Mount Kilimanjaro

On the 2nd January, I flew out to Tanzania in Africa with my dad to climb the largest free standing mountain in the world, Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895m). To put this into perspective, Snowdon - the height mountain in Wales is 1,085m), so this was a huge challenge!
Our flight left from Humberside airport with a transfer in Schipol before arriving at Kilimanjaro airport. Tanzania are 3 hours ahead making the flight seem even longer!
Day 1
We left England at 6:10am and arrived in Tanzania at 8:40pm. Collecting our visa took a long time and it was around 30 degrees celcius... we were extremely sweaty having travelled wearing as much as possible after hearing that 1 in 7 peoples luggage does not arrive in time! The drive was 1 hour from the airport to our hotel in Arusha. We stayed in Arusha due to its higher altitude compared to the other cities closer to Mount Kili. This drive was interesting...the country have spent a lot of money on police monitoring car speed meaning police are everywhere, however no other road rules are regulated at all. Cars join the road whenever they want, cars have no headlights, there are lots of horns going, nobody stays in their lanes and there are often three cars in line across two lanes. I noticed lots and lots of people stood in large groups at the side of the long, wide, empty roads. I later found out that these groups of men were operating taxi services on their motorbikes - many of which had no headlights! The only true buildings we saw on this journey were universities... the other houses were more like tin huts. We approached two huge black gates guarded by men with guns. This was the entrance to our hotel. We were very happy to be able to have a shower.

Day 2 (2671m)
We woke up at 6am for a breakfast which consisted of an omelette and cereals. We met our team at 7 am before beginning a 5 hour drive to the start of the Rongai route. The sky was extremely clear and we could see the peak of Mount Meru - Mount Kilimanjaro's sister. Driving through the nature reserve on the way there, there were lots of people farming. Small children walking solo carrying huge baskets or branches, often on top of their heads. We learnt that the whole family works together daily to ensure food is placed on the table. We eventually arrived at the start point. The guides (we had 13 between 2 of us) had to arrange the luggage so that each man was carrying 20kg. The luggage included clothing, tents, food, drink, bowls, cutlery, sauces and first aid for 15 people! No plastic bottles are allowed on the mountain to reduce the amount of litter. After 1.5 hours of relatively easy walking, we arrived at Simba camp (2671m). Walking through the rainforest, we spotted black and white columbus monkeys swinging in the branches above us... they then joined us in the campsite in the evening. We were told that there are over 450 species of bird on the mountain but many of the large wild animals such as elephants have moved into Kenya due to the vast amount of poaching that occurs.
We had our own chef (Robert) and waiter (Duhlar). Our first meal started with a soup dish followed by fish, vegetables and potatoes. We were fed extremely well throughout the trip- it was amazing what they could cook in the mountains with very limited resources. Apart from hearing people around you going to toilet into a plastic bucket very close by and my dad cutting his head sleeping on the zip of his sleeping bag, we both slept very well on our first night in our tents.
Day 3 (3700m)
We woke up at 6am, greeted by a knock on our tent followed by a mug of coffee each. Today we changed terrain, from a rainforest to moorland area into second cave camp over an 8km hike. We spotted lots of buffalo footprints along the track and there was a clear view of the Kilimanjaro summit. We stopped for lunch were we had cucumber soup, fish and chips, green beans and carrots. It chucked it down with rain. We then hiked another 8km to our final camp of the day. The hiking was long and we moved very slowly across the mountain. My dad slept while I went to explore the camp. A river ran straight through the centre surrounded by unique trees and lots of mice and birds lived here. The surface was volcanic ash.
Despite the bad weather, my dads head had got sunburnt highlighting the contrasting weather conditions. He was very uncomfortable and our clothes were wet. As the sun set and the moon came out, the stars lit up the Kenyan towns 3700m below us. It was spectacular. For tea, we had soup, chicken leg, rice and vegetable curry. The rain was extremely heavy and noisy throughout the night, we barely slept. The guides dug mini trenches around the base of your tent to allow the water to drain into.
 Checking into every campsite we were the youngest and oldest people each time! Choosing your amount of layers each day was difficult because the temperature varied so so much and whatever you did not wear, you had to carry! There were now no toilets at all... we simply went to the toilet using a hole in a shed. No luxuries. No showering. No sleep. Lots of sweating.

