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Peter Campbell Successfully climbed Mt Kilimanjaro!!! Congratulations Peter!!!!!!
DATELINE:
Report Millenium Camp, 3650m ASL, Mt Kilimanjaro
7a.m. Saturday August 7, 2010
FINAL Day, Kili Climb 2010
Report by Paul Francis, Humpty’s founder and Executive Chairman
Un?bloody?believable. The 2010 Kili Club have done it – they made the Uhuru Peak at the highest
point of Africa between 7am and 7.30am Mt Kilimanjaro time (overnight Sydney time) and there is
no one who is happier than me. Okay, well, maybe Joe Hockey, who first came up with the idea to
climb Kili to help Humpty help sick kids, but I’ll get to Joe later.
My heart was in my mouth when Michele Rosengren from Adventure1000 called to share the good
news; that every single one of the Kili Club who attempted the summit, made it in one piece. They
are all exhausted and feeling the effects of a lack of oxygen but beyond that, they are in rude good
health, and for that I am both enormously proud and enormously grateful.
I had a quick word to Cath Murray who spoke on behalf of her fellow climbers when she said: “Paul,
this is one of the most challenging things that I have ever done and it’s been well worth it. It’s just
fantastic”. Cath and her daughter Airlie are the first mother daughter team to make the Kili summit.
Peter Campbell was a little bit more forthcoming than Cath. “It was the hardest physical activity I
have ever undertaken – but it feels great the day after.”
As Joe said to me earlier today when I passed on the good news of the successful second summit,
“there are moments over the last week that I’ve felt like I’ve been back there with them”. Mate, I
couldn’t agree more.
The 2010 team started their summit in two teams – the first heading off at 11pm with the second
following at midnight. It took between seven and seven?and?a half?hours to make it to Uhuru Peak at
5896m ASL and I know with every molecule of my body what a huge effort that was. The challenges
are enormous – both physically and mentally, and I’m not even going to start about the climate.
Before the climb, Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing – our guest lead climbers together with Peter’s
daughter Amelia – gave the team some tips, the most important of which, at least to me, was “get
out there and do your best and embrace every minute of it”. Those words ring so true and I reckon
they apply to just about everything in your life.
Jane Flemming, a long?time Humpty Dumpty Foundation board member and great supporter who
climbed with her husband Ian Purchas, drew on her days as a world?class athlete and gave her fellow
climbers a bit of a pep talk before they left. On the eve of one of her Olympic races a sports
psychologist sat her down and said: “If not now, when? If not you – who?” Sure enough, that
inspired each of the 17 Kili Club members who started the summit ascent. They all made it.
Suffice to say that the wind was howling and the snow was falling when the Kili Clubbers broke camp
for their night ascent.
I will let you in on a text that climber Tony Chamberlain sent his wife Melinda just before starting out
for the summit: “At last night's briefing they handed out your letters. Thank you, they were great. I
took them to the top of the mountain. It was like Masterchef. We were woken at 10:30. We had to
put 5 layers of clothes on. We left camp at midnight. It was snowing, then we walked for kms and
kms straight up the mountain. The air was so thin, everyone suffered. It was the most difficult thing
WOD
[A]
15 rounds for time of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats
REST 5mins
[B]
8 rounds for time of:
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats
* aim is to perform part [B] faster than half the time of part [A]
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