Mission Accomplished!
The entire PAC team achieved the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro at Gilman’s Point as planned on 7 Feb 2012. Six of us (Abby, Maria, Christine, Karen, Kim and Curtis), climbed past Gilman’s Point and went onward to the highest summit, called Uhuru Peak. Uhuru Peak is 200m higher than Gilman’s Point and took and extra 2 hours of climbing to reach.
From Kibo Huts, the team took between 10-12 hours to ascend and then descend from the summit. It was a balmy -35 Celsius at the top with a horrid wind-chill. Between wind burns, frost bite, lack of oxygen and fatigue we all managed to survive this incredible undertaking. I can admit that along the way all of us had moments of doubt. But doubt is simply our inner will telling us that we have yet to push ourselves to the limit and that there is still more of us to give. It’s human nature to want to take the easy way out, and doubt gives us an excuse to bail! None of us caved to that doubt though, and I am so very proud of what we accomplished. There were many very fit people that did not make it to the first summit – almost 25%. We took our time, we supported one another, and we made it through together.
All of us experienced wind burn and/or frost bite to varying degrees. I think I got the worst of the frost bite as it took me 2 1/2 hours longer to complete my climb because my prosthetic leg (hydraulics) froze after about 6 1/2 hours in the -35 temperature. It still worked just fine – but was awfully stiff – making parts of the final ascent and then subsequent descent rather onerous.
We used SideStix for both the ascent and descent. Everyone had wonderful feedback about them. I will send more detailed information when I have a moment to sit down and review my notes. I love my SideStix and they are without a doubt the best crutch on the market today. I am truly glad that they are Canadian.
Once again, our many thanks to all of you for your support to PAC. It’s truly appreciated. Amazing things can happen with community support and the will to make a difference.
Cheers,
Captain Kimberly Fawcett (centre)
