Ripcord Adventure Journal 1.2 Second Edition
In this issue, our second, we venture widely in our quest to find great adventures. From an article written and sent from Princess Elisabeth Station in Antarctica we venture along the Omo River to meet Ethiopian tribes who are holding on to their authentic way-of-life in the face of commercialisation and tourism. We send a couch potato to climb Mount Fuji in Japan while others wander the ancient Roman roads in Transylvania, venture up Mount Toubkal and taste wondrous epicurean delights in Morocco. Finally we hear of the exploits of the explorer Charles Howard-Bury and the Everest Reconnaissance expedition
In this issue, our second, we venture widely in our quest to find great adventures. From an article written and sent from Princess Elisabeth Station in Antarctica we venture along the Omo River to meet Ethiopian tribes who are holding on to their authentic way-of-life in the face of commercialisation and tourism. We send a couch potato to climb Mount Fuji in Japan while others wander the ancient Roman roads in Transylvania, venture up Mount Toubkal and taste wondrous epicurean delights in Morocco. Finally we hear of the exploits of the explorer Charles Howard-Bury and the Everest Reconnaissance expedition
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA<br />
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA<br />
Mount Fuji versus the couch potato<br />
Robb Saunders<br />
omelette from breakfast that felt like an eternity ago. It appeared to<br />
be some kind of meat with cold sticky rice and spices, but to me it<br />
tasted like salt and pepper calamari, hot chips and tartar sauce. I<br />
must have been delusional.<br />
After the meal we were escorted to the next room and shown the<br />
bunks where we would sleep. It was a large ‘L’ shaped room with<br />
mattresses along the floor and another wooden level with the same<br />
set up. There were no lights so we put our bags down and tried to<br />
get some warmer clothes on and went to bed. Sleeping was difficult<br />
as the temperature dropped just below zero and there was no<br />
heating. At around 9:00pm I needed to go to the toilet, so I rolled<br />
off the bunk and headed outside. I had to make sure to take 200 yen<br />
and my torch, the last thing I wanted was to walk off the cliff that<br />
the hut was residing on.<br />
Some hours later, we were woken up by a member of staff, violently<br />
shaking our legs to wake us up. I looked at my watch and saw the<br />
short hand on the three, I wanted to die. My chest felt like a sumo<br />
wrestler was sitting on me, and my head felt like an empty<br />
toothpaste tube being squeezed for its last drop of oral sanitary<br />
goodness. We shuffled into the communal hall and had some cold<br />
rice for breakfast. I felt like shite! I was shivering to my bones and I<br />
had altitude sickness, I did not think I could climb another 200<br />
metres to the summit. We left the hut at 3:30am and started our<br />
journey up once more. It was incredibly dark, so our head torches<br />
were a necessity, although all we could see was the frost in the air.<br />
The sub-zero night had caused an already rocky climb to change to<br />
a dangerously cold, icy path. A lot of the locals recommended us to<br />
have spikes on our boots, but as we did not have any, we had to<br />
disregard their concerns.<br />
We finished the 3,776.24 metres above sea level climb to the summit<br />
just before 5am. The sun rose about 15 minutes prior but that did<br />
not matter, the view was spectacular! Even though my body felt like<br />
it was shutting down whilst simultaneously imploding, the scenery<br />
and feeling of accomplishment was more than worth it. I was soon<br />
jumping around with excitement in no time. We walked around the<br />
summit and peered into the abyss of the volcano. The depth of it<br />
37
Change language