WORLD RECORD FOR KILIMANJARO WHEELCHAIR CLIMB SMASHED!

Tuesday 16th October 2007

Yesterday afternoon at 4pm Bern Goosen of South Africa reached the summit of Kilimanjaro – and in doing so, smashed his own record for the fastest ascent of the mountain in a wheelchair.

Mr Goosen – who has now reached Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kilimanjaro, twice, and remains the only man to conquer the mountain in a wheelchair – used the Rongai Route for his record attempt, covering a total distance of approximately 27.1km (16.8 miles) and gaining 3885m (12,746 feet) from the Rongai gate (sitting at 2010m, or 6595 feet above sea level), near the border with Kenya, to the summit known as Uhuru Peak (5895m, 19,341 feet) - the highest point on the |African continent.

Beginning at 12.40pm on the 9th October, he reached the summit at 4pm on the 15th, thus taking 6 days, 3 hours and 20 minutes in total. This beat his previous record of 9 days, set in 2003.

In total there were 46 members that took part in the climb, including a 33-strong expedition crew that was organized by the highly respected Team Kilimanjaro outfit and led by two of the mostexperienced guides currently working on the mountain, Freddie Achedo (Tanzanian guide of the Millennium) and Deodatus Na’alli. Amongst the other trekkers was Neil Stephenson, who lost his leg in a shark attack in his native South Africa a few years previously. Stephenson also made it to the summit.

Goosen, 28, has been disabled since birth as a result of cerebral palsy, and is classified as quadriplegic. He had already reached the summit once before, that climb was not recognized as a record by the official bodies as there had been no way of checking that he had conformed to their strict rules regarding record attempts. In particular, the guidelines for wheelchair record attempts stipulates that the person can be helped over obstacles for no more than 10% of the entire climb. Thankfully, despite requiring help over the rocks near the Second Cave on the Rongai Route, and again at the crater rim at Gilman’s Point, Goosen covered virtually all of the rest of the climb by himself, and well within the 10% maximum stipulated by the authorities.

Such an extraordinary effort on the part of Bern was not without its cost, however, for having spent the night following the summit at Hans Meyer Cave, on the slopes of Kibo, he arrived back at 11.50am today (16th October) at Marangu Gate, from where he was immediately evacuated to hospital, where he is currently on a drip suffering from exhaustion. He is, however, said to be fine and is expected to make a full recovery.

It only remains for us to congratulate Bern (and everyone else associated with the enterprise) on this superhuman achievement. Brilliant stuff!

click here for a picture of BERN ON THE SUMMIT IN 2003

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