June 14, 2005 Sean Burch battled hypothermia, a blinding windstorm, pouring rain, sleet, and snow for five hours, 28 minutes, and 48 seconds to capture the new world record for the fastest ascent of 19,340-foot Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak.
“It was hell. It wasn’t fun,” Burch said. “But everything turned out well.”
After spending eight days acclimatizing by running laps around the crater rim at 18,500 feet, 34-year-old Burch, a fitness consultant from Virginia, whizzed up the peak for his final summit on June 7. To prepare for the record attempt, Burch also jumped rope on the summit and meditated for up to five hours daily as part of his training regimen.
When Burch reached the frozen desert around 14,000 feet on the 21.1-mile Marangu Route, commonly known as the “Coca-Cola” trail, he was hit by a windstorm that slightly slowed his clip and forced him to add another layer to keep his legs warm. When he reached the summit ridge, he sprinted to the summit as fast as he could.
“I got to the summit and promptly threw up,” he said. “And my legs locked up like crazy, they were killing me.”
Burch, whose six-foot-four, 180-pound body looms lean and tall, stayed on the summit for an hour to rest his knees and legs, and then hiked down the mountain in approximately seven hours.
The previous Kilimanjaro world record was held by Austrian Christian Strangl, who ascended in five hours, 36 minutes, and 38 seconds last October.
Burch, who also set the world record for high altitude jump roping on Mt. Everest in 2003, has been training for his Kilimanjaro feat since winning the North Pole marathon last April, where he shattered the previous race record by almost 1.5 hours. Before then, running had not been part of his ordinary training routine, which mostly included plyometrics, jump roping, and other cardio exercises to improve his heart rate.
Opting for the light-and-fast approach, Burch carried a small pack containing a few energy bars and a mere two liters of water. More than 22,000 people each year attempt to reach Africa’s pinnacle mountain, averaging between five and ten days for the trek. Half of them are unsuccessful.
“Everyone has something that turns their crank and gets them excited about climbing,” said Lloyd Athearn, deputy director of the Golden, Colorado-based American Alpine Club. “When people do peaks in a very fast time, it’s a great testament to their physical abilities.”
But the risks increase, he adds.
“The desire to do more in a shorter period of time sometimes reduces our margin for error,” he said. “It’s something to always have in the back of your head that people need to be self-reliant and self-aware. If they try these things and all of the sudden they come down with high-altitude cerebral edema at 19,000 feet with two liters of water and no one else there, well, it could cause complications.”
