Summit night

Well we are back at camp after a most eventful summit night. 13 of the 16 of the group successfully summited the highest free standing mountain in the world that is kilimanjaro.

Sadly Brian Harris, Tony Woodhams and Antonio duarte ( who chose yesterday not to try because of AMS but is already fully recovered) didn't quite make it.

But the statistics just don't tell the story on this climb. We have had extreme altitude induced nausea, sickness, complete personality and memory loss, dizziness, loss of balance, single eye and both eye temporary blindness and lots more besides!

We "arose" at 10pm Wednesday night local time already dressed in just about every piece of clothing we had with us. It was about minus 6 outside so not too bad. And fortunately no wind or rain. We ate a small biscuit meal, drank plenty of liquid and set off at 11pm.

Our summit attempt comprised a climb of 4,400 feet (so just more than Ben Nevis) but at altitude less than half of that at sea level. For non experienced climbers even putting one foot in front of the other at this low oxygen level is extremely challenging.

The first part of the climb was pretty straight forward but the gradient soon changed to very steep and loose scree underfoot which takes twice the effort. At this juncture our summit guide was, in my opinion, climbing far too fast. More on that later!

After an hour, and just as the gradient turned even steeper at about 15,500 feet our strong willed Irish member Allyson Gormley had a significant bout of altitude sickness and was markedly sick. Of course Allyson being Allyson, immediately she had been sick turned to Jaz (our maximum Adventure leader from the UK who organised the trip with me) and literally bellowed "I'm not stopping you know so let's get going". Now Allyson has pretty much been suffering from various forms of acute mountain sickness (AMS) for the whole trip. The fact that she stubbornly refused to admit defeat at any juncture and just got on with it and reached the summit is a frankly phenomenal achievement. Ireland be proud. Certainly we all are.

Just as Allyson started climbing again, and at approximately 16,000 feet one of the group's strongest climbers in Tony Woodhams who had made absolute mincemeat of every previous day was severely affected by AMS and literally lost his eyesight and had both eye blurring and no proper visibility. When a human body cannot cope with certain levels of altitude it tends to shut down what it regards as non essential functions thereby ensuring continuity of life necessary functions such as the brain, heart etc. In such circumstances the only solution is to descend immediately back to the level where things were fine. This was put into place immediately and Tony descended. He is fine and his eyesight is fully back to normal.

At this point our leader Jaz noticed that we were ascending too fast and made a "line order" change putting first Brian Harris and then myself at the front to ensure we ascended without using up our reserves too quickly. This worked.

Some time later at around 17,000 feet we then witnessed a truly bizarre event. Liam Robb completely lost all sense of where he was, who he was and what he was doing. As a result Liam has no memory whatsoever of the latter stages of the summit climb and the further trek to the summit post. The reason Liam was not asked to descend is that in this kind of AMS induced out-of-body robotic state people often breath fine and from a well being point of view are normal. Thus Liam was allowed to continue to ascend. Liam successfully reached the summit which is an amazing achievement given the fact that he genuinely can't remember a thing! The price Liam did pay is that in doing so and without any person - function to control behaviour, Liam has used up all of - and more besides - his energy reserves and is completely and totally spent asleep in his tent. He will be dine for sure in a few hours.

At about 18,000 feet sadly Brian Harris (who despite being in his 60's had easily dealt with all previous days) had a bout of AMS which brought on dizziness and a loss of balance. Even though we were so close to the top Brian's AMS had to be dealt with and he had to descend. This was so unlucky for Brian as physically he would have got there. Brian is back in camp and gas fully recovered already.

At 5.15am we reached to crater rim (kilimanjaro is an inactive volcano) called Stella Point. This was impressively quick at 6 hours 15 minutes given the stops we had made due to the AMS. What it also confirmed however was that we were indeed climbing a little to fast at the start.

From there, after a 15 minute break we made the further 45 minute journey to Uhuru Peak and the summit. We arrived well before sunrise and were one of the first groups to arrive.

