Exeter RAG Kilimanjaro
Names: Carrie Ashton, Georgie Eales, Nick Drummond-Smith, Joe Perkins
Achievement this summer: All climbed Mount Kilimanjaro as part of Exeter RAG for Practical Action or Meningitis Research Foundation.
What was the most memorable part of the climb?
Carrie: Watching the sunrise before Stellar Point (before the Summit) on Summit day
Georgie: On the plane to Nairobi we could see the summit of the mountain; however, we were 1000ft lower in the plane than when we were at the summit. That was when I realised how high we had been and what we had achieved â we had never seen the whole mountain when we were climbing.
How did the altitude sickness affect you?
Nick: On the first day it was fine, but I could tell the air was getting thinner as we were going up. When I jogged only 100m and then stopped my head was pounding!
Georgie: Day 3, which is acclimatisation day, was horrible for me. They say if you get through day 3 then you should make it to the top. We went up Lava Tower, which is the same altitude as Base Camp, but getting up there was really difficult for me. It was strange; there are some parts of the climb that I donât remember. For example, there is a photo of me and Carrie that obviously exists but that I just canât remember being taken!
Carrie: Some people felt a bit drunk, some people were sick, it was really strange and I donât quite know how to describe it!
What was the hardest part of the climb?
Nick: The cold! It was so cold and we were going so slowly. Even though I was wearing 8 layers on top and 4 layers on the bottom, it was my hands and feet which were freezing. By the 3rd morning we realised how cold it was: there was frost on the tents and we woke up freezing cold. It ranged between -10 and -25 degrees.
Carrie: Feeling like the summit was just around the corner, or even worse, that we could see it, only to be told that it was further. When we got to Stellar Point we could see a sign that said âCongratulationsâ and I thought we had made itâŠbut we still had about another half hour climb to go.
Can you describe summit night?
Nick: We walked 8 hours that day, then had supper, slept 7-11ish and then set off at 11.30 and walked âtill 7.30am! And then finally, another 3 hours down to base camp and then we had to walk further to where we were camping that night.
Georgie: Every time we stopped, I fell asleep, it was so odd, but it was because the air was so thin. Because there was no oxygen it was so strange. It was 0.86 miles from Stellar point to the summit (which would have taken about 20 mins to walk normally) but it took us 55 minutes.
Carrie: Watching everyoneâs head torches in front of me, climbing up, which was really cool for a while, became difficult after a couple of hours.
Would you do it again?
Nick: No, definitely not. Itâs very much a âbeen there, done that and got the t-shirt momentâ. I think most of us would rather do something different.
Carrie: I donât really see the point in doing it again; I would prefer to do something else.
Obviously you didnât do this all on your own, who was it that helped you?
Georgie: We had 4 guides, who were honestly amazing. They walked with us the whole way and knew the route.
Carrie: There was a whole team, about 40 of them for 22 of us. They carried all our stuff! There were 2 waiters and a couple of chefs. The experience would have been so much worse without them: having to carry your bag or getting into camp after a day of walking and setting up the tent would have been a nightmare. I met a guide who said he had climbed it about 300 times.
Nick: These guys are amazing, they walk past you with your heavy bag on their heads and some of them werenât even holding the bags with their hands â they were just balancing. What is incredible is that the world record for climbing Kili is 5 and a half hours: what took us 6 days to do took one of the guides 5 and a half hours!
A massive congratulations from HCX to everyone who climbed Kili: not only is this an amazing achievement but you raised ÂŁ58,000 for fantastic causes!
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