John Rees-Evans, United Kingdom

British Mens’ Kilimanjaro Record Holder

John’s record is reckoned to be of a very poor standard, and we warmly encourage other Brits to look to better this attempt. For comparison’s sake, note that Team Kilimanjaro verified the current mens’ unsupported ascent and descent world record in a time of 9 hours 21 minutes 47 seconds. This record, which is held by Simon Mtuy, who himself runs an excellent climb operation, SENE, appears in the 2010 publication of the Guinness Book of World Records.

Additionally, Team Kilimanjaro believes that there is already another British man that bettered this attempt in the 1960’s, beginning at Rongai and running via School Hut. We would be grateful to hear from anyone with further details of this record.

British Record on Marangu (Barafu Rib) Route, 24th May 2005:

10 hours 25 mins 20 secs

unacclimatised, solo, unsupported

Overview of corroboration:

GPS profile / barometric altimeter & HRM / summit photo

NB: magnify JPEG images for details

Comprehensive verification:

The following method of speed ascent record verification represents the most up to date, foolproof, reliable, indisputable and transparent means of public scrutiny to date. To examine the proofs for these records:

GPS verification

1. download and install a free trial of Memory Map software here

2. download and open this low resolution geo-referenced Kilimanjaro map onto which the GPS-captured overlay files will be laid

3. download the men’s MMO files (mangps1 + mangps2)

4. once overlay files are opened onto the Kilimanjaro map you’ll be able to hover your mouse over any point on the route and get a read-out of the athletes: time from start, instantaneous speed, altitude, etc. Garmin will confirm that these 3 dimensional positional files are not programmable and are therefore tamperproof

Where dense tree canopy cover (ie. below around 2,700m) prohibits GPS reception the following verifies the athlete’s elevation progress and cardiovascular output, also confirming that the attempt was not mechanically assisted:

Heart rate / barometric altimeter verification

1. download and install a free trial of Polar Precision Performance software here

2. then download the athlete’s Polar heart rate / barometric altimeter files (manheart)

3. note that during capture of Polar active files the altimeter cannot be recalibrated without terminating the file. Assuming an authentic starting elevation this feature makes these files tamperproof. Barometric altimeters will however have an error of up to 5% when not calibrated over a course of approximately 4,000m height gain

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