Kilimanjaro Climb – January 2010

This January, Claire Dimes undertook the mammoth task of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for us (The Autism Trust) and another fantastic charity, the Sewell Foundation.

Here is a summary of the experience, in her own words:

The climb was an incredible experience.  Day 1, 2 and 3 were relatively 'easy' (I'd been training 2-3 hours per day so was fit enough for this) and I was unaffected by the altitude.  Day 4 (day of summit) was an entirely different story!  We started a six hour walk at 8am, arriving into camp, Kibo Hut (4,700m) at 2pm.  After lunch and packing our day packs for our summit trek, we then had a few hours sleep before dinner and then tried to catch a few more winks before being woken at 11pm.  I spent those hours tossing, turning and trying to regulate my breathing as just turning over in my sleeping bag at that altitude sent my heart racing to over 100 beats per minute. 

How was I going to climb a mountain if I was struggling to roll over in a sleeping bag?!  Needless to say, I was too anxious to sleep.  We started the walk at 12 midnight, with only head torches to light our way up the mountain.  Nothing could have prepared me for the gradient and effects of trying to breathe with only 50% oxygen capacity!  After 3 hours and only halfway to Gilmans Point, my breath was shallow, my legs were aching, my fingers and toes were completely numb from the cold (-10 degrees) and all I was doing to take my mind off everything was to concentrate on placing each foot in the exact same footprint as the person in front of me. 

At 6am, 9 out of our group of 11 made it to Gilmans Point, which is 5,600m above sea level, just in time for sun rise, which was stunning.  As soon as I sat down, I collapsed internally.  I felt ill from the altitude, had no energy left whatsoever and could hardly form a sentence - I couldn't even zip my jacket up! After a 10 minute rest, with no idea how I was going to continue, but knowing that I had to, we headed off again for the 3 hour round trip to the top.  I kept visualising reaching the summit and texting my family to say that I'd made it and just held that thought continuously while putting one foot slowly in front of the other.  At 8.30am, the five of us who decided to carry on to the true summit of Kilimanjaro, reached Uhuru Peak, 5,900m.  I can't describe the elation and relief to have made it!

We only spent about 15 minutes on the top as it was too cold to hang around.  Another 4 hours to get back down the mountain to Kibo Hut and then another 3 hours took us to our camp for that night...all in all, a 16 hour trekking day.

Claire is still fundraising for this, and we are sure you’ll agree it’s a truly fantastic effort for a very worthwhile cause, so please take the time to visit her JustGiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/Claire-Dimes.