Kingswood pupils’ climb of a lifetime
AN adventure of a lifetime climbing Africa’s second highest peak, Mount Kenya’s Lenana peak, almost ended in tragedy when a Kingswood College matric pupil lost his footing on a misty glacier and nearly fell off the edge.
Aidan Seymour-Butler was saved from possible death by a wire cable fastened into a treacherous section of the glacier that was attached there years earlier by previous climbers.
The five pupils and a science teacher – aged between 16 and 57 – yesterday said they had been inspired to follow in the footsteps of a Kingswood classmate, Ella Wright, who scaled the challenging 4 985m peak.
The group were led up the mountain by Ella’s brother, Justin, and a Kenyan guide.
Seymour-Butler, Daniel de la Harpe and Kurt Eichhoff, all 18, 17-year-old Caitlyn Wright, 16-year-old James Higgs and teacher Caroline Crisp – who climbed Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, two years previously – yesterday described how their hike began in an equatorial rainforest and ended in snow and mist on the summit days later.
Although 1 000m lower than Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya’s Lenana peak is considered a more challenging climb.
The only two females in the group, which included 11 Kenyan porters and two guides, Wright and Crisp yesterday joked that one of the biggest challenges near the icy summit – besides listening to asthmatic SeymourButler vomiting and retching as he battled altitude sickness – was finding enough bushes and rocks every so often for everyone to hide behind and relieve their bladders.
“It was funny waiting for the ‘toilet’ on the side of the mountain. I guess it must have been a nervous reaction,” Crisp said.
Kitted to the nines with fancy hiking gear, Wright said she was amazed watching some of the porters lugging 18kg packs up the side of the mountain, wearing slip-slops and jeans.
Higgs, who is part of the Kingswood mountain climbing club, said the little-used route they chose was physically and technically more challenging than Mount Kilimanjaro.
He recalled how the group used ice axes on the glacier and even roped each other together as they tackled a treacherous section where a steel cable was spanned across as a hand rail.
With a permanent rescue helicopter based at the foot of the mountain, a big challenge would have been finding a cellphone signal to call for help.
Even though the group braved mist, rain and snow on the summit, they said making it safely up and down the mountain was an adventure of a lifetime.