Comic relief - Kilimanjaro climb

[dizzydaisies]

Just watching the documentary about the comic relief challenge of climbing kilimanjaro. Incredible feat (sp?) , and really does bring in lots of money and awareness.

But, my real annoyance with this and all other endurance type challenges... is the weeping confession that 'they didn't expect it to be so hard' ; 'this is the hardest thing I've ever done'.

Of course it bloody is! You're climbing an actual mountain. It's not a small hill. It's not a stroll around the park. Why wouldn't you think it was going to be hard?

Nb this isn't a post to bash the big charity appeals, they're not perfect but have their place IMO.

I think people underestimate Kilimanjaro because it's one of the highest mountains in the world that can be climbed without specialist climbing equipment, so they think it's like Snowdon or hiking in the Lake District.

But obviously it's much higher, a much longer walk and with the added complication of the affects of altitude.

Hard part is for the porters who are hauling all their crap up and down the mountain in not the best equipment, setting up their tents, cooking them food. One of my best friends is a Kili guide so he's up several times a month, what the porters and cooks do on the mountain is seriously impressive.

Definitely agree with that, those porters are incredible!

It’s because they’ve never experienced strenuous physical exercise at altitude before. I’ve climbed Kili and it was harder than I thought it would be!

Wow Sammysquiz, that must have been incredible - well done!

I'm not doubting at all that it's tough. It's more that the celebs that do these things seem totally surprised that it's tough. They've access to (I'm presuming) far more pre-climb support than your average climber, inc altitude tests, training plans etc... and yet they seem surprised that it's challenging them so much.

Dp gets furious at this! He rages at the amount of money it has cost to send all these celebs there and dismisses it as rich people asking money from poor people - the opposite of Robin Hood.
That’s all I have to say - I reckon it’s fucking hard to climb Kili!

how do they get down? it was never mentioned.

Dont usually like these things (agree with pp about rich people asking poor people to give) but i got hooked watching this. Would love to go hiking with Alexander Armstrong- he just seems so nice. But i was puzzled that Anita Rani hardly featured at all. I actually thought she must have quietly dropped out til i realised she was at the top. She always seems nice and good talker so i wonder why they cut her out?

I just wonder if they got airlifted off at the end or they actually walked down.

To be fair you can't compare them to the Sherpas who have lived at altitude their whole lives. Attitude is a fucker when you're not acclimatised.

You walk back down.
The porters are mostly from Moshi, so around 1500 metres below the start gate at Kili, they don't live up the mountain so no living at high altitudes their whole life.
Quite a few die on the mountain each year from the cold because of a lack of decent equipment and exhaustion, they wait till you've left in the morning, pack up all your crap (literally, as some tours have their own toilets they carry up) then run ahead of you, set up for lunch and then do the same afterwards to get to the camp for dinner and tents. Makes a slow walk with your day pack and all your meals cooked for you look quite easy in comparison!

I thought Leigh Anne and Jade were adorable on the documentary

Be interesting to know the cost of getting all the celebs there and trained and cost of the porters cameras flights transport etc

Yeah I do always chuckle at the “I didn’t think it would be this hard” remarks, I mean come on of course you knew!

In what world would you decide to climb an actual mountain to get your face on tv and not know it will be difficult

On one of the celebrity’s twitter feed (I think Dan Walker- wasn’t he nice btw?) they confirmed they walked back down

I did it in 2011 and it was easier than I expected (and whilst I trained and was reasonably fit I'm not an athlete) but we did it in good weather. The last night push for the summit is tough but I think the adrenaline gets you through. The porters are awesome - and the food is lovely. It takes 7 days up, 2 days down. I ran down with a porter on each side part carrying me almost !! (They thought I'd got altitude sickness so the fastest way to solve it is to get you down much lower as fast as possible. I hadn't got it, I was just completely knackered !!) best thing I've ever done !!! (Made all the sweeter that loads of people thought I'd fail )

My Dad climbed Kili last year as his retirement present to himself.

He trained hard for it and I mean really hard. Up at 5am every morning running up and down our local hill. 50k bike rides twice a week and much much more.

Despite the fact he’s in his 60’s with a fairly recently fitted pacemaker he was the only one who made it to the summit out of his group.

He used to be a pretty serious mountain climber in his younger days until a back injury put him out of action.

It’s a very silly mistake to underestimate mountains and those celebs are very lucky they’re having their hands held through the whole thing. People die up there.