The ground was icy and on this night the stars shone so bright it looked as though we could reach out and touch them. We were a few hours into the summit attempt, my water camel tubing had begun to slowly freeze and sipping the water had started to get harder, I tucked it into my jacket, my lungs began to burn as my breathing was becoming more and more irregular due to the duress I was putting my body under, we stopped for a few seconds which I was pleased about.

I turned to look back down the mountain in complete darkness to where we had left 4 hours before and all that was visible in the early morning darkness was a trail of head torches, snaking their way up towards us, the shuffling of boots and the odd voice was all that could be heard on the perfect still night, before I knew it we were moving again, heading for Gilman’s point, 5,685 metres above sea level and the shoulder to the crater rim and summit path of Kilmanjaro. Our guides Sherpa Mohammed and Sherpa Didas were leading the way, in our group were two great friends Eric Edmeades from South Africa and James Perry, unfortunately our other team member Lee Stoneman had joined the 41% of summit attempts and had fallen ill from altitude sickness and exhaustion, Lee stayed at one of the huts further down while we pushed on toward the summit.

We had arrived at Gilman’s point, there was patches of snow everywhere and the sky had a tinge of dark blue to it, the sun was on it’s way but still an hour or so until sunrise at least. Huddled in a corner of rocks was a group of 8 or 9 people that all looked exhausted, Didas quietly told us that the group were unlikely to make it as they were all having serious effects of altitude sickness. Fluid on the brain or fluid on the lungs causing the sufferer to cough every few minutes and a distinctive gurgle of watery fluid in the lungs could be clearly heard. We paused for 5 minutes, the cold was gripping my face and the tube feeding water to me on a regular basis was now fully frozen, not even body heat was good enough to melt the top piece leading from the back of my neck. Suddenly I was handed a small flask like cup of drink, Didas smiled and said it would do us all good to drink it down in one gulp, I did as he had asked and it tasted disgusting but felt amazing as it hit the bottom of my stomach, energy drink that would give us all a boost.

Then, once again we were walking on a slightly more level plain but rising all the time, the snow crunched and for the first time I used my walking poles, assisting me to obtain my balance on the icy snow patches. My breathing was worse than before, heavier, deeper, gasping for air that just wasn’t ever going to be found due to the high altitude we were now at, the oxygen at this height was thinner than anything I had ever experienced before, we were only a few hundred metres short of the summit but still a good 90 minutes to get there due to the slow pace and climb. I kept focusing on my feet, making sure my path was good and footing was secure, my breathing was still deep and I knew that it was going to stay this way, my heart was pounding and it felt like it would rip through my chest at any time, my head was spinning, not in bad pain but in a drunken like way, a pre-headache kind of feeling, I turned to look at Eric and James who were both looking exactly how I felt, rough, blue lips and they too were struggling for air.

The question lingering in my mind was “are we going to make it?”

To be Continued…..