Mt Cokely (Mt Arrowsmith) - 1.619 m, Vancouver Iceland
After I participated in the Vancouver marathon on Sunday, 05/02/2010, I started the expedition to Mt Cokely in the massif of Mt Arrowsmith, on the following Wednesday with RUDY, a guide from Port Alberni. Despite of heavy snowfall in recent days and dense fog in the valley, we could climb the mountain. On our snowshoes, we reached with difficulty the direct way. Powerful snow boards were on both sides of our ascent. Bringing our message and setting a sign for more awareness about the topic of HIV/Aids in Canada was ever an urge for us to look further up and climb. But through the silence, to breathe and experience the nature in the quietness has made us to friends. We have reached the summit at 12.50, and then had to quickly descend again because of the weather change.

Mt 50/40 Fifty/Fourty, Vancouver Island

We had to get out early, the weather forecast was good, the perfect day for the 50/40 Mt. Around half past six we met our friends Christine, Ursula, Charles, Robert, Harry and RUDY the guide! We headed a half hour to Tofino on the highway and then 'somewhere' we turned left (RUDY must have driven this way a hundred of times). Anyway the adventure began: gravel road by the evil variety. Snow boards, which had to be removed ... a fallen tree had to be sawed on the thoroughfare... (Canadians always have a saw on board). Now the ascent began. And what a kind of ascent! The path led up, steep we had snowshoes on. First we went through the forest, and then the path became steeper and even steeper. Somehow the situation, the commitment of my new friends and the fabulous view stimulated me from step to step. I felt afraid much later. We have reached the summit at 13.52 o’clock and set the flag. At the summit, during the break after the climb, I told my friends about the story of the waae. I heard their joy and felt that they were proud to be a part of this amazing action. The descent was not less exhausting. It was more dangerous for me because I tumbled down twice. Perhaps the attached pictures can express the joy of my companions to have supported the “world aids awareness expedition” in a small but very successful way. I am proud of Christine, Ursula, Charles, Robert, Harry, especially to RUDY Brugger. I am also proud and thankful to the Base Camp, Val and Don Startup in Port Alberni for the best care, love, boundless trust, assistance and understanding of my situation and my illness.
... a short message has reached me from Base Camp Val Startup, Port Alberni (after the heavy snow storms in Calgary)
 05/13/2010, .... Hi Dieter ... not sure where you are in the sky as I type, but you definitely are enroute to Germany now, after your layover in Calgary ... hope it went well ... it's sad to see you go, but we are just so happy that you had a good time, and that you have great memories .. we know that you will, and that you have made many more friends in Canada!

The hill El Pital is located in Chalatenango, 15 km northeast of the town of San Ignacio. It is the highest point in El Salvador with a height of 2730 meters. We belong to the 4x4 off-road club El Salvador. For us it was incredibly important to be able to participate in such an expedition. Around 2 pm on May 1 we began our trip. We drove in 4 cars together to the highest point of El Salvador. From the capital to San Ignacio there are 80 km approximately. Once we were at San Ignacio we began our way to the top through very sloping crooked roads. It was pretty hard to drive through there, because the streets were very narrow and half the way is made out of Mud.

Winter has just begun, and it rains a lot. This made the climbing even more difficult. Around 6 pm we finally arrived to the camping place. Everyone had to check in there also the cars. After we had built up our tents at a height of 2700m we had dinner and at 10 pm we all went to sleep. The whole evening the temperature up there rounded the 8C. For us it was very cold, as we have 25 C in San Salvador all year long. Therefore we are not so used to cold weather. Sunday morning we woke up at 6:30. Once we had breakfast, we began our hike to the summit.

At 11 o’clock we came to the highest point in our country. There we took a couple of pictures. The goal was accomplished and we feel well, because we have taken part of such a good action.

Quque Cea

The Keokradong (1230 m/3172 feet) the highest peak in Bangladeshis located in the Bandarban District in Chittagong Hill Tract region. The mountains are the most popular trekking area in Bangladesh. The summit is accessible via various routes, which have different lengths. The most challenging route, although it doesn’t present any technical difficulties, is the “Nature Trek Route”. From Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh where we do live and work started our journey first to Chittagong and from  Chittagong to Bandarban by bus.

