Father and son bid to beat Africa's highest peak
FROM he was eight years of age, Chris Chambers has been bitten by the same bug for mountaineering that has gripped his father Geoff.
He watched with admiration and longing as his dad conquered a series of gruelling peaks but two years ago the Richhill teenager tasted his own success when he became the youngest person from Northern Ireland to complete Britain’s Four Peaks Challenge.
Chris successfully climbed Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England, Snowdon in Wales, along with Slieve Donard.
But this summer 17-year-old Chris has decided to ‘raise the bar’ by attempting to conquer the highest peak in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro.
Father and son will leave the Province on July 4 to take on the 5,985 metre peak together and in the process raise funds for the Ulster Cancer Foundation.
Geoff, who has already successfully climbed the mountain in March 2004, insists Chris is well prepared for what is a huge challenge. If he completes it, then he will become the youngest person from the Province to beat Africa’s highest peak.
“Chris is six ft two and really well built, and he is more than strong enough for this challenge,” explained Geoff. “But one of the beauties of Kili is that you are on a 10-day trek and for eight of those days everything is very straightforward.
“By six or seven days you get to 14,000 ft and then suddenly they rush you for the last 24 hours to just under 20,000 ft and that’s where a lot of people get sick and start to struggle, because you go up so high so quickly. Then as soon as you reach the summit they literally run you back down the mountain again. Climbing Kili only has a 50 per cent success rate.”
Geoff admits that Chris has been gripped by mountaineering since a young age.
“From the age of eight Chris wanted to get involved and over time he has endured many tough days in the Mournes and The French Pyrenees where we have trained on snow and ice,” Geoff explained.
“At the age of 15 he completed the Four Peaks Challenge which turned out to be reasonably easy for him. The Ulster Cancer Foundation then informed us that he was the youngest ever participant from Northern Ireland to complete the event for which he received the Lord Major of Armagh award.
capable
“I started to realise that Chris was capable of more but I had to make sure he wanted to do this for himself and not because his dad did it. I texted him one day and said I had 10 days holidays left and his mum and I were going to the sun later in the year he had the choice of anything, anywhere as long as it was within the 10 days. He texted back Kili so I rang my friend in the Pyrenees and booked it.”
Geoff’s wife and Chris’ mother Jenny has already raised almost 500 of sponsorship by running a concert.
The father and son team are ready for the off, but Geoff admits he doesn’t know whether they will be successful. During the day, temperatures are extremely hot, but as darkness falls they have been known to fall as low as minus 20 degrees.
lucky
“I just seem to be lucky in that I seem to be able to deal with altitude, and if Chris has the same luck on his side he should become the youngest person from Northern Ireland to climb Kilimanjaro,” Geoff added. “At 17 Chris will have to push his limits on Kili but he has listened and he understands that when you want to something different in life there will always be tough days. It will be a big challenge on those last couple of days on Kili but I’m hopeful we can do it.”
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Weather for Portadown
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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