Mar 07 2010
Sandhopper Crews Climb to New Heights
The competition amongst the Sandhopper fleet has grown to new heights with Steve Hopper (Sand Star 159) & Paul Spratt (Apollo 154) with a challenging climb up Mount Kilimanjaro. The pair have set off from Heathrow today for their pre season training and trip of a lifetime, Steve has taken a small laptop with him and signal permitting will be sending reports to keep us up to date with their events.
Lets wish them plain sailing & have fun.
11/3/10 16:00hrs Steve has called me several times from his mobile to give me their progress. He said that day one was tough as they walked for 5hrs and they were both exhausted on arriving at camp. Day two they walked for 7hrs and the climb was much steeper and arrived at camp at 4pm completely Kna***ed. Day three was all I could understand as Steve’s call kept failing.
I would have to say by the tone of his voice that things were tough and by the speed of the conversation that they were exhausted and finding it hard to breathe.
I hope they are well and will report any further contact. Martyn
Made contact again, they are currently at about 15000ft,tired and suffering from the altitude. Paul is suffering most from lack of oxygen, I am not sure if Steve was just suffering from the lack of Blue Sapphire as he had not consumed any for the last three days.
The climb tomorrow will be a tough one as the slope is getting steeper. Their attempt for the summit will be late on Monday night… Good Luck.. Martyn
Steve phoned me 7am this morning and I could immediately notice a change in his mood, they had both climbed for a couple of hours and were standing on a 1000ft cliff top (must be scary as they are already at 15000ft) Steve said the World looked great and he and Spraty were acclimatising well with the altitude. Their attempt for summit now starts this Sunday at 9pm our time.
12 Responses to “Sandhopper Crews Climb to New Heights”
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I had a text from paul this morning, they have started the climb and all is looking good,
Do they realise there isn’t a bar at the top?
no news today, they are either out of reception or have discovered their brokeback moment!
I have news from spratty, they are at 3900 metres only another 2000 to go, both are well and very much in love.
🙂
Does that mean I can have the night off ??
Any news from brokeback ???
just had a text from spratty, he says ‘its killing him’ i dont know what that means, unless its sharing a tent with steve!
Steve called at 2pm today, team BrokeBack just having their last candle lit supper before the final 7hr push for the summit, should be 9pm our time sunday 14th, this is done at night under torchlight so they get there for hopefully a spectacular sunrise. sounds a bit dodgy to me but they are in good hands. following their romantic sunrise, Broke and Back then have to descend for another 7hrs. in Steve’s words “its alot tougher than i thought” no surprise there then after the gin and slimline training regime! weather has been very kind and even at 4500ft Steve was still in shorts with sunshine every day.
hope the last push is successful guys and we look forward to welcoming back two of the now fitest Sandhopper crews.
go boys, enjoy the sunrise
no news yet,
the boys are back at base camp,both are well and are going on the town to sample the gin and tonics, Paul said its the hardest most knackering thing he has ever done, they walked for 17 hours yesterday!