We started our adventure by Ruma Bazzar with the Jeep, and then had to change to a boat and finally make a small trek to Lake Boga. This trek took 3 hours and the distance is only 17km. We had to register at local Army Camp with only 14 local guides registered for the Ruma Bazzar. We started the trek to our base camp named Boga Lake, the highest hill-enclave  of Bangladesh with 1216 ft above sea level. Neither any stream falls in it, nor any stream goes out but it never dries up. The villagers have arranged adequate housing and fooding facilities for any number of tourists; the adjacent army camp has made this place fully secured. The way to this place through the streams has added great pleasure to the trip to this fascinating place with a local guide and we reached there at the evening and for overnight stay. The lake is so pleasant and beautiful. It is recommended to swim over there if you know how to swim!

The next day Ashrafuzzaman Ujjal and I were lucky! We had a very warm and sunny day, while ascending the Keokradong on May 01, 2010. We started with our hiking from the village of Boga lake. It took average 3 hours to trek to reached the peak, and felt good because we have achieve the mission of the WAAE. We took some photos. We met a small group of Bangladeshi hikers on our way back to Boga Lake.

It was extremely beautiful and very important. For us it was a historic climb because the first one in winter after 20 years. The Jerzeca is the highest peak in the Albanian Apls and an extreme challenge for all climbers from all the Balkans.  We called this tour „Paradise Jerzeca". Everything was covered with snow and the landscape was beautiful. This climb took about 5 days from Tirana. We walk 12-14 hours in deep snow with snow shoes, crampons and we used the ropes every day. After this experience we felt our self as climber. We participated in this expedition to help for the sensibility of the people again HIV-AIDS in Albania. Even if the number of the people infected with HIV-AIDS in Albania is just a few hundred we need more awareness because this number is growing up.

For me it was the most beautiful expedition since now. I am happy that every think went well and we realized our target

Report on the ascent of the Pidurutalagala - Sri Lanka

As we applied for the ascension of the Pidurutalaga in Sri Lanka, we didn’t quite know about what we have got involved. Not that we would have been lacking on physical abilities: 2534 meter over the sea level, located in the middle of the tropics, the Pidurutalaga is not a big challenge for us. But for sure the legal situation. The ascent is forbidden, because there is a radio and TV broadcasting station located at the summit. This station is guarded by the army. First we have tried to get a permit for the climb at the tourist office, and then we were referred to the local army camp. We took the taxi and wanted to meet the chef, unfortunately we had to realise that the language barrier was a problem. Although the “tuk- tuk”- driver helped us with the interpretation, they met us with great scepticism. They wanted to see a document or a card, which proves that we were participants of the “waae”. After 20 years of civil war, the country is still guarded by countless military and police posts and the degree of mistrust is high. They sent us to the national army camp in Colombo, but they didn’t have any interest in giving us neither an address nor a telephone number.

We went back to the guest house, which is located directly in front of the mountain, a little bit disappointed with the situation. We looked up for a while. The vegetation was so green and so lush. There must be a way we could climb up to the summit unnoticed. The next morning we got up early to make the ascent, stubborn and perhaps a little reckless on our own initiative. By instinct we crossed the city and took every road that seemed to lead us to the right direction. The streets became always narrow and at some point we were standing in front of a private estate, its front door was standing wide open. A small path led into the woods, so we scurried over. We were absolutely alone. The path twisted all further up to the mountain, forked over and over and at some time the honking of cars in the city seemed to be indefinitely far away. Around us just the chirping of the birds. The clouds broke forth silently between the branches. We were quite friable, as the way was almost overgrown with leaves. Are there snakes or any dangerous animals which await us? Or will there jump a soldier out of the bushes? We were lucky: At some point, the trees gave way to the rubble and revealed an amazing view of the city: Nuwara Eliya, the highest city in Sri Lanka was at our feet. The path that led us so far yet stopped abruptly here. As the clouds pull up noon and it was already late morning, we decided to take our summit picture here.

We hope, we have achieved the mission of the “WAAE”, even if we couldn’t reach the summit! Anyway we have experienced a little adventure.

The mount Kosciuszko (2228 m) the highest peak in Australia is located in the beautiful Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. The mountains are the most popular ski area in Australia in the winter.  In the summer (December-February), there is usually no snow, the weather is often pleasant and warm. The summit is accessible via various routes, which have different length. The most challenging route, although it doesn’t present any technical difficulties is the “Nature Trek Route”.

Alex, Vince, Duygu and I were lucky! We had a very warm and sunny day while ascending the Kosciuszko on February 24th. Therefore, we have also decided not to take the usual trail. We started with our hiking from the village of Thredbo so that we can visit the waterfalls and forests. As we reached the peak, we met a larger group of Australian hikers. We had a small talk with them about the “world aids awareness expedition” and our goal to create more awareness about the topic of HIV/AIDS worldwide. All of them were surprised that the dark number of people infected with the HI-Virus amounts to 36,000 in Australia.

