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Challenge Accepted, Challenge Completed!The Kilimanjaro Challenge aimed to celebrate our remarkable Old Andrean community, ignite healthy House spirit, and raise funds for our school—and continues to do so. This challenge went beyond House pride—it was an opportunity to support our beloved school by sharing your story while celebrating and inspiring our exceptional Old Andrean community.
Our heartfelt gratitude goes to the audacious Old Andreans who initiated this challenge and to all those who participated and rallied behind College to help meet it.
While the challenge has been completed, we still want to hear from you! Submissions remain open until 31 March 2025, 23:59:59 (GMT+2). If you have not yet submitted evidence of your summit, please send your proof, including photos or other documentation, to foundation@sacschool.com.
The Origin of the Challenge
The challenge originated in October 2024 when three intrepid Old Andreans from Upper House simultaneously reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak (Uhuru 5,895 m/19,341 ft), achieving a monumental feat. These adventurous Upper OAs staked their claim that Upper House had the most OAs to have summited Mount Kilimanjaro. In celebration of this feat, they pledged $50,000 to College.
However, they upped the stakes by throwing down the gauntlet: they were willing to double their gift to $100,000 if another House could prove that
more than three OAs from their House have summited Africa’s highest peak, either together in one expedition or over time.
The gifted funds have served as a significant seed donation to the upcoming fundraising campaign in celebration of College’s 175th anniversary in 2030 (watch this space!).
Summit Stories: Old Andreans on Mount Kilimanjaro
Below is a selection of content generously shared by Old Andreans who have summited Mt Kilimanjaro. Please note that the content displayed does not reflect the official tally for each House. For the most accurate figures, refer to the table provided further below.
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HUGH DUNCAN-BROWN (Armstrong 1962) – “I climbed Kilimanjaro in 1992, I think the year was. There was still snow and ice on the top.”JAMES KIRKPATRICK (Armstrong 2016) – “Having recently read the amazing story about the three OAs from Upper simultaneously summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, I am writing to share the story of my summit back in 2010 at the age of 11. My father had recently beaten cancer, and so to celebrate life and all that it means to truly be alive, we he decided to undertake one of the most daunting but exciting expeditions on the African continent, attempting to Summit Mount Kilimanjaro. As one can imagine, this was much to the dismay and worry of my mother, who was sick at just the thought of her 11-year-old son attempting such a feat. But after months of questionable training (consisting mostly of my weekly prep school cross-country races), we set off for Kilimanjaro in September 2010, together with my older cousin and uncle. For brevity, we made it to the summit in five days without a hitch, barring a few delirious midnight wake-ups. Due to the effect of altitude and my pure exhaustion, I don’t remember much from summit night, but the photos bring back a few unreal memories. I remember the long, thin illuminated snake of hikers headtorches along the path up towards the summit. The guides chanting Hakuna Matata in a soft, metronomic way to help guide our pace and lift our spirits, as we shuffled forward like sleepwalkers. And finally of course the hugely emotional moment of reaching the summit alongside my dad, overlooking the entire continent of Africa at sunrise, in the knowledge that at the time I was one of the youngest to ever do so.”IAN MACLARTY (Armstrong 1965) – “…hats off to the Upper Old Boys… I left College after matriculating in 1965, and by March 2003 I left “the office” for good so I was well placed to accept an invitation from a working colleague (Dawie Botha) to climb Kilimanjaro. Our group comprised the two of us and three recently graduated medics from Tuks. The organising agent added an American to our group to make up the minimum number of six. (The only thing I remember about him, the American, is that he was happy to boast that he had shot one of most of Africa’s many antelope species, and was now trying to go through the list again albeit using a cross-box, rather than a rifle for the second time around. We were not destined to become lifelong friends! Our route was from the Tanzanian side and the