Climb every mountain
Very puzzled about all the brouhaha about the C-List celeb's climb up Kilimanjaro as if they have conquered Everest for the first time. Well done them. And all for a good cause too... Red Nose Day.
No seriously, well done them. They obviously struggled through the whole experience and it is a big mountain to climb, but it's not a climb - no ropes, no crampons, no traversing etc. Did any of them carry an ice pick? Basically, Kilimanjaro is like a very long walk - think Whernside times 12.
What effects you most is the lack of air. At altitudes in excess of 10,000ft the atmosphere becomes so thin you have to literally suck air into your lungs to keep going - not pleasant, and neither is altitude sickness. Altitude sickness = nose bleeds, vomiting, lethargy, muscle spasms and in extremis, the shits.
But I know at least 20 people who have done the Big K for charity and completed it in a modest, grim, cheerful mood with no executive jet home. And by the way they paid for it themselves. I know of two friends who, once they completed Kilimanjaro, walked the Rift Valley and then... climbed Mount Kenya too... They did it for charity too but then, they were not C-List celebs and did it be cause they could.
Am I being Mr Grumpy? Yes probably - but sometimes I think credit should be where it is due with real people and not on a "look-at-me-celeb-wank-fest". Sigh.
2 comments:
I reckon you're being a bit unfair here. It may not be as tough as it first sounds, but hey, they have raised a hell of a lot more money for charity because they're celebs rather than civilians.
It may not be fair that non-celebrities raise far less, but so what?
(And don't you know there's an obesity epidemic on? Many of our fellow citizens struggle with a flight of stairs.)
Fair comment.
"It may not be fair that non-celebrities raise far less, but so what?"
So what? So they don't get a private jet to fly them there and back, they pay their own way, then they spend months, if not years raising funds, and then they do the climb.
There are more than four million people working as un-paid volunteers in charity who raise tens of millions more than these C-Listers. Nor do they engage in the self-aggrandising antics that the likes of Moyles et al do.
But as you point out they are just "civilians" not celebs.
Given that status why should they bother at all..?
Sighs
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