As the 11.5 km to the summit lasted longer than planned and we definitely wanted to enjoy the view from the top, we were forced to change our route back to not have to climb down through the woods in the darkness. Therefore, we decided to follow the last 5 kilometres of the descent of an old gravel road that relatively leads straight back to the village. Unfortunately, the road was too steep to walk, so we had to run back down to the village to not constantly slipping down.

This day was a memorable and wonderful experience for us all!
I would specially like to thank Duygu, she hasn't let me down despite her fear of heights!

MT APO, DAVAO CITY PHILIPPINES

Entry Point: Brgy. Mainit, Digos City, Davao del Sur, Philippines

Exit Point: Brgy. Ilomavis, Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, Philippines

Elevation: 2956 MASL

Day 1 March 2010

From Tayabas, Quezon, we arrived 5:00 in the morning in Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and boarded  Airbus flight PR819 going to Davao. The trip took almost two hours from the capital city of Manila. Arriving in Davao, we bought the last minute provisions for the climb and had a some spare time to explore the city. WE had an early dinner and we slept early in the house of one of our guides named Len.

Day 2, March 11, 2010,

We rented a van in order to reach Kapatagan in Digos City, an adjacent city/ There we applied for the necessary permits at the appropriate department of Environment and Natural Resources with Len assisting us. We also took another guide and a porter to assist us in the climb. By 10:00 a.m. we took a so called habal habal (motorcycles) into the direction of the town of Mainit. This is the jumping off point, and by early afternoon we were ascending to Camp 1 also named Goodygoody camp. At 18:30  we had arrived at the camp, dinner and a bit of socials to keep us entertained despite of the exertion of the long day's travel.

Day 3 March 12 

Summit day, we had quick breakfast and broke the camp very early. The trek commenced via Boulder trail. At about 12 noon, we arrived at the Crater area, hot and dry, and had lunch an hour later. After much struggle, hiking and scrambling, we arrived at the summit at 1:30 in the afternoon! Feeling proud and mighty that it reached the highest summit of the Philippines successfully we unfurled the WAAE Flag! It was a bit cloudy that day, but there was enough light and bit of sunshine to to shoot the mummit picture! We set our camp three hours later and explored the surrounding summit area.

Day 4 March 13, 2010

By 7:00 in the morning we had breakfast already and started descending by 9:00 in the morning. We passed by Lake Venado at around noon, and had lunch there. After a short rest and it was trekking down again reaching Mainit Hot Spring in mid- afternoon; After crossing the Lake Agko,  on to the exit point of Ilomavis, in Kidapawan. It is already 5:00 in the afternoon, exhausted and really tired, we reached Kidapawan City, we got a ride to Davao City. Going home, we felt more than conquerors, we were conquered by the mountain!

Thank you WAAE for letting us become a part of WAAE! Mabuhay from the Philippines!!!

Transcribed from the climb itinerary of John Robert Thomas “Igem” Gajardo (Team Leader, Mt Apo climb 2010)

 Written by : Pastor Noel A. Suministrado / WAAE Philippines coordinator

As I had applied for the climb of the Pico Del Teide within the framework of the „waae“ last year, it was already reserved for the spring by other candidates. Because of the hard winter the National Park in Tenerife was closed until the end of February. The climb of the Pico Del Teide in this period was therefore impossible for the first candidates. Fortunately, my girlfriend and I have booked a week holiday in Spain for March, about three weeks before our departure I got the offer to climb the highest peak of Spain for the “waae”.

Within these three weeks I officially tried to organise the climb with the help and information of tour operators, national park office (for a summit approval) and two local German newspapers in the canaries Islands. I have tried to inspire natives and tourists through several publications in local newspapers, for a joint ascent of Pico Del Teide. It doesn’t work!  The Spanish people have totally ignored all contact attempts and our tour operator wasn’t allowed to give us any internal data of his fellows on site.

On the first day, we immediately went to the park office to apply for a permit (the peak can not be climbed without the Permit). Unfortunately, because of the stormy weather in the previous weeks and amounts of fresh snow there was no official rubber stamp for the climb. Allegedly even the regular ascent (about 10 km with 1400 meters of altitude) wasn't practicable. So I decided to take first the holiday – the basic reason of our travel- with my girlfriend and to climb the Pico Del Teide a few days later. Usually the weather conditions get quickly better by the warm temperatures in the Canaries Islands.

