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The San Diego Union-Tribune

Gold Border Club's three members reach the top

March 19, 2006

There are three members of the Gold Border Club, and each one stood on the roof of Africa recently.

Bill Davis, 60; Richard Willis, 55; and Dave Wyatt, 61, went on a six-day expedition up the face of Mount Kilimanjaro in January. The three reached the highest possible peak, Uhuru, and gazed at the terrain below from an elevation of 19,340 feet.

Courtesy of Richard Willis
Bill Davis (front) is trailed by Dave Wyatt and a guide on Mount Kilimanjaro. Davis, Wyatt and Richard Willis, all of East County, climbed the peak together.
The three friends, all East County residents, spent nearly 10 years talking about “one day” living out the desire they had all nurtured for years. They had climbed “Kili” a million times in their mind but had never taken the step toward actually putting themselves on the mountain.

Then “one day” arrived.

Wyatt, who owns The AubreyRose Tea Room in La Mesa with his wife, Lorna, retired from the restaurant business and turned 60 last year. He felt an unsettling urge to make the climb, worried that if he didn't do it now, he might never do it at all.

He told Davis and Willis that he was going to make the climb with or without their company. They chose the former, and soon, the three men were hitting the gym and the trails, walking as much as they could to build stamina and strength.

“Our legs were in shape,” Davis said. “They were strong.

“But what you can't simulate is altitude. You never know how your body is going to react to the altitude.”

Mount Kilimanjaro is often described as the “everyman's Everest,” although many who attempt the climb never make it to the top because of altitude sickness.

Davis, Willis and Wyatt promised one another that if any member of their trio didn't reach the top, the others would still make the attempt.

Their worries were unrealized. Each one was able to touch the sign that reads, in part, “Congratulations! You are now at Uhuru Peak, Tanzania.”

They made the ascent with a 15-person team, which consisted of a guide, an assistant guide, a cook and 12 porters.

In Swahili, “pole, pole” means “slowly, slowly,” Willis said. That phrase echoed each footstep.

The turtlelike speed gave their bodies time to acclimate to the conditions, especially as they teetered at the rim of the crater – Gilman's Point.

Although that point is technically on the “top” of the mountain, it is still nearly two hours away from Uhuru Peak, the highest possible spot to which a person can climb.

Many begin their descent once they've reached Gilman's Point, Willis said. The trio, though fighting heavy exhaustion, were determined to reach Uhuru.

“I had made up my mind that whatever it took, I was going to the top of that mountain,” Wyatt said.

The final stretch of the climb began at midnight, when the broken rock is frozen and easier to ascend. The other reason for starting the most anticipated part of the journey in the dark is because “if you saw it in the daylight, you would give up,” Wyatt said. “It destroys your psyche because it's straight up.”

The climb takes just as much mental preparation as it does physical, they said.

“Of the 70 people that started out at midnight, only 16 people made it to the summit,” Wyatt said. “Most of them were half our age.”

At Uhuru, their breathing was labored, but their minds clearly hooked onto one simple thought: We made it.

Willis left a Livestrong bracelet with a blue ribbon prostate cancer lapel pin connected to it at Uhuru.

The bracelet and the pin had made every step of the journey with him. They were a reminder of his father's loss to Hodgkin's disease and Willis' own battle with prostate cancer.

He had conquered the mountain, he said, like he had conquered cancer.

When a climber reaches Gilman's Point, he is awarded a certificate of accomplishment with a green border. If a climber reaches Uhuru, he is awarded the same certificate, but with a gold border.

Davis, Willis and Wyatt affectionately began calling one another fellow members of the Gold Border Club.

“The climb was touching in so many ways,” Willis said. “Physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.”


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