four-day trail started at approx 1700 m amsl at the lower edge of the rain forest. After the mandatory instruction “pole-pole”, which literally means “slowly-slowly” but its hidden meaning is “if you try to run up this mountain your chances of getting to the top are greatly reduced”, we started walking. One slow step followed the previous one as we sloshed our way through the rainforest to the high plain above. The following three days offered fine weather and afforded wonderful views as we gradually gained altitude only to drop down a few hundred meters again before nightfall – in order to reduce the chances of altitude sickness we were informed. The fourth night was terminated at 23.00 and at midnight we started the five hour push to the crater rim, to make sure that we did not arrive late and thus miss the “sunrise of a life-time”. That sunrise was indeed glorious but the modest 1-2 kms up a modest slope to the top were really challenging for the remaining three of us who had not succumbed to altitude sickness. Despite the Pole-pole business the affects of the altitude were all too apparent and most of that walk was, for me lost in the haze of just keeping moving forward. Once at Uhuru point celebrations were brief, given that there was a trail of other climbers behind all waiting to take the same pictures and all of whom were destined to discover just how “sick” a camera battery gets at several degrees below zero, even if it has hitherto been nestling in your jocks to keep it warm. Of course, you need to take your gloves off to get the battery out and load it into the camera only to find that there are only one or two shots of power remaining. Ditto for the back-up battery! The decent to the rim made the whole effort worthwhile as one took in the view extending hundreds of kilometres on one side while foreshortened by a 30 meter deep ice-wall to the other. Sadly that ice wall is, I suspect, no longer there. In contrast the decent from the rim seemed like a lot of fun as you “jump and slide”, “jump and slide” though probably 1500 – 2000 meters of altitude before settling into a knee killing downhill trek of some 30 km. That walk is one of the many reasons that my knees are today completely stuffed, but it was worth it. The final chapter of our trip was getting back to our back-packers lodgings, taking a very necessary shower and enjoying the privilege of a regular toilet as opposed to the trails “long-drops” which in reality were alarmingly, mostly, very “short-drops”. Ablutions completed we crowed round a pool-side table and ordered an ice cold Tusker and then hit the repeat button for about ten hours. The bonhomie however did not prevent Tanzanias very considerable mosquito population from settling on our shaded legs where they sucked out our blood as fast as we poured in replacement fluids. The delayed itching of a mosquito bite combined with a beer induced coma afforded a solid night’s sleep but the next few weeks were for me one of the worst periods of my life. I scratched day and night and found that the only way to relieve the itching was to get into the swimming pool and stay there for 15 minutes. A Johannesburg pool in mid-July is not a nice place to be but relative to the itching it was bliss!”
CHRIS ALEXANDRE (Espin 1984) – “I climbed in 2005 with Graham Gooden.”BRUCE VAN NIEKERK (Espin 1996) – “I hiked Kilimanjaro with Patrick Boddam-Whetham of Merriman 1972 in February of 2003 with a whole bunch of folks working for Wilderness Safaris at the time. Go Espin!”RICHARD SHERRY (Espin 1965) – “Jambo! Our party consisted of nine people aged 48 to 67 and our tour leader Chris Goodwin of Active Africa, all hiking/climbing friends from Cape Town. Eight of us went to the Drakensberg after Christmas to spend a few days at altitude to acclimatize. We walked up Sani Pass to stay in the backpackers’ accommodation at Sani Top, and did a long day’s slog of about 33km to climb Thabana Ntlenyana, at 3482m the highest point in Africa south of Kili. On 02 January we took an Air Tanzania flight from Joburg to Kilimanjaro International Airport, and spent a day on a game drive and bush walk in Arusha National Park while Chris got our crew organized. We were looked after by a crew of 34 Tanzanian guides, cooks and amazing porters who carried our whole travelling circus from camp to camp, cheerfully bounding past us on rocky and slippery paths with big loads on their heads and shoulders. This meant that we only carried daypacks with our food, water and warm clothing for each day. There had been a lot of heavy, unseasonal rain and the muddy road was very difficult