During the latter stages of the climb, Shannon Millar also had AMS and has temporary blindness in one eye. This did not stop her submitting as she was so close. It will like all the others disappear later today when we start to descend to lower altitude and this improvement has already started to be evidenced at base camp.

So, the summiters:

Nigel Howlett, George Rolls, Mike Falconer, Grant Lumley, Dan Radley, the Sportingbet contest winners in Lisa Caswell, Allyson Gormley, Shannon Millar and Mike Wilesmith, Andrew Black, Liam Robb, Jane Kerindi and myself all successfully submitted.

All agreed that it was intensely hard and for most the hardest thing they had ever done. Some of the successful members have had notably tough weeks AMS-wise All have had an immensely challenging week physically and mentally.

There was a lot of emotion at the top with several men in tears!At the top the views were spectacular. We saw the sunrise, the crater, the glaciers, Uhuru peak, and neighbouring mountains in Mawenzi and Muru. Our time at the summit was short as several people had some form of AMS. Dan's AMS induced headache was particularly strong and one doesn't leave that to get worse at 19,341 feet! Again Dan has already fully recoved at base camp.

We are all back at camp now, pretty tired but extremely satisfied: as are our three friends who didn't quite get there but have played such an important part in this adventure.

Ad for me, well I am just made up. I'm made up for two reasons. Firstly, it looks as if we will have raised £120,000 for charity from this adventure which is just magnificent. Secondly, I managed today very well indeed and given that I struggled last time that is down to the understanding and selfish support of my family who have been "kilimajaro'd" for many months now as i have lost weight and got fit..... and also a man called Gareth Hicks who trained me for this and self evidently put me in great shape.

Well I'll sign off now. This will be the last blog posting as later today and tomorrow we will descend and rhen return to our hotels and then home. We all smell, look like death and are so looking forward to a shower, a change of clothes, a proper bed, a beer and then of course back home!!!

In the meantime thanks for reading. On average the blog has been read by 275 different people each day and that's just great. Every member of this very strong and friendly group has put their heart and souls into this week and no doubt will have many tales to tell and photos to share. We will be producing a website with the best of the photos on so if anyone would like a link please email me at nigel@nigelandpaula.com

Cheers

Sent from Nigel Payne's iPhone

Day 6 base camp

> We have arrived at base camp some 4,600 metres high after a difficult night on day 5 and a hard journey here.
>
> Last night in camp saw spectacular views of the mountain and the land below coupled with a fantastic electric storm..... But also the not so fantastic strong winds (literally nearly lifting the tents up....the toilet tent did indeed blow away).
>
> Last night Allyson was put through the wars. With her face and hands swollen, tightness across her eyes, a headache and nausea Allyson was uncomfortable to say the least. The determination of this young lady is however quite remarkable. Allyson has suffered pretty much from the get-go yet she has made it here.
>
> Allyson was medicated and the very good news is that the diamox treatment overnight has made very significant improvement. All of the swellings are gone as are the headache and nausea. At the moment and so long as there are no more adverse symptoms, Allyson has improved so much that she has been passed fit enough to start her summit attempt.
>
> Antonio, who is probably the strongest climber in the group, and has not even been remotely out of breath on any occasion so far, continued to struggle to adjust to the high altitude and his blood oxygen level remained low. For Antonio the diamox has sadly not worked. At 65% blood / oxygen this can become dangerous, thus when Antonio arrived in base camp with a headache and measured 69% this remarkably fit man took the (in my view) absolute correct decision to call it a day at base camp and not attempt the summit.
>
> Antonio was fit enough to start but the risk of something serious happening with such a marginal oxygen level is all too real and as he said himself - I love my family too much to take a risk for a photograph!
>
> It just goes to show how altitude can affect anyone at random - even the fittest. Without question antonio's climbing strength would have seen him conquer the summit but the random nature of AMS has struck again on the most unlikely person.
>
> All of the rest of the group ( save for me - see below) are in good health if somewhat exhausted. Shannon's headaches are better and everyone is looking forward to the hardest challenge of their life tonight.
>
> Sadly as for me, whilst my fitness remains good and i have no AMS symptoms, I managed to pull a leg muscle on the climb into Base camp. It has of course no time to repair. Whilst it is not completely debilitating, it nevertheless prevents me from stretching too far. I am advised that It may also do long term damage if I push it too hard.
>
> So it may be that this well limit my summit attempt to the first hour or so - but I will give it a go. Having done it before I am completely relaxed about it. I don't have that same urgency that i did last time and thus i can readily promise my family and friends at home that at the first sign of trouble I will descend. Promise!
>
> So all that remains is for me to wish everyone good luck tonight. As I am sure everyones family and friends strongly echo. Everyone is bow resting to conserve energy.
>
> I will do my best to update everyone around 12 lunchtime uk time tomorrow which is when the team will return to camp.
>
> TTFN
>
> Sent from Nigel Payne's iPhone
>

