83-year-old spied near the summit of Kilimanjaro
Thursday 13th September 2007
An eighty-three year old has recently attempted to become one of the oldest people
to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro. Richard Eaton, known to everyone he met on the
mountain (and probably off it as well) as Dickie, was born in South Africa, though
has spent much of his working life in Botswana. For his Kilimanjaro attempt he was
climbing with his sixteen-year-old granddaughter Katie.
Unfortunately, nobody is really sure whether he made it to the top or not: according
to eye-witnesses on the mountain he was certainly going strong up to Barafu; but
there is no record of him in the “finishers” book.
According to our research, the oldest man to climb Kilimanjaro was 87-year-old Valtee
Daniel. For some reason, the Guinness Book of Records chooses to ignore Valtee’s
achievement, preferring instead the claims of 79-year-old Carl Haupt. If Dickie managed
to reach the summit, therefore, he would we feel be entitled to a mention in the
Guinness Book of Records – or at least as much of a right as Carl has. So if anybody
knows Dickie, or met him on the mountain, and can tell us how well he did, we’d be
very grateful.
Giant peace doves on Kilimanjaro >>