next day when we drove in to Londorossi Gate to start the Lemosho route up the mountain. The five-day walk in would help us to acclimatize to the altitude before we attempt the summit. We had to stop short and walk the rest of the way to the usual trail-head, which meant that we then did the first day’s scheduled hike in the dark by torchlight, on a very wet, slippery path through the rain forest. The porters had a hard time of it with their heavy loads. At one point we heard elephants trumpeting and rumbling quite close by in the forest – a first for Chris. Day Two saw us climbing on through the rain forest – very beautiful, with huge yellowwoods and junipers, ferns and cycads, and some black-and-white colobus monkeys with their long white manes and tails. At 3000m we left the forest and moved into the Heather zone – rather like our fynbos with some lovely ericas and proteas. The guide ahead of us set a slow pace (pole-pole) as any over-exertion would interfere with our acclimatization. Given the thinning air, we weren’t planning on racing up anyway. The campsites were pretty barren – rocky and muddy, with the only facilities being a few hole-in-the-floor longdrop toilets. We had not yet seen the mountain, which remained shrouded in cloud, but that evening it suddenly appeared. It was absolutely awesome – still far away but towering into the sky, floating above intervening low cloud, covered in snow reaching way down the slopes, glowing pinkish in the setting sunlight with bright clouds above it. There were involuntary ooh’s and aah’s – a stunning sight which alone would have made the trip worthwhile. How on earth would we get up there? Chris had never seen so much snow on the mountain – apparently, the most snow in 25 years! It made our intended summit ascent up the Western Breach route impossible. We had reports that, a few days previously, four climbers had been caught there by a snow- and rockfall which killed two of them. The park warden had closed that route and we would need to make a long traverse on Day Five to Barafu camp, to use the Mweka route for our summit attempt instead. Days Three and Four saw us continue to climb steadily through the Moorland zone and the Alpine Desert zone (barren volcanic rock with just a few grasses and lichens) to the snowline at Lava Tower 4500m, and down through a forest of giant senecias to Barranco camp 3895m. Our acclimatization had gone quite well but on Day Four Robin and I both suffered headaches and some nausea – symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS). We took the recommended Diamox medication which thankfully sorted us out by morning. Day Five was the long, undulating traverse to Barafu camp 4600m where it was snowing. We prepared our kit for the summit – I was wearing five layers of clothing on top. We slept for three hours, Chris woke us at 23h00 and soon after midnight we and five guides set off by torchlight for the summit. The weather was perfect – no wind, and a clear sky. The temp was a little below zero and it fell further as we climbed. My drinking water froze. The climb on rock and snow was tricky, requiring serious concentration and a lot of heavy breathing. The air at the summit contains about half as much oxygen as the air at sea level. The sky grew lighter and we had a brilliant sunrise which turned the snow pink. At 07h30 we reached Stella Point 5685m on the rim of the old volcanic crater. Mickey had fallen behind and he turned back here with one of the guides. Another hour took the rest of us round the rim to Uhuru Peak 5895m (19 340 feet), the highest point in Africa. The view was awesome – the entire crater and mountain-top covered in snow, the ice of the permanent glaciers (which are melting steadily as a result of global warming), jagged black rock cliffs here and there, and the green/brown plains of Africa stretching away to the far horizon under a bright blue sky with some low thunderclouds below us. In all there were about 50 people at the summit at that time. We took turns for the obligatory photographs at the summit sign, then walked slowly back to regroup at Stella Point. The steep descent on snow and rock from there was tricky and we all had tumbles. Where possible we sat down in the snow and slid down on our backsides, which was fun but hard work braking and steering with our feet. One great slide I had was at least 400m long! We arrived back at Barafu camp at about 12h00, way behind schedule. Some of the team were exhausted. We had something to eat, rested/slept for 40 minutes, then packed up our camp and set off on the 1500m descent to Mweka camp 