I arrived home last week from almost a month in Tanzania (which I hope excuses my lack of posts over the last few weeks). I was fortunate enough to lead 2 groups of Irish Red Cross fundraisers on 2 summit attempts of Mount Kilimanjaro. We had a very successful time with a total of 47 climbers standing atop Uhuru Peak in front of the iconic and much photographed wooden Kili signage.

I don’t do much commercial group leading anymore, but the chance arose several months ago to do these back to back journeys. It just happened to be perfect timing and impossible to pass up. Besides a paying job and 2 summits for myself it meant I could get back into the groove of some harder living in preparation for my next expedition. Being dirty, a bit hungry, tired and cold does wonders for your attitude. I also got to see the power that so-called “ordinary” people posses.

Mount Kilimanjaro is what it is. By the normal routes (read, most popular) it is not at all technical and save for summit day the trekking on a day by day breakdown is not overly tough. But, for anyone who has a crack at the mountain it is the cumulative total of these days that makes all the difference – cold days at ever increasing altitude and then that midnight wake-up call to make the final ascent to the summit. I saw folks who don’t normally do such things, dig deep inside themselves, refuse to concede defeat at the hands of the mountain and make it to the top. Seeing Kili crush young, fit men, yet allow someone who could be my gran ascend to it’s highest point got me thinking. I realised that this mountain judges you not on your physical attributes or technical ability but on what’s between your ears. An attribute that is not the exclusive domain of elite alpinists and extreme athletes, but is somewhere within us all. All we have to do is find it (5500m and -20 degrees certainly helps in the search).