Day 4 (4300m)
Heading to the food tent for breakfast, two huge ravens swooped past us. The weather was much better and brighter. Breakfast: rice porridge, pink potatoe (they called it sava), vegetable omelette, orange. We trecked through an alpine desert and arrived at Mawenzi Tarn Hut. There was lots of rocks piled on top of eachother which we were asked to place a rock on top off and make a wish. For lunch we had celery soup then we had an omelette sandwich with onion barjis. This was the prettiest camp. The guides played chess. Once you had stopped walking, there was very little entertainment... my father read the same book 3 times! Small lakes were dotted around everywhere. We did an acclimatize walk up towards one of the three eruption points on the mountain. An acclimatization walk involves walking up higher (in this case, 4500m) before returning back lower to sleep (4300m). We both suffered with headaches on this walk. It felt like my brain was being squashed by my skull. The beauty of the hike we had selected was that it gave you time to acclimatize making it much more likely for you to reach the summit. For tea: pancakes and pumpkin soup followed by African stew and pineapple.
The nights were getting colder and colder as we moved higher. We were also becoming dirtier and the dried sweat on our bodies was making us cold. I slept wearing a thermal base layer, hoodie, and 3 jackets this night whilst snuggled in my sleeping bag - it was still FREEZING!

Day 5 (3800m)
As the sun rose, we made our way to the breakfast tent where our chief (Nicholas) congratulated me on having such an amazing dad! We were moving lower today, towards third cave camp which meant our headaches and sickness should go away. We were both quite excited as we knew we were summitting the following evening, however both felt very tired - sleeping in tents in gail winds at -20 degrees doesn't provide the best nights sleep! My dad was resting throughout the day whenever he got the opportunity to, although very rarely actually falling asleep. Kibou peak was behind us now providing a very pretty backdrop. The guides were walking towards the nearest stream in order to collect water for us. One of the porters suffered from altitude sickness which was a good reminder to us that we were doing well!

Day 6 (4800m)
We moved from third cave to school hut camp (4800m) which took 3 hours. School hut was a private camp ensuring we were the only people at it. It was a very cloudy morning but there was no wind at all. The hike was much steeper today and we were repeatedly told to walk 'pole pole' (slowly, slowly) to prevent altitude sickness. The rocks were much larger now and the ground was sandy. We passed a buffalo carcass. We reached 5000m on our acclimatization walk and my father hated travelling back down the mountain. This was our final walk before the summit.We knew the two largest factors effecting us summitting would be, the contrasting weather conditions and how we coped with altitude sickness. We went to sleep at 4:30pm with facemasks on to block out the bright sun. My father did not sleep at all in this period.

SUMMIT (5895m)
We woke up at 11 pm for our breakfast. Neither of us were able to stomach our breakfast - I was so nervous! It was pitch black as we set off on our 7 hour hike for summit at midnight. I spotted a shooting star just before we started trecking. We had head torches on which highlighted the earth in a small circle just ahead of you. The walk was very steep and challenging. My fathers head torch died after 15 minutes - very typical of my father as he is rubbish at working electrical products. We walked with three guides for two hours alone before joining the other groups on the main pathway to the summit. We travelled in single file. Many people were falling over, lots of people were laid out resting and some people were being sick. You needed to keep a strong mind. My father was really struggling but he knew he was fit and capable enough to keep going past these people. When I spoke to him, he was replying nonsense and he looked glazed over. He kept falling up the mountain and the guides had to take his luggage from him. My father was using Gilmoors point (the first marked point on the highest rim of the volcanoe) as a point to reach for motivation. I did not think he was going to make it but he kept ploughing on. The guides tried to keep the hike as enjoyable as possible, singing loudly as we moved up the mountain. It was hard to keep focus when all you could see was a tiny circle of land lit up infront of you for 7 hours! Everything else was blackness. As we approached Gilmoors point, it was still very dark. We were one of the first people to reach the top rim. As we climbed over the ridge, a blizzard began... it was -20 and the snow was falling thick and fast. We were freezing. The snow had built up and was extremely thick (1m deep) around the path. We pushed on and reached Steller's point before getting to the summit. It was so emotional! My hair had frozen around my face and even my eye lashes had turned into small icicles. It was around -30 at the summit. We had a very quick picture before the guides rushed my father down for safety. I followed hastily. Coming down the mountain, everyone else still on their way up congratulated us! The guides practically dragged us down the mountain, taking us under the arm. It was the fasted we had moved all week by a long way

Day 7 (3700m)
We reached the summit at 6:10 am and came straight back down to Horombo huts using the Marangu route. This campsite had its own toilets and actual buildings were there. This camp site was incredibly different to the other camps that we had been to. My dad could not eat when we stopped at Kibou huts. He felt very sick. My father donated his clothes to the guides. We had dropped from 5900m to 3700m. This was very, very tough. We had been away for around 30 hours. We had reached the summit of the heighest free standing mountain in the world. We had also hiked around 19km.

Day 8
We had the best night sleep ever (8:45pm -> 6am). Our guides performed a dance for us as they were very excited to be going home. I joined in. We hiked through large groups of cactus trees and into a thick rainforest. In the rainforest, we passed a dic dic. This hike covered 21km, a nice half marathon to finish our hiking week! We reached our pick up point at about 1 o clock and took the bus home. On the  bus we had 7 tiny bananas each. The bus stunk... 13 guides plus my father and I, all who had been hiking for 7 days in temperatures ranging from 30 degrees to minus 30 degrees. The smells were repulsing!