Day 6 base camp

We have arrived at base camp some 4,600 metres high after a difficult night on day 5 and a hard journey here.

Last night in camp saw spectacular views of the mountain and the land below coupled with a fantastic electric storm..... But also the not so fantastic strong winds (literally nearly lifting the tents up....the toilet tent did indeed blow away).

Last night Allyson was put through the wars. With her face and hands swollen, tightness across her eyes, a headache and nausea Allyson was uncomfortable to say the least. The determination of this young lady is however quite remarkable. Allyson has suffered pretty much from the get-go yet she has made it here.

Allyson was medicated and the very good news is that the diamox treatment overnight has made very significant improvement. All of the swellings are gone as are the headache and nausea. At the moment and so long as there are no more adverse symptoms, Allyson has improved so much that she has been passed fit enough to start her summit attempt.

Antonio, who is probably the strongest climber in the group, and has not even been remotely out of breath on any occasion so far, continued to struggle to adjust to the high altitude and his blood oxygen level remained low. For Antonio the diamox has sadly not worked. At 65% blood / oxygen this can become dangerous, thus when Antonio arrived in base camp with a headache and measured 69% this remarkably fit man took the (in my view) absolute correct decision to call it a day at base camp and not attempt the summit.

Antonio was fit enough to start but the risk of something serious happening with such a marginal oxygen level is all too real and as he said himself - I love my family too much to take a risk for a photograph!

It just goes to show how altitude can affect anyone at random - even the fittest. Without question antonio's climbing strength would have seen him conquer the summit but the random nature of AMS has struck again on the most unlikely person.

All of the rest of the group ( save for me - see below) are in good health if somewhat exhausted. Shannon's headaches are better and everyone is looking forward to the hardest challenge of their life tonight.

Sadly as for me, whilst my fitness remains good and i have no AMS symptoms, I managed to pull a leg muscle on the climb into Base camp. It has of course no time to repair. Whilst it is not completely debilitating, it nevertheless prevents me from stretching too far. I am advised that It may also do long term damage if I push it too hard.

So it may be that this well limit my summit attempt to the first hour or so - but I will give it a go. Having done it before I am completely relaxed about it. I don't have that same urgency that i did last time and thus i can readily promise my family and friends at home that at the first sign of trouble I will descend. Promise!

So all that remains is for me to wish everyone good luck tonight. As I am sure everyones family and friends strongly echo. Everyone is bow resting to conserve energy.

I will do my best to update everyone around 12 lunchtime uk time tomorrow which is when the team will return to camp.

TTFN

Sent from Nigel Payne's iPhone

Good Luck!!!

Good luck to you all in your final challenge, the biggest of them all. I think you are all amazing and our thoughts are with you.
 
To my Shannon, so far you have come and so proud I am. Tell the mountain to be kind because we have 23 sleeps until Rome :-)
 
Big hugs,
LR xo.

Day 5

Day 5 is over. It was a tough day but a fantastic one. Adjectives such as incredible, awesome, magnificent are flying around camp! A couple of people are suffering (see below) but we are all still standing and all 16 of us should be in a good enough condition to attempt the summit tomorrow night.

