Day: August 16, 2015

Jae, Oscar and I will be absolutely thrilled if we make it to the top of Kilimanjaro in the early hours of Thursday 27th August.  Just making it to the top would be a huge achievement for us.  However, it seems that for many people, that isn’t quite enough – they have to play a ball game on the mountain as well, despite the fact that just breathing can be a struggle for normal mortals. For example:

Golf

In March 2008, a golf addict from Northampton, lawyer Andrew Winfield teed off from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in an attempt to set a world record nearly six kilometers above sea level. The 50-year-old father trekked for seven days with his specially-adapted collapsible six iron, just for the chance to take the shot at the peak of the highest freestanding mountain on Earth.  Mr Winfield hit upon the idea after friends encouraged him to combine their planned mountain trek with his passion for golf.

After an arduous night-time ascent to the summit of the dormant volcano in sub-zero temperatures, he assembled his club, stripped off his heavy climbing gear and began warming up as the sun rose on the horizon.  “It was nerve-racking because I didn’t want to make a complete fool of myself by missing after carrying a golf club up Kilimanjaro for seven days,” said the Wellingborough Golf Club regular, who plays off a handicap of 5.5.  “But the shot was fantastic. I couldn’t believe how well it was struck. “It flew for about 160 or 170 yards into a beautiful azure sky and then plummeted a good quarter of a mile into a volcanic crater covered in snow and ice. “I could have hit 50 more balls and none of them would have been as good.” Even if Mr Winfield can lay claim to the highest ever golf shot on Earth, he has a long way to go to beat one golfing record which is completely out of this world.   In 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard smuggled his own six iron aboard Apollo 14 and struck two shots from the surface of the moon.

Cricket

In September 2014 a group of international cricketers set a new world record for the highest-ever match by playing at the top of Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, in Tanzania.  The teams included former South Africa fast bowler Makhaya Ntini and ex-England spinner Ashley Giles.

The game was played at a height of 5,730m (18,799 ft) in a flat crater just below the summit. They played 10 overs each of a Twenty20 game before clouds stopped play. The air was freezing as the teams batted 10 overs each in the crater of the extinct volcano.  The previous record for the world’s highest game was 5,165m, played in the Himalayas at Everest base camp in Nepal in 2009.

Hockey

A Canadian group of business leaders climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in August 2013 and raised more than $350,000 in personal donations for the campaign “For All Canadians”, which is dedicated to building Canada’s new national public cord blood bank.

The group comprised 25 hockey enthusiasts who planned the world’s highest hockey game at Crater Camp, which is 18,810 feet above sea level. Six of the team members – those who had exhibited no signs of altitude sickness on the entire climb – spent the night in the crater. They were the only people in the world on that day sleeping at 18,700-ft (5,600-m). They played hockey to try and establish a world record for the highest hockey game played on earth.

Rugby

A team of 36 climbers will be tackling Kilimanjaro in October 2015 to raise funds for the Steve Prescott Foundation (SPF).  The climb is sponsored by Spectrum Group. They are challenging themselves to climb the mountain in just five days instead of the more usual nine – a plan which normally only has a 27% success rate. Each climber aims to raise at least £4000 for the three charities of the SPF, the Christie Hospital, Try Assist and the Oxford Transplant Foundation.

The climbing party includes rugby league legend Adrian Morley of Salford Red Devils, and retired legends Lee Briers, Barrie McDermott, Mike Wainwright, Neil Harmon, Gaz Carvell, Chico Jackson, Alan Hunte and Angela Powers from Sky Sports. Also climbing is Harry Potter actor Matt Lewis.

The climbers will make an attempt at the Guinness Book of Records World Record for the Highest Altitude Rugby League Match. This will take place at Kosovo Camp at 5760 metres. The 36 climbers will divide into two teams and play a full 80 minute game under Rugby League International Federation rules. This requires a fully affiliated RLIF referee so former International referee Steve Ganson has agreed to join the climb and will referee the game.

3GKiliClimb

Thank goodness that we just have to get up there to make a world record!  We would be so proud to be the first family ever, comprised of a Granny with a child and a grandchild to reach the top.  Given that two Granddads have already been up there with their 3G families, I feel I have a responsibility to women everywhere to do the same if we possibly can make it.

I have made up a bag marked “Games” to carry up the mountain – but it contains a couple of packs of cards and the instructions for proper Black Jack (not pontoon) which one of the clients at Catching Lives has been teaching me, as well as a Rubik’s cube, a Pointless travel game and a couple of other activities for a quiet moment.  There is no way I will be joining in any games involving a ball on that mountain; it will be interesting to see whether any of the teenagers on the trip are tempted, though.  Oscar is a very keen footie player: there is no mention on the internet of anyone ever playing a game of football on Kili …… yet!