General routine
6:30 am wake up and pack bags within the tent
7:00 am wash (bowl of warm water)
7:30 am breakfast
8-12 am walk
12 am- lunch (soup and main)
4 pm - popcorn, coffee, peanuts (snacks)
6pm - tea (soup, main dish and fruit)

Extra information
In the 1990's, people believed God lived at the top of the mountain. They thought nobody could climb to the summit because God's curse would kill them. They were mistaking this death cause with hypothermia.
In 1995, our chief guide first summitted the mountain. He stayed in natural caves the whole way up, keeping warm by a single blanket. He hated every minute of it. He swore he would never climb again. He took this back when employment elsewhere seemed impossible.
It is a rule on the mountain that you take as many guides to the summit as there are climbers.
There are still tribes who live on the mountain!

Brecon Beacons

I spent the first December weekend hiking in the Brecon Beacons. Again, the weather did not please us, with heavy rain throughout the whole day.
We completed the Fan Dance - the route used by the SAS during the winter as part of a training regime. it includes reaching the summit of the tallest peak in South Wales (Pen y fan). I would love to return and complete this route in better weather conditions.

Charity Events

- Charity Netball tournament 28th November 2018

- Bake sale 14th December

- Charity Quiz 11th December
-5km fun run 27th January
- valentines personalised cookies and cakes followed by a  bake sale
- half marathon (13 mile) row February 28th
- Bake sale 1st March
-Superhero themed family fun run January  27th

Snowdon November 2018

On the 10th November, I led my first group up Mount Snowdon. The weather was not pleasant and visibility extremely poor, nevertheless, we all enjoyed our hike.
We took the Pyg and Miners track. This route provided a beautiful lakeside view. The mountain was extremely busy with many people climbing it for charity. People were flaked out in the path - the harsh winds requiring extra energy usage. 
We split our quite large group up based upon their walking speeds. This meant each person was able to reach the summit at their own pace. 

LONDON MARATHON - THE BRAIN CHARITY
Lets make a difference.
Here is my funding page.
https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LauraCopley1

I will be posting about upcoming fundraising events but in the meantime, I better get training!

Lake District - 3 personal challenges

Helvellyn

This image is climbing up Helvellyn. 

This image is climbing up Easy Gully on Pavey
Arch on the opposite face to Jack's rake. 

On 21st August 2018, 8:30 am, I set off from Helvellyn Youth Hostel to climb up Helvellyn. We decided to go around the horse shoe in anticlockwise direction meaning we ascended up Squirrel edge and descended down Striding Edge. Helvellyn is the 3rd tallest peak in England. Striding Edge and Squirrel Edge are both grade 1 scrambles meaning you spend a lot of times using your arms and legs as is becomes more of a climb compared to a walk. There was low visibility as the clouds were low. When descending we could not see a clear path coming from the peak so began to climb down lose rock along a path we thought must have been the way. As we got lower and lower, it became clear that this was no path, just a few lose rocks scattered amongst a very steep grassy mountain face. We climbed back up along rocks that seemed more stable and joined Striding edge. The view down on the red tarn was beautiful and the lake helped to navigate us.



Scafell pike

This is on Scafell Pike.

We attempted Scafell pike the following day. The drive here involved going over Wrynose Pass and Hardknott Pass which are narrow undulating roads travelling through the centre of vast majestic valley. Arriving at Scafell we were advised not to go walking, I was determined however to attempt it – there is nothing worse than a ‘did not start’. We began walking up the side of a river using a picture of the route on my phone as guidance. We travelled up the mountains going via Hollow Stones. I was very eager to attempt Sca fell too however the weather was making the walking unenjoyable and the fog preventing you from seeing any of the views. The river running alongside the path made the walk very pretty with frequent waterfalls and stepping stones across it. We reached a fork in the path and chose to turn right (the shorter but steeper way to the summit). Eventually, the route became incredibly unclear and it turned into lots of tiny lose rocks. We actually turned back at this point as we did not believe the clear stepping stones would have changed into this path given how popular the route is. On our way back down, we met a couple who had followed us up, we agreed to go back to the blind spot and work our way through it. We managed it thanks to locating a rescue point on the map which we had just passed giving us confidence that we were on the correct route. Along the ridge, the path was not well marked however man made stacks of stones provided some guidance. We took the longer slope down the rocks as the rain had made the slippy.

