Students set their sights on Kilimanjaro

RECORD-BREAKING mountaineer Ian McKeever is to lead the first ever school-based expedition to scale Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak.

Almost 150 students, aged 11 to 17, from schools all over the country are participating in the climb over the summer.

The first group will begin the eight-day mountain trek at the end of this month and Ian is confident that they are well up for the challenge.

In 2008 Ian, 41, from Lough Dan in Co Wicklow helped his then 10-year-old godson, Sean McSharry become Europe’s youngest person to scale Kilimanjaro.

Over the past three years, Ian has supported, trained and guided 100 people on the 5,899 metre trek up Kilimanjaro, including nine teenagers, who performed extremely well.

He favours the Lemosho route and believes it the most successful because it allows time for climbers to acclimatise to the conditions and avoid altitude sickness.

All of the students have taken part in Ian’s preparatory 12-week Broccoli programme, so-named because his nephew had to eat lots of the vegetable as well as training hard.

“Whether you are aged 16 or 60, the preparation is exactly the same for the human body,” he said.

Ian stressed that every effort had been made to remove the mitigating factors that could affect teenagers at high altitude — physiology, nutrition and the cold.

He pointed out that the students taking up the challenge were from 18 schools and represented a broad spectrum of society. All have raised funds for various local charities in their area.

“I believe that everyone deserves this chance regardless of upbringing or opportunities afforded to them to date,” he said.

The 148 students taking part in the projects will be divided into 10 groups led by Ian. The first group will be from St Joseph’s secondary school in Castlebar, Co Mayo — the only all-girls’ school taking part.

Ian, a communications lecturer, broadcaster and author, is a man who lives by the maxim — “Never let what you can’t do interfere with what you can”. In March he completed 35 climbs of Croagh Patrick in seven days to raise funds for the Irish autism Association.

He is also the former holder of the record for completing the seven highest peaks in the world’s six continents. After turning 40 last year, he hopes to have a shot at Eamonn Coughlan’s indoor achievement by September 2012 and “become the first man over 40 to break the four minutes outdoors”.