3100m. We got there at 18h45 – more than 18 hours after we set off on three hours’ sleep this morning! We slept like logs that night, despite the festive porters who kept their radio going all night. Day Seven was a gentle four-hour walk down through beautiful rain forest to Mweka Gate. We all had lunch together there and said our farewells to the crew, who had become very dear to us. We returned to our Protea Hotel near Moshi for our first shave and shower in a week. At a celebratory supper that night we received our summit certificates – Nos 567/07 and 568/07, which means that about 600 people had summited in the first nine days of 2007! The next day we had an early flight to Joburg where Robin and I left the party to spend two days with her sister Belinde before we returned home to Cape Town. All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful trip. I particularly enjoyed experiencing new territory in so many ways – Tanzanian culture (‘Hakuna matata’ and ‘no hurry in Tanzania’ are frequently heard), language (the guides taught us some basic Swahili as we walked), climate, vegetation, wildlife, and my first experience of altitude much above 3000m. I don’t think we’ll look to climb any higher. We’re certainly not planning on doing any of the rest of the Seven Summits (highest on each continent). But you never know … :)”
JAMES DELANEY (Graham 1989) – “I found some pics of us on the summit of Kili in ‘95. I didn’t know other people then who’d climbed it and the numbers of climbers were way smaller than they are now. Accommodation conditions on the mountain were pretty rudimentary too! After summitting we ran down the mountain to catch the local bus to get us to the coast at Dar Es Salaam, which only went twice a week so we couldn’t miss it.”DAVID HAYES (Graham 1989) at Uhuru Peak.Father-son duo, David Hayes (Graham 1989) and Jared Hayes (Graham 2023), proudly displaying the Graham House flag at Stella Point.Jared Hayes (Graham 2023) and his father, David Hayes (Graham 1989), bumped into Peter Kroon (Upper 2014) and Ben Dovey (Upper 2014) on their way up the mountain. Left to Right: David Hayes (Graham 1989), Ben Dovey (Upper 2014), Jared Hayes (Graham 2023) and Peter Kroon (Upper 2014).COLIN FROST (Graham 1977) – “I summited in August 2012 with my family.”JONO GIBBS (Graham 2013) – Jono summited Mt Kilimanjaro along with other WPPS alum on January 12, 2011 (Source: https://bit.ly/3VC7iNh)NEIL HODGSON (Graham 1981, PM 1982) – “During 2010 a friend asked me if I wanted to join a party to climb Kilimanjaro. It was not something I had on my bucket list or was planning to do but I decided it was an opportunity and a challenge and said yes. My preparation involved hiking regularly on Table Mountain. I came across two guides who were training a group of women to climb Kilimanjaro and joined them for a several hikes. They told me I needed to climb up Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge, followed by Devils Peak and Lions Head on the same day so I did this towards the end of my training. I thus found myself a member of a party of four, three of us from Cape Town and the fourth an American who had been visiting Lesotho for several months, travelling to Tanzania in August 2010 to climb Kilimanjaro. I was the only OA among us. The route that we took was the 6-day Machame route, which is one of the more scenic of the seven routes that can be taken to the summit. Unfortunately, my friend developed flu and so had to evacuated at the end of day two, which was a great disappointment. Three of us attempted the summit on 24 August 2010 with the other Capetonian not making it but I and the American summited. … I am the one with the blue jacket so at least I was close to wearing Andrean colours. I found it tough going, while the American found it easier – he was fit anyway and also had the advantage of having spent time hiking in the Lesotho highlands! I am grateful that I had the opportunity to climb Kilimanjaro and that, although it was not something I had planned, it is now a ticked off item on my bucket list!”RUSSEL HORWOOD (Graham 1994) – “We, [mates from university], were on a shoe string budget traveling for 6 weeks through Africa. If memory serves me correctly, we did the whole trip with about R3k to R4k. Machame route (whiskey) was our choice and we summited 3 July 1997 (a day after my 21st birthday). Many moons ago however the memories feel like yesterday! Pity they never wrote my name on my certificate 😂 Memories for life!”PAOLO STRAVINO (Graham 1994)JASON BROWN (Graham 2017) – “I [recently] completed [the] summit on 26/12 last year [2024].”
