Sassda team summits Kilimanjaro

20 Years Ago

A team of thirteen, organised by Scott Houslay in his private capacity, summited Kilimanjaro on February 10th 2000. The team consisted of the following Sassda members, friends and Scott’s elder son, James. Dodds and Glenn Pringle of Vital Engineering, Paul and Maureen Von Wiese of Steel Studio, Bernard and Angie Maguire of Cronimet, “Stormin” Norman Tregurtha of Classic Palisade Fencing and friends, Liz Szabo and Maddy Ross, Johann and Sue van Huyssteen (ex Columbus Stainless).

kilamanjaro

The team took the Machame route which is one of the less used and more scenic routes to the summit and is classed as a technical walk which demands long hard days walking in cloud, rain and sleet at below zero temperatures and conversely in the thirties in the tropical rain forests.

“We camped in three-men tents [sic] and a team of 35 guides and porters carried our tents, food and clothes along beside us. They cooked our meals and made sure we were always safe and, most importantly, made it to the summit,” says Scott.

Wednesday before the summit was a long nine-hour hike and a little climbing up the Baranco wall onto the Barafu camp. Barafu camp was quite desolate, perched on a ridge with our tent only 2 metres away from a 100m shear drop.

“Here we had supper and two hours’ sleep as we prepared for our summit at midnight. Lying in the dark with wind howling, feeling nauseas [sic] and with a headache, I wondered for the first time, what the hell I was doing on this mountain. As we were woken, my first thoughts are not be printable [sic], but as we prepared with numerous layers of clothes and my head cleared, I was ready for the night ahead. At a little after midnight, we started our assault by torchlight, little did we know that two hours later we would be reduced to taking twelve steps forward and then resting, and on again through the night until at long last the dawn started to break. As the sun rose we summited at Stella Point and we turned round to see a magnificent African sunrise and the glacier flow running [sic] down from the summit. Then another hour’s walk to Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa, with the wind blowing at gale force and temperatures plummeting to -20°C. But the reward was the complete team of thirteen all making it to the summit, testimony to our team spirit and resilience”, says Scott.