Tips For The Top (a book by Sarah Williams) – by Sheila

Nudity seems to have almost become a leitmotiv in this blog, although that was never my intention – in fact it would normally be the last thing on one’s mind, when going off on a “holiday” intended for families with one’s daughter and teenage grandson.

The issue was first raised in the blog post of 24th of February – Naked on the Mountain – which dealt with hypothermia and the preferred treatment, which involves someone taking off all their clothes and getting into a sleeping bag with the naked sufferer.

Nakedness came up again on the 7th of May – A Change in Altitude – when it became evident that the only way to deal with fire ants is to strip off all of your kit.

And, of course, things have spiralled out of hand since Jean threw out her Calendar Girls challenge in the blog of 14th of May:  nude Grannies have been appearing with the flimsiest of excuses at regular and irregular intervals!

However, what seems to us a bit of fun, may not be so for people of other cultures.  That fact has been pulled into sharp focus by the reports of the earthquake last month on Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, which killed eighteen people.  The local state deputy chief minister has blamed the quake on a group of travellers showing “disrespect to the sacred mountain”, by posing naked on the mountain.  While it seems to us unlikely that there can be any link between the alleged cause and effect, to do anything which might unnecessarily cause offence to local people, seems to me to be plainly foolish.

Kilimanjaro: Tips for the Top by Sarah Williams

The Tanzanians do not seem to be as concerned about nudity – but I don’t propose to check that out.  I have, however, recently read a book by Sarah Williams – “Kilmanjaro – Tips for the Top” which features just such a photograph taken during her climb of Kilimanjaro.  The guys just chose to line up for a photograph with Kili in the background and their breeks around their ankles, apparently for no good reason.  I can’t imagine anything like that is likely to happen in a group which includes teenagers and at least one granny, but who knows?

Naked men looking at Kilimanjaro

What did surprise me about the book is that there were fifteen in the group, but if my maths are right, only ten of them got to the top of Kilimanjaro – and everyone in their group was a youngster aged between 22 and 52.  The guys in the photo all look pretty fit, and Sarah, who was one of the ones who made it to the top – but certainly didn’t find it at all easy – was extremely fit.  She says that she writes a list of twenty goals every Christmas and mentions in passing that she had run the London Marathon five times before she turned thirty.  She also refers to the others in the group having done a substantial amount of training.  Reading that makes me wonder what chance do my sea-level-dwelling averagely-fit goal-less family have of making it?

The one consolation, I suppose, is that Exodus have chosen to send their first family group to climb Kili on a different route from the one taken in the book.  We will be taking the Lemosho route, which has the best chance of success as far as altitude preparation is concerned – but even so, it will not be a picnic!

Dealing with the cold was a major issue for Sarah, and will be for us too.  A good tip is to put your clothes into your sleeping bag to warm them up in advance.  I was surprised to read that she was advised to wear three or four layers of clothing on her bottom half on summit night and four or five on her top half, not to mention two pairs of gloves, two pairs of socks and two hats.  We will be going up dressed like Michelin men!  Just as well I went to the sales earlier in the year and bought us sets of reduced skiing base layers: I hadn’t realised then though that we would be wearing them all at once!  So one thing seems absolutely certain: we will all be very properly attired when and if we get to the top: we will not be stripping off all these layers of clothes for any reason at all on the summit – not even for charity – in temperatures which are likely to be well below zero!