TIM ANDERSON (Merriman 1965) – “I also got to Everest Base Camp in January 2001. I did this with my son Peter, who was in Merriman House from 1996-2000. I would be interested if any other father/son combos have done either peak.”PATRICK BODDAM-WHETHAM (Merriman 1972) – Climbed alongside Bruce Van Niekerk (Espin 1996) in 2003.MILES FRASER-JONES (Merriman 1982) – “I climbed Kilimanjaro in the early 2000’s – not entirely sure when, but I think around 2003/4”RICK HUDSON (Merriman1964) – “I climbed Kilimanjaro in December 1968, so that’s one for Merriman House.”ED MAYDON (Merriman ) – “…in 1994, there was a school expedition to Tanzania and Zanzibar. Somewhat miraculously, I still have a diary from that trip, with names of all the people on it as well as a bunch of pictures (non-digital), and who made it all the way to the top. Staff: Marc Schafer, Glyn Kenyon and Rene Schalker; DSG: Bronwen Davies, Kerry Cloete, Sara Bilbe, Philippa Peters, Gayle Cotterell, Franzi von Sprekelsen and Mausi Hermann; SAC: Mel Elliott, Rowan Seagers, Colin Sindle, Kyle Zietsman, Uli Heitz, Paul Evans, Trevor Pocock, Richard Morton, Kenneth Rodd and Ed Maydon. According to my diary, Marc, Rene, Sara, Kerry, Franzi, Mel, Uli, Colin, Rowan and myself made it to Gilman’s Point; and Rene, Kerry, Uli, Mel, Rowan, Colin and myself made it to the summit.”
RICHARD ARDERNE (Mullins 1975) – “I climbed Kili in 1994”DOC CALDWELL (Mullins 1962) – “Climbed Kili. Summit 24 Dec 2004.”NORMAN HARDIE (Mullins 1955) – “Though it was 15 years ago that I climbed Kili I would like to be counted as a member of Mullins who summited. I raised over C$30 000 for Alzheimer’s research at that time. Attached is my trip report on the climb.” A Note from the Foundation Office: Norman summited Mt Kilimanjaro at the age of 72 – a truly remarkable achievement! READ NORMAN’S TRIP REPORT BY CLICKING ON HIS IMAGE.PETER LEVER (Mullins 1967) – “[In 1970, I reached the] summit of Kilimanjaro with Jeremy Wostenholm (Mullins 1967)!”JEREMY WOSTENHOLM (Mullins 1967) – “We, [Peter Lever (Mullins 1967) and I], climbed Kilimanjaro together in 1970 when we were University students. We tagged onto a couple from Germany who had a Guide and a Cook. Unfortunately, the German couple had altitude sickness at 12,000ft and had to return to base. We took over their Cook, Iringa, as our guide, but then had to equip him as you can see from the attached photo. I had to give him my spare pair of boots, my scarf, beanie, gloves and poncho, leaving me with very limited gear. Peter and I both made it to the top and it was the most wonderful experience.”MATT MULLINS (Mullins 1975) – “I summitted Kilimanjaro on the 30th September 2023. I was in Mullins house and matriculated in 1975 which makes me 65 at the time of summiting. I wrote an account of the geology of Kilimanjaro (attached) to assist hikers in understanding the rocks through which they were traversing.” READ MATT’S REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF KILIMANJARO BY CLICKING ON HIS IMAGE.MARKSELLER & PAUL RAINIER (Mullins 1974, 2005) – “My father, Markseller, and I summited Kilimanjaro in 2012.” Note from the Foundation Office: Another father-son duo!