Actually the snow had retired to approx. 3000 m height at the end of the week so that the climb became possible. I had to go through some ice fields and glacial cirque like in the western Alps in the early summer. The weather was quite good, but the wind was already stormy at the beginning of the tour. Fortunately, the largest part of the tour took place on the side turned away from the wind. Near the summit, the weather became really unpleasant. At 3500m height the vigilant employees of the Teleferico Del Teide stopped the ascent because I hadn’t a permit for this day. I kindly got the indication that nobody would be there to control the ascent after the opening hours. Of course it is officially known that everybody can climb the Pico Del Teide only at the alpine climbing and descending paths before 9 hour at the morning and after 17 hour at the afternoon.

Finally I reached the summit (3718m) shortly after two Spanish climbers in the late afternoon. Taking pictures with the “waae”-flag was not easy! It was stormy. (The dark number of people infected with the HI-Virus in Spain is 230,000). After several trials I finally took some pictures of the flag. The view of the neighbouring islands and across the Atlantic on the edge of the still slightly active volcano crater (Sulphur steams) was amazing. The climb was not just for me! I was really proud to participate with this ascent to the highest peak of Spain for  more awareness about the topic of HIV/AIDS in Spain and worldwide. It is important for me after this expedition, to spread the message of the “world aids awareness expedition” and to still observe and sustain this gigantic action against HIV/AIDS.

After some failed attempts last year, I successfully climbed the Jebel Yibir on March 05, 2010. André Becker, a friend of mine, has accompanied me on this amazing journey. Saturday morning, at 09:00 we were on the way from Dubai to Al-Tawian, a small mountain village. There we first tried to locate the Jebel Yibir, the highest peak of the United Arab Emirates. It was not easy! We had many difficulties.

First, there was no one able to read our German map and we can´t speak or understand Arabic. Secondly, we were not equipped with a GPS, so we had to rely on information from the helpful people in the small village. But the problem was that they gave us different information about the location of the mountain, so we were confused and excited to finally see this mountain.

Then a man who had invited us, called his son, who came immediately. We show him our “world aids awareness expedition”- flag and all the information we had. After a few phone calls, it was clear to both of them where we wanted to go. They told us something about the army and an antenna. Then they jumped into their car, asked if we had enough gas, water and food and drove off. But we wanted to trek to the summit! For both of them it was quite out of the question. Arabs do not understand why people want to go by foot uphill by the elevated temperature.

Anyway we reach the summit which is an army area. It is not permit to ascent there or to take picture. So we came back to the base camp and took pictures for the “waae”. It was now quite late, we hadn’t enough time to explore the area. André and I decided to spend the night there and do it the next day. We made a campfire and enjoyed the heavenly peace. Next morning we went to another mountain near by the Jebel Yibir and took a fantastic picture of the whole area. It was very strange, several military helicopters circled in the sky. We thought we were observed by them because we asked several people including some policemen in the village police station the way to the mountain. We will not know the true. We have enjoyed it to be part of this wonderful project.

As a part of my plan of going to the highest mountain of as many countries as possible it was now time to go to Cambodia. I got in contact with Cambodia expeditions, and the trip was well organized.  I was asked by Zeman to bring the WAAE-flag to the top, and of course that was no problem.
At the airport in Phnom Penh Mr. Yok met me and took me to Aoral village by car and later by motorbike taxi.  In the village I stayed one night in Mr. Hon's house, my local guide and one of very few people knowing the trail to the summit. The next day we walked to the base of the mountain and a little bit up.
The third day we made it all the way to the top.  A small Buddhist temple stood on the top, with a sign telling the name of the place and the altitude, 1813 meters.  According to my GPS the highest point is 1810 meters above sea level, a small rock just behind the small temple. We rolled out the flag and took some pictures before we went back to the camp at 1200 meters. Here we slept another night in the dark jungle. This time we heard a tiger sneeking around, and Mr. Yok made a big fire and kept it burning until next morning. Yok had been hunting tigers with his father some years ago and was 100% sure that we heard a tiger.
The next day we walked back to Aoral village and had a nice meal at night, a very fresh chicken from Mr Hon's chicken yard.  A swim in the river felt very good after 3 days in the jungle with temperatures up to 35 degrees.  The last day I went back to Phnom Penh and saw a little bit of the capital. Nice city with only small houses, but some tall buildings in concrete are coming up.
Phnom Aoral was my nation top number 26, not a high orsteep mountain, not a nice view from the summit, but the expedition was a great experience to me.

Lars K Holme
Falkensten, Norway

Mