Mt kenya done and dusted.

Rolfe is finally hanging up his kit for two weeks after a crazy time spent in Kenya where he and Simon successfully climbed the technical shipton route on Mt Kenya. well done to him and Si..

Tomorrow will see rolfe heading off to N Africa for time out with his rock shoes whilst Raj is in the the Australian desert playing about in 4x4s!!

See below for Rolfe's account of the latest mission.. Mt Kenya. Photos will be posted soon.

Kenyan Trilogy is complete...

Considered to be the gem of African climbing Mt. Kenya is without a doubt a most worthwhile objective in itself.... However on our way out to the mountain as we began flipping through the guidebook we found that there was much more alpine fun to be had. The plans grew proportionally more ambitious as the courtesy drinks bar of BA airline drained lower and lower..

Finally we settled on attempting the non technical Lenana peak (4985m) as a good way to acclimatise, then to attempt the 8 pitch grade D “Italian climb” on Pt John (4880m) and finally to have a bash at the 18 pitch grade D “Shipton route” of Mount Kenya (5200m).

For our trek in we chose the spectacular Chogoria approach descending via the speedy Naru Moru route.

This being an alpine climbing trip our support was minimal. The only concession to Alpine purity was Morris our porter who brought up a food bag full of unbelievably delicious food (thanks Si!) and Ken bringing up a few ropes to high camp.

All the rest of the gear, tents and equipment was up to us..The only niggling doubt as to whether we were going to carry out this plan was that the beginning of the wet season was catching us up and that conditions would be to severe to climb in. In fact every day on the approach we were slammed by fierce electrical storms and a lot of snow. But there seemed to be a distinct pattern in the weather in that it started to turn bad after 2 o’clock so we adjusted our plans to really early starts and getting to the summits before it was “show time”!

The Climbing was great especially on Pt John where the rock was dry and we managed to chew up the pitches in a good time. Mt Kenya itself (to Nelion Peak) was a different story as for half the route there was lots of snow and the crux pitches were totally iced up. Never fun when you are only wearing rock shoes! Still we summited in good time and managed to beat the worst of the snow storm down. I can’t rave enough about what a superb climbing these range of peaks provide.

A fantastic expedition made all the more special by having a superb climbing partner along!

Fantastic effort Simon and with all these great successes behind us the future looks positively scary!

looking forward to Aconcagua and the karakoram next year. BRING IT ON...

Rolfe Oostra

summit success

Due to battery problems the news was slow to come. However i had a good chat to Raj yesterday who was in good spirits if not a little shattered. Its Been a long haul but moral is high and they are all buzzing from this success. The expedition has been a wild one and certainly one to be remembered making reaching the summit even more rewarding.

here is an account of the summit day push..

Arriving at BC yesterday afternoon the team rested and rehydrated until 0100 when they got up and prepared for the summit push. They departed at 0220 and reached the summit in 6 hours. It was then 5 hours back to BC where they are currently resting. Tomorrow they set off back down the route they came in and hope to reach their start point in 4 days (it took 6 on the way up) in order to make their flight connection.

well done again to Raj and the whole team.. now we cant wait to see all the photos to go with this expedition (which of course we will post here and our our site,) and to have the team home.

Its not over yet, there are still many tribal patches that need crossing.. so good luck for the final push out-of-there!

Into the jungle.

The only form of communication the team have at the moment is by text message from Raj's satellite phone, all is well and they are now en-route to Carstenz pyramid.

The following are the latest messages:

1158GMT:2030. Boys just feasted on rice, sardines and corned beef fresh from a tin. All felt the long day today, very hot earlier followed by continual downpour in afternoon making conditions underfoot tricky. Most of our legs have cramped up this evening. Simon has some grazes on his legs as battle scars. Treated to prevent infection in jungle environment. Planning long day tomorrow, maybe 12 hour continual through difficult jungle terrain to try make up another hot day.

0813GMT:- 1700. Hooray! reached first nights camp after 10 hour day. done 2 days in 1. first part of trail OK then entered jungle. more wild and unforgiving. Trail no more than 1 foot wide in some places with long drop offs into steep valleys. No mistakes could be made. the jungle allowed Simon to reminisce about his jungle training all those many years ago!

0108GMT:- 1000 on 21/03/09. finally set off this morning at 0630 after tribal negotiations. way blockaded before next village suangamma by more tribesmen. negotiations begun. P.S. please tell all we are fine and no need to worry.

0308GMT:- 1130 arrived safely in suangamma after getting past blockade. 2 days behind itinerary. stuck at this village for further negotiations. village should have been first night camp but tram keen to push on if negotiations go well to make up lost time. some long marches ahead.

0442GMT:- 1330. finally left village after 2 hours negotiations. we got 200 metres before path blacked by man with bow and arrow. we have 4 man police escort armed with assault rifles but they seem to have no influence over tribesmen.

Tribal trouble in West Papua ...........

The team are currently in Sugapa, West Papua.

Raj had a few minutes to call home as they were barricaded in a school waiting for tribal disputes to be resolved...

It has been a long journey so far including 6 flights over 6 days. The areas they have been travelling through are stunningly beautiful although is almost constantly raining. On arrival in Sugapa they were treated to a 3 hour church service in the local language and have been there for a few days waiting to set off and sleeping in a church (for their own safety!).Shortly before calling (at 1600 local, 0700 GMT) they set off walking but only made it 20 yards before the route was blocked by angry knife-wielding tribesmen.

Choosing discretion over valour they withdrew to the village school where they are currently holed up awaiting the outcome of a tribal dispute over who gets to provide porters for the expedition.

The team hope the tribal trouble will be resolved shortly and they will be on their way soon. The problem is that they are running short on time so may have to march through the night and do some very long days if they are delayed any longer.

They are however in good spirits and fairly optimistic as they now have the local Chief of Police on the payroll.

watch this space!!

(we would like to thank Dominic Porter for helping us keep up to speed on whats going on over there)

Carstenz Pyramid, Papua New Guinea. one of the 7 Summits.

A small team from the Territorial Army and Royal Marine Reserve are working towards their goal of climbing the seven highest summits on each continent. Raj is the leader for many of these climbs.

So far the team have climbed 5 of these summits:

Everest (8,848m Asia)
Aconcagua (6962m,South America)
Denali (6,194m, North America)
Kilimanjaro (5,895m, Africa)
Elbrus (5,641m, Europe)

The remaining summits in the challenge include:

Carstenz Pyramid(4,844m Australasia)
Vinson (Antarctica 4,897m

In addition to these, 5 members of the team recently summited Cho Oyo (6th highest in the world at at 8201m).

This was by way of a training expedition to prepare for Everest and was the smallest British military expedition ever to attempt an 8000m peak. It also had the most successful summiters on an 8000m peak of any British military expedition bringing the total to 17 people ever.

The next phase of the project is to climb the remaining 2 peaks; Carstenz Pyramid (Australasia) and Vinson (Antarctica).

Here are a few words of support.....


"The seven summits are a diverse group of peaks including the coldest and highest mountain in the world. I wish the very best of luck to the Project 7 Summits team."

Chris Bonnington

"Project 7 Summits admirably demonstrates the qualities of the Reservist: love of challenge, adaptability and determination in large measure. I urge you to support this gallant effort."

The Duke of Westminster.

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Raj has now headed of to Papua Guinea, to tackle Carstenz Pyramid. One of the seven summits..

here is a note from Raj ..

So far what a journey.

Flew to Bali via Kuala Lumpur and today flew to Sulawesi, which is one of the Sunda Islands in Indonesia. Have another 3 dodgy flights to go even before we make it to the start of the route!

We probably won't make it to the start of the route for another couple of days. In a few hours we fly to Biak, which is on an island just off West Papua before flying onto the mainland on another flight shortly afterwards.

The whole team is in good spirits, if not jaded from all the travelling. I'm still jaded from the Comic Relief party! Hopefully things will settle down once we are on the route proper. The route is sounding pretty wild and remote. Better go and wake the others up as getting ready to leave for the flight soon.

Cheers guys for now.

Raj.

Big Thank-Yous from the celebrity team...

Here are a few wonderful comments from the team that were presented to Raj in a card:

"Well, what a journey! I know I said it was hell but thank you so much for the experience I couldn't have done it without you! Thanks so much" Kimberley Walsh

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"I'm a fat, overweight DJ that could never climb that mountain, but because of you, I did. Thank you" Chris Moyles

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"You're not human! I think you're superman! Thank you for helping me through my mountain madness!" Alesha Dixon

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"You have been awesome - 9 celebs, 1 mountain. Can't believe you were mad enough to do it" Ben Shephard

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"Thank you for your patience and help. We couldn't of done it without your support. Thank you"
Cheryl Cole

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"Thank you so much for getting us all up" Ronan Keating

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"Thank you so much for a fabulous week. I'm so happy the whole team made it to the top. It's all thanks to you!" Denise Van Outen

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"Thank you a million times over. You seriously got me through one of the most miserable nights ever and got me to the top! I still can't believe what we have all achieved!" Fearne Cotton

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"What a star!! Thanks for everything. What a result." Gary Barlow

Here are a few photographs capturing some of the fun on the expedition...


Raj helps team member Cheryl Cole................... Gary, Ben and Fearne






Raj with Kimberley........................... Raj and Kimberley on the Roof of Africa!

Raj and Alesha Dixon with Kili behind them .... Raj and Alesha on the summit!

the team..... ...................................................Raj and Cheryl

Again all of us at 360 would like to congratulate the amazing success of this expedition.. it was down to the top organization from charity challenge and down to having the best leader around. Raj.. well done to you all.

celebratory videos

The views of the summit...



Chris Moyles celebrating




After they reached the summit, Raj the expedition leader, praises Kimberley for her courage and determination.

"Kimberley was an absolute star. She struggled hard, she battled hard, but she had so much heart. She refused to give up."

With Raj's support Kimberley has now helped raise thousands of pounds for Comic Relief..



The party mood on top of the summit..




well done again to all that took part, with a huge thank you to Charity challenge for organising this and helping everyone raise all the money that they have.