Slow and steady wins the race: that was Bonnie and Bruce Childs’ mentality to conquering the highest mountain in Africa last year.
The retired St. Albert couple are both in their late 70s, and summited Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania June 10, 2018, after a grueling nine-hour nighttime up the last leg of the mountain.
Bruce and Bonnie, age 78 and 76, have always kept in “pretty good shape,” so did not need to do much special training aside from extra hiking and running. Their first big hike was the West Coast Trail in British Columbia with their kids in 1997. Since then, they have conquered the 750-kilometre El Camino trail in Spain and have walked coast-to-coast in England. In addition, Bruce has run three marathons and Bonnie three half-marathons.
However, nothing could have prepared them for just how difficult reaching such tremendous heights would be.
When the Childs set out on their seven-day hike, they started out sweating in 35 C. After four nights on Kilimanjaro’s Lemosho route – winding through rain forests, scenic plateaus and finally through the ice field – they transitioned to clothing more suitable for a Canadian winter, hitting glacier temperatures of -12 C.
On their first day, a Land Rover picked the Childs up at the hotel they were acclimatizing in at the town of Moshi. After divvying up food and equipment amongst the guides, the Childs set out on a relatively easy first day.
The first real challenge would come on day four, when the hikers came face to face with a sheer rock face resulting from a turbulent volcanic past, called the Barranco wall.
“I remember saying to the guide, ‘How do we go around that wall?’,” Bruce said. “He said, ‘We don’t – we go over it.' ”
The couple were instructed to put their poles away and get prepared for a grueling hand-over-hand climb.
That night, they would catch only a brief moment of sleep before being nudged awake at 11:30 p.m. to prepare for their final ascent of the mountain for sunrise.
Bruce said it was a spooky feeling setting out that night, only seeing a train of headlights rising into the sky up to an invisible peak. At one point, Bonnie said she thought they were approaching a hotel, by the shape the headlights made against the black backdrop of the mountain.
Altitude sickness can be lethal when doing hikes with such high altitudes as Kilimanjaro, and Bruce had a scare in Peru 10 years prior. So when he started getting a headache, his guide stopped him to make sure he was okay.
“This time, we were cautious,” Bruce said.
The knowledgeable guide removed Bruce’s headlamp, adjusted the straps, and Bruce experienced no more headaches. Frequent breaks for air and water would keep the couple going. On their way, they passed a lot of mostly younger hikers who were suffering sickness as a result of taking the climb too fast.
The Childs said there were a few points when they thought they would not make it up the mountain, it became so difficult to breathe.
“It’s amazing how hard it is on your system at that altitude. It just feels like you can’t breathe; you don’t have any energy and (are) gasping for air,” Bruce said. His wife kept ahead of him, and Bruce joked he could not let her ascend without him.
Taking the ascent at their own pace meant the Childs did not get to appreciate sunrise from the peak, finally reaching the top at about 9:30 a.m. They were only allowed 10 minutes to enjoy the view before their guides told them it was time to go.
“That makes you feel you’ve conquered something, just getting there,” Bonnie said. “Then on your way down you just think, I can’t believe this really happened. We really did it.”
“You really do feel like you’re on top of the world,” Bruce said. “You can see forever.”
He added it was a “great big load” off their minds to have finally made it.
After such a gruelling hike on hardly a wink of sleep, the Childs of course wanted a bit of a rest, which they would not get. They did not reach their next campsite until 6 p.m. that day, having set out nearly 19 hours before.
The descent only took two days, and Bruce said the first thing they did was have a shower, and then crack a cold one. Or two.
The Childs have a message for those inspired by their adventures:
“If we can do it at our age, most people should be able to do it,” Bruce said.
