On Thursday 6th October, our Property Management Surveyor, Scott Lindley made his way to Tanzania to attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for our chosen charity, Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice. Scott started the climb on Saturday 8th October, starting from the Machame gate along the famed Machame route to the summit. The Machame route is one of the six climbing routes to the top of Kilimanjaro as is considered to be the most scenic but also one of the most difficult and challenging ascending routes on the mountain.
The seven-day trek saw Scott set off from the Machame gate at 1800 meters above sea level, before trekking for five consecutive days to the Uhuru Peak summit at 5895 meters above sea level. Along the way, Scott encountered challenges such as climbing the ‘Barranco Wall’, a 257 meter near vertical rock face, dealing with air thinning to less than a third of that at normal sea level as he ascended up the mountain, culminating with an eight hour, overnight trek to the summit, which started at 12am from the Barafu Base Camp and saw Scott and the rest of the Zoe’s Place team reach the world famous ‘Uhuru Peak’ at 7:30am on the morning of Thursday 13th October.
Scott commented that the summit night was the most demanding part of the trek as air temperatures plummeted to -18c, together with what the Kilimanjaro Guides described as ‘unusually high winds’ on the night, which brought a wind chill factor of around -30c for the duration of the ascent!! Having reached the summit and stopped for a few minutes to take photographs and enjoy the views from the ‘Roof of Africa’, the team then trekked back down to the Barafu Base Camp for hot drinks and a brief rest before descending back down the mountain to finish the challenge at the Mweka Gate the following day!
Scott said that the adventure was without a doubt one of the toughest, most emotional, mentally and physically demanding challenges he has ever encountered but also that it was also one of the greatest experiences of his life and one that has certainly given him the inspiration to take on further challenges in the future! Overall, Scott has raised over £4,500 for Zoe’s Place which is a fantastic sum going to a truly brilliant and deserving charity! Well done Scott!