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Laura & Pasacle climb Kilimanjaro - October 2010
In total Laura and I managed to raise over £10,000 for QAHH for which we are immensely proud. We did do a few fundraising events such as jumble sales and bucket collections, but the majority of these donations, without a doubt, came from the generous hearts of our friends, families and colleagues.
On a personal front, Killimanjaro has always been special, having spent a lot of my younger childhood in East Africa, so it felt like the opportune occasion to tackle the mountain I used to admire from afar, for such a wonderful cause.
It's not an easy one to prepare for as we are nowhere near to the heights that Killi dominates, so it was therefore important that our basic fitness was in keeping. It is a known fact that one can never prepare for how altitude will affect you, but I was determined to not let my fitness be the one thing to let me down.
It was equally important to ensure that our kit was tried and tested, especially the boots, so training initially involved long speedy walks around local parks, right through to challenging weekends in Snowdonia, the three Yorkshire Peaks and the French Alps. We trekked Killi with Action Challenge and they organised all our flights for us, as well as accommodation, food, water and direction. The flights took us from LHR - Nairobi - Killimanjaro International, all in all 12 hours of flying until we arrived at our hotel located in the banana plantations of Moshi. It was there that we had our final full night's sleep, good food and a full de-brief.
We climbed Killi following the Machame route, one of the many that eventually takes you up to Kibo, and like all other routes it began in the rainforest of the African mountain. We climbed for a total of 5.5 days up, and 1.5 days down, and each day revealed a completely different form of vegetation. As you got higher, of course, the air got colder and thinner and the green plants disappeared. At our final camp at Barafu it felt as though we were on the moon, it was so sparse.
We walked between 6-8 hours a day (bar summit day when most walked for 12 hours), and every evening we were met by our porters who had spent the day carrying 25kgs of our kit, or that of the campsite (tents, food, teapots, toilets, you name it!). Dinner was generally served at 6pm and we were in bed no later than 8pm. Breakfast was at 6am and we would be en route by 7am, with our day packs.
The porters would then clean up the camp, load up once more, overtake us with ultimate ease and never ending smiles, only to greet us a few hours later for lunch and then eventually for dinner again. Granted they are used to the altitude and are clearly very gifted sportsmen, but to keep up their humour like that day by day, was quite simply outstanding and overwhelming. It is their livelihood after all and it was with great appreciation that we were able to reward them with generous tips and kit at the end of the mission!
Summit day was the most brutal, unsurprisingly. Up until that day, people had experienced significant signs of altitude sickness. Action Challenge had made it clear from the start that it would be their final decision if they felt that particular members of the group were putting themselves at risk by continuing, and a few were asked to stop. And so it was my fate, too, that at 5000m I was struggling and the decision was taken to end my climb there. I was obviously disappointed, especially as I knew that I was so close in distance, but I appreciated that in terms of time I still had a long way to go. It is with immense pride however that I can say that Laura was able to get to the top at 5896m through sheer grit and determination - an absolutely amazing achievement, one made with blood, sweat and tears, but also with huge strength of heart.
The journey down is by no means one to take for granted - as noted above those that had got to the top ended up walking a total of 12 hours on summit day, including Laura. I managed to get some rest in between, but nevertheless suffered, so I can only imagine what the others must have been going through.
There is a slight sense of elation when you get to the bottom, but one mostly of exhaustion. A hotel and hearty dinner had thankfully been arranged that evening, but everyone's priority was just to get in the shower!
I cannot express enough how thrilling such a challenge is and would recommend it to anyone and everyone. The youngest in our team was 18, the eldest in her 60s, all from different backgrounds - so it is do-able. It's a fantastic achievement and to be able to help raise funds for a worthy cause, then all the more reason to do it!