Jack’s Rake and Easy Gully
Jack’s Rake and Easy Gully form a ‘v’ shape in Pavey Arch. The walk up to Pavey Arch is relatively simple and short. Stickle Tarn is at the bottom and the walk forms a horse shoe around it. Harrison Stickle is the heighest point at the summit. We attempted Jack’s rake but did not complete it. The continuous rain fall over the past week meant the rocks were leather like and made the route too dangerous for us. We had been advised to watch videos about the route and that you cannot turn back once you have passed the small tree growing out of the rock. We headed back down as we approached the tree… wearing cycling helmets for added protection, we looked rather silly attempting to climb down the steepest faces on the peak. We reached the bottom and decided to attempt Easy Gully. This forms the right hand side of the ‘v’. This scramble was by no means easy. It was made from lots of lose rock and it felt like a rock slide could occur at any moment. We traversed up the rocks making sure we called for any large falling rocks. When we reached the top, a large overhanging rock blocked the path. The walk and scramble was great but I will have to return in order to complete Jack’s Rake!

Events on Foot

Events on foot

Walks
In the summer of 2016 I completed the Yorkshire 3 peaks challenge. Climbing the 3 tallest peaks in Yorkshire in under 12 hours. This event was thoroughly enjoyable. Each peak was totally different to climb and presented its own unique challenges. The weather would be bright and sunny at the bottom and could be snowing by the time you reached the top of them! Neither my partner nor I had ever completed this full route before so we did get lost a few times and I would recommend taking multiple maps in order to prevent this from happening! This is a challenge that every hiker must do!! My favourite of all the hikes I have completed so far!
We decided to run between peaks in order to get the best time possible completing it in just over 7 hours. It's 40km (25 miles) and consists of Pen-y-Ghent (694 metres), Whernside (736 metres) and Ingleborough (723 metres).




Snowdon (February 2018)- what a beauty!
We took the Watkins route on a very cold February morning. Snow had set and glistened in the day light, thicker towards the top but more scattered at the base.
The path was very clearly defined with lots of large rock faces along the edge - great for extra climbing or eating your lunch on. The first half is quite steady and the footing is simple but the second half became much more physically demanding.
We scrambled along with the peak in sight, not actually knowing if we were heading in the correct direction due to the path and scenery being totally covered with thick untouched snow. My legs burnt climbing up here but I could not wait to reach the top! A beautiful lake could be seen down the mountain face to the right and we ate our lunch sat on large rocks looking out onto the water.

After the Driffield Triathalon

Clear sky allowed us to see for miles - views I will never forget! At the top we posed for pictures and waited for our group to come together again.
We then headed down cross country taking the least steep route possible but visiting any lakes or points of interest we fancied.
Snowdon was amazing and I would love to return in order to climb Crib Goch!


I did Kinder Scout in February 2018 on a snowy Thursday morning.

This image is in the Golden Fleece.

The route was straight forward and there were no opportunities to get lost. The snow added to the beauty of the route although it's probably best to complete it in the summer too so you can see the comparison!

Kinder Scout

Kinder Scout

Kinder Scout

Runs


The Golden Fleece was a cross country ultra marathon which I did in May 2018. It was beautiful!!! There is a shorter course of 16 miles which many people walk.

This was the furthest I have ever ran. The pain is strange... your lungs are fine but your bones ache. I changed my running technique multiple times throughout the race in order to be as comfortable as possible. There were lots of food stations throughout and you got a delicious meal at the end. Parking is organised and close to the starting point.

The route takes you through many fields and we did often think we were going to get lost.


This event was amazing and because the scenery was altering so much and the terrain changing, it prevented boredom- I never believed I would be able to do it and I did!!!

The Humber half marathon was my first ever half marathon in 2015. I find running really quite boring meaning that the specific running training that you should do before such an event did not quite happen.
The route was beautiful, running both ways over the bridge. There was lots of spectators and supporters scattered around the route. Some people presented us with sweets, others sprayed you with a hose pipe (this was most needed in the weather conditions that we were experiencing).
I would recommend this half marathon for people who have already done half marathons - the course is rather hilly meaning you are not very likely to get a PB. It is however all on road. There was lots of people running and plenty of space for spectators to cheer you on at the end. Many competitors walked to the start because the car park was so busy.

The Nottingham half marathon starts in the city center. The parking is simple and I have never had problems with it – I have done this run 3 times now and hope to do it every year that I am at university (5 years).
The course is very well organised with lots of stalls at the start. You are given different starting points depending on your estimated time of finish. At the end, everyone is given a goody bag
There are plenty of parks for spectators to wait for you in.
This run gives you a tour of the whole city.

Other


(Easter 2017) Driffield sprint triathlon involved a 400m pool swim followed by 20km bike ride then a 5km run.
It was a good triathlon to do for the first time. The cycle route was quite hilly but the run was flat. It was well set out and the rush and excitement when changing activity gave me extra energy and thrill! The run was a circular route and you complete it multiple times. I was always going to struggle with the running the most because it's the thing I least enjoy training!
I would definitely do another triathlon but would try a longer one next time.