Day 4 night was cold and it rained in the night as well as quite windy. Allyson's tightness across her face and hands did not improve so we were monitoring this very closely. Also antonio's blood oxygen level fell to a low reading of 75% (should be mid 80's) and he developed a headache and temperature. A number of the group were also quite anxious at the prospect of climbing the pretty sheer looking 500m high barranco wall.

Day 5 dawned to another stunning blue sky morning. Antonio and I struggled with sleep again but we did manage to get some. At breakfast antonio's and allyson's condition had both improved and they felt much better.

We set off and set about this Goliath of a wall some 1,700 feet high. Now I as well as many in the group get vertigo so you can understand that we were a little nervous. Lisa in particular was on edge.

But we loved it. Every one of us. The young members of the team in dan radley (who is doing great) and mike Wilesmith (equally so) leapt up like mountain goats. Jumping over 4 gaps with pretty much nothing below is not something that any of us would normally be that comfortable with - but we did it and we loved it. Perhaps the most telling comment was from Andrew black (who is also doing great) who simply said "I just didn't know that I could do something like that". And that's really what this massive adventure is all about - scaling new heights both literally and within one's self.

After the barranco wall we then undulate up and down for a couple of hours and finally scaled a monster hill to enter camp.

At camp everyone is well. To help Allyson and Antonio acclimatise a little better the team leader has prescribed a small dose of diamox which should help. Both however remain strong and are walking and climbing well.

Well tomorrow is a massive day. We get up very early and climb another 2,000 feet to base camp. Arriving mid afternoon we then rest before we make our summit bid from 11pm through the night until around 9 in the morning.

All of us should be good enough to start which is a fantastic achievement in itself. I do not know when the next signal will be so please bear with us if we cannot update you until after we gave tried to summit.

Wish us luck!!

Sent from Nigel Payne's iPhone

Day 4

Well that was tough. Very tough! We are all at camp, pretty exhausted though we all remain standing!

The day began with an early morning call at 6am with breakfast at 7am. By then everyone had to be washed, packed and ready to go. The weather was sunny but again overnight the temperature had fallen to well below freezing leaving everyone's tent very damp.

Most people got a few hours sleep though for many (including yours truly) just a couple of hours.

The morning views of the summit and the clouds (now well below us) were magnificent.

We set off in bright warm sunshine and climbed steadily to 15,200 feet which was some climb! As we ascended each step became harder and harder and most of the group developed noticeable headaches. Lisa, Allyson and Shannon were particularly affected - but for friends and family of theirs this is not a concern. It is usual for ladies to acclimatise quicker than men (more oestrogen in their bodies) and this, when passed is usually a very good sign. The men have theirs to come!

After reaching 15,000 feet we had lunch close to the famous Lava Tower and by then we were shrouded in very cold mist.

After lunch we descended back down to 13,500 feet to the barranco wall camp. The weather is cold but the scenery beautiful.

Everyone is shattered after a gruelling 8 hour day and resting now before we climb the barranco wall tomorrow.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) is our last sleep before we travel on Wednesday to vase camp and attempt to summit Wednesday night.

The team is in good spirits - but everyone is very well aware how difficult a challenge this is!

TTFN

Sent from Nigel Payne's iPhone

Day 3

Day 3 was fascinating and enjoyed by everyone. The team remain in great spirit and good health. We are approaching the serious part of the climb bow - as we do a few headaches are appearing but nothing untoward.

Day 2 evening was cold and below freezing. For the first time people cane to dinner in arctic fear!

Everyone retired early to sleep though several people are bit sleeping well with me and Antonio leading the way with little sleep to date - but this hasn't affected us.

On day 3 morning the tents were damp caused by a huge overnight frost with ice on the tents. When we emerged at around 545 am the ground was white, about minus 5 which is unusual at this altitude.

A cold night however left a blue sky morning leaving a stunning view of the summit which lies ahead on Wednesday night. Boy it looked steep!

Day 3 warned quickly. Everything is harder work now. We are at 13000 feet and are all coping well. Tonight will be cold and tomorrow will be hard as we are climbing to 15000 feet and back to 14000 in the same day !

TRFN

Sent from my iPhone