and toes crossed that my mate Eric 'Blackened Catfish' Atwood is going to come. He says he can't afford it, but I sense he's wavering. I'll leave it a couple of weeks and then continue e-mailing him with articles on hiking boots.....again.
He's just the kind of tenacious character this trek needs and the mountain will benefit him hugely.

For one thing it will give him the solitude to ponder and come to terms with what will almost certainly be another abjectly disappointing season for the Ottawa Senators, and for another it will keep him at a safe distance from cooking utensils.