As we steam ahead into the coming months I want to start off this by sharing some positive vibes with you once again.

It feels like yesterday since I descended from the summit of Kilimanjaro and the roof of Africa after what has to go down as one of my favorite sunrises I have even seen and I was super fortunate to have the privilege of sharing this moment with some fantastic people and it's one of these people I want to talk about.

In all honesty, I could have chosen a number of people to write about this out of our group as each and everyone had an interesting story to share up to that point of climbing Kilimanjaro.

However, there was one of our group who hadn't been to high altitude before and I felt very moved and inspired by the way he approached the trip and took on the challenge and this was my good friend James.

If you have seen the Kilimanjaro - The Long Way film we released you might spot this guy trudging up to the summit and his words at the summit sign...

'Absolutely exhausted but exhilarated at the same time'

Very true words that all of us felt at that moment!

The reason I wanted to share James' journey is that he only committed to the trek about a month before the actual trip itself and his story of no preparation and still summiting Kilimanjaro with mental toughness was awesome in my opinion although as we discussed together afterwards, the training would have helped him massively.

He didn't have a chance to do much preparation or training in the weeks building up to the trip in all fairness to him as he was on a 3-week photo shoot in Las Vegas. James is a fantastic and very successful photographer having been involved in the SuperBike industry for over 30+ years and he would admit that trekking wasn't really his thing but after a good chat, although he wasn't physically ready, he NEEDED the trek and said

'Let's do it'

The first few days of the trek were slow and steady and as we crept over 3000m James just took it all in his stride. It was very warm the first day or so with a few sweaty base layers in the team. I know James found this particularly challenging but as we got higher he seemed to flourish and adjusted to the altitude really well sticking to drinking plenty of water and going super slow.

However as we started to get closer and closer to Kibo Dome which is where the summit of Kilimanjaro lies, you could see James' troubles were more to do with his knees than the altitude but he battled on. I was a little surprised at how well he was doing at high altitude but also not surprised in some ways as I knew James and his attitude to challenges is fantastic.

However as we got to Barafu camp he had a bit of a dodgy stomach and this completely depleted his energy. He had done so well up to this point but having no energy is super debilitating. Even though he had no energy, struggled with his knees, even throwing up on the trail halfway up the summit push with a bad stomach, he cracked on and did amazingly well to finally reach the summit of Africa with a big hug and a high five from me and the team.

Although he wasn't the fittest person, he was mentally as tough as nails on that trek. He didn't let it get to him and any doubts that crept in, he threw them aside and ultimately achieved the goal he set himself.

Now I don't want this to be a lesson of climbing Kilimanjaro without any training.  Not at all. In hindsight, James wishes he did a lot more training and preparation but he did the best he could with the tools he had. Although he wouldn't admit this as he's such a humble man, he has a strong resilient mindset and this made the difference for him in the end but we say this time and time again and that the fitter you are, the more enjoyable your trip will be.

There were so many lessons I took from this.

Never underestimate what you can achieve in life!

 

Quieten the Lizard! That voice in your mind feeding on your negative doubts and fears. Silence that pesky Lizard at once!

 

Remember that a trek is 90% mental and the other 10%....is mental!

That's my message for you in this article, which I know is a little different but I hope by sharing James' journey that you can glean some golden nuggets of advice from it.

I know those doubts can creep in like will it be hard, will I get to the top, what about the altitude but like James, he didn't see any of the difficulties as excuses or reasons to not go or reasons to down tools. He battled on through adversity and summited Kilimanjaro and he has those memories for the rest of his life including that awesome sunrise.

James was due to trek to Everest base camp the following spring but had pushed that into the next year with the past pandemic and he's also going back to tackle Kilimanjaro on a bike!

Although I think his next high altitude adventure won't be preceded by a 3 week trip to Las Vegas.

Quieten the Lizard!