JOHN BROSTER (Upper 1967)BEN DOVEY (Upper 2014) and PETER KROON (Upper 2014) – “Ben Dovey and I summitted Kilimanjaro in May 2022. It was actually fairly interesting as we bumped into an OA and his dad as they were on their way down.” Note from the Foundation Office: The young Andrean, now Old Andrean, Jared Hayes (Graham 2023) and his father, David Hayes (Graham 1989) were the two OAs Peter and Ben had bumped into. They had the Graham House flag with them on the climb and proudly flew it at Stella Point! Jared began his descent from Stella Point, while David made it to Uhuru Peak.Left to Right: David Hayes (Graham 1989), Ben Dovey (Upper 2014), Jared Hayes (Graham 2023) and Peter Kroon (Upper 2014)ANDREW GIRDWOOD (Upper 1964) – ” … in September 1994 [I] climbed Kilimanjaro. I was invited by a colleague of mine, Dr Joe Tyrell, who was leading the party. Joe is a cardiologist insisted that I have my heart ‘fixed’ before going. I had a congenital heart lesion called a Woolf-Parkinson White syndrome and was susceptible to tackyarrythmias (palpitations) which had troubled me from my Prep days playing rugby but not unduly and I did get my colours at College. The problem is that at altitude an arrhythmia can be a problem. So I went for an angiogram and the aberrant pathway causing the arrhythmia was identified and ablated. This was fairly new treatment at the time and two months later I summited Kili with no problem and have had no problems since then. We were a party of eleven mostly medics and we went up the Arrow Glacier route which has been stopped because it is too dangerous but fortunately we climbed up the precipitous crater at night with headlamps following the climber in front so were not aware of the horrific exposure. The last bit going up Uhuru peak which stood out like Lions head from the crater rim was hectic going but nine of us made it. Two of our party Jack Ingles and Charles Haw sensibly bailed out at 16000 feet and skirted around the mountain and joined us for the decent. These two both in their seventies had in fact been the incentive for our trip. They were together in Moshi in Tanganyika during the war and looked out of their tent to the mighty Kilimanjaro and said we must climb that one day. They returned to SA after the war and started the well known civil engineering firm of Haw and Ingles. Climbing Kili stands out as one of the highlights of my life but one of our party Joan Louwrens, Charles Haw’s daughter in law, has subsequently written a book called ‘A Wilder Life. Journey of an Adventuring Doctor’ where she describes all the different places she has worked in and adventured in including Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, Marion, Gough, South Georgia, Antarctica, the Arctic and cycled the Silk Route. Our epic trip doesn’t even get a mention in her book so it is all relative I suppose.”DAVE HYSLOP (Upper 1988) – “Upper for champs!! I climbed Kili in Aug 2011 with some work colleagues and their friends.”MATTHEW JARVIS (Upper 1995) – “I summited Kilimanjaro in Feb 2011. A fantastic journey with some pretty wild weather on the last few days!”BEN SOUTHALL (Upper 1999) – “I climbed Kilimanjaro after leaving College, at the end of my second year of university in December 2001. The details are, I’m afraid rather lost to the sands of time. My uncle and aunt lived on a farm outside of Nairobi, and so for a number of summer holidays I was lucky enough to visit them. A few years before, I had climbed Mount Kenya with my father, and although we bought improved coats and sleeping bags for the Kili climb, the final ascent was still a very cold affair: with ice coating my father’s beard. It was also tough due to altitude sickness. After the descent and returning to Nairobi for Christmas, I joined an overland truck trip down to Cape Town before starting my third year at UCT. I think that altogether it really was the holiday of my life.”FRANS VAN HOEK, MARK PATTERSON & JUSTUS LUTTIG (Upper 2013, 1969 & 2009) – “The journey to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro took a total of eight days—both up and down. Out of our group of 10, two wisely decided not to complete the challenge. Along the way, we experienced a mix of conditions: a little rain one day, a hailstorm another, and freezing cold every night, despite bundling up in five layers of clothing, a woollen cap, leather gloves, and more. With no shampoo, showers, or many changes of clothing for over a week, comfort was a luxury. Taking Diamox daily helps combat altitude sickness and severe headaches, but there’s no cure for “attitude sickness,” which ultimately determines whether you reach the summit—regardless of whether you’re in your 70s, 30s, or 20s, as was the case in our group. Climbing Kilimanjaro is an exhausting, challenging, and exhilarating test of individual commitment and endurance. Attempting it once is a must. Repeating it, however, might be harder to justify.”
HOUSE TALLY
Below are the Old Andreans who have shared their inspiring Mt Kilimanjaro summit stories, accompanied by supporting documentation and/or photographs. The Foundation Office holds the Old Andrean community in the highest regard, and we are deeply grateful for every submission received. Whether accompanied by documentation or not, all submissions have been read with immense gratitude, and we honour the effort, courage, and spirit behind each account. We do not overlook any experience; each story is a testament to the remarkable achievements of our Old Andreans.
