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Trust your boots (2)

October 9, 2008 in gear | No comments

Dublin, 29th Sept.

Back home. Sea level. The world is bright with oxygen but dark with the shadow of clouds. And the banking system is on the verge of collapse? I’m drunk on the richness of air.

We were met en masse a the airport by a loyal collection of wives, husbands and some children. Reintroduced myself to Shona and the kids, to the rest of the family. I’m a different person, slightly older, slightly wiser, slightly stronger and considering what the next mountain may be, not necessarily a popular decision with the family yet, but we’ll work on it. All twenty two of us trekkers are different in some way.

We’ve achieved something good, great even. There has been a huge amount of money raised in the name of the preferred charities and we are enormously thankful to the generosity of our sponsors who are legion. People who I have barely met have donated money, people who I know can’t afford it have donated money.

You know who you are. This account is dedicated to you.

Trust your boots.

Hugh
October, 2008.

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Trust your boots (1)

August 7, 2008 in gear | No comments

supalite_gtx_mens_chocolate-300x300

So, as the weeks go by and the date draws near, I’m getting a bit nervous about the trip. Reading a lot about the walk,it seems that it’s heavy going but that the trick is to pace yourself and hydrate a lot. Dr. Dave isn’t too bothered about the altitude and recommends the use of Diamox which I’d heard about previously. He further recommends using it prophylactically.

I think I’ve settled on the Brasher Supalite GTXs, partly because they’re light (duh!) and also because there’s virtually no breaking-in. Plus they’re available in town in my size.

Trust your boots.

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Wicklow, July – September

July 30, 2008 in gear, training | No comments

And so, the training began in earnest. Sunday mornings, 8.30 am meets outside the Roundwood Inn, beetling off to parts of Wicklow previously unknown, Tom & Gary consulting their walking books, maps, compasses, all manner of things mountain. The walks were a lot of fun, very sociable events, sometimes strenuous but always with a recirculation back to the Roundwood Inn for goulash soup. This is the most extraordinary concoction, but delicious and warming and the perfect foil for a morning on the mountains.

Prior to the plans for Kilimanjaro, I’d been a stranger to walking poles but had the chance to borrow a pair for these excursions. I was slowly becoming accustomed to them.

Following from this, two things became apparent on these training walks:

1. I wasn’t the slowest, fastest, fattest, thinnest, oldest or youngest and
2. Some people are more interested in gear than others (I am a bit less).

There had been frequent and determined visits to shops such as Great Outdoors, 53 Degrees North and online stores like Jackson Sports in Belfast. We should all have bought shares on GO since there must have been thousands (if not tens of thousands) spent in there for this escapade. Gear isn’t cheap and I was lucky enough to find someone who was about my size from whom I could borrow a load of equipment. Thank you Jack! You saved me hundreds.

In parallel with the Wicklow training, I was also ramping up my visits to the gym, where I met an acquaintance, Richie who had a good laugh when I told him I was going up Kili in September. Richie is amongst other things a kickboxer, snowboarder and general merchant of mayhem and I rather thought he was a bit dismissive of my chances of making it to the top.

I was hoping to prove him wrong.

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