Kilimanjaro Summit
Fluge began training for his 2007 mountaineering adventures in late 2006. He had a long, long way to go. Now, with 4 months before the Kilamanjaro Summit, he sees light at the end of the tunnel. Fluge will be climbing with his trainers Yelena King and Troy Carter. Kilimanjaro lies over 19,000 feet above the Tanzanian plains in Africa and a summit even with the help of Alpine Ascents will not be easy.
Preparation
Besides daily training sessions with fitness professionals Yelena King and Troy Carter, he hopes to install an altitude sensitive room within his house by mid-summer so as to acclimate for the climb. The room includes a complete conversion in his home of his bedroom into an ‘altitude chamber’. Floors, ceilings, walls, even light fixtures are sealed, and the air-intake unit gets stashed in another room. Only a wall-mounted control unit hints at the room’s true purpose. This room allows the oxygen level in it to reach the equivalent of 15,000 feet, which research indicates is optimal for red blood cell growth and VO2 max development. He will leave the room to train and enjoy the day but will return every night for a month prior to his climbs. ACcording to Shaun Wallace, his body should adapt to its new low oxygen environment by growing new red blood cells and increasing its capacity for oxygen delivery. Watching Fluge’s slow but progressive improvement at the gym - one wonders which will prove most challenging - the ‘workout’ or ‘sleeping in an altitude chamber’.
Click here to visit Shaun Wallace’s site, Altitude Training
The Mountain
Crowned by eternal snows, the majestic Kilamanjaro stands south of the equator, on the northern boundary of Tanzania. Its location on an open plain close to the Indian Ocean, and its great size and height strongly influence the climate and thus its vegetation, animal life and the climbing conditions. Kilamanjaro is the highest mountain on the African continent and considered one of the great “7 Summits”. There is no consensus about how the mountain got it s name “Kilamanjaro” although it probably evolved during the expeditions of the last century. The Wachagga people, traditional agriculturalists of the area, claim they had no name for the mountain itself, just the two peaks they call Kipoo and Kimawenzi. (Oh, and Yes, Fluge does hope to hot air balloon over the “Great Migration” of African wildlife once his summit is finished and he has returned to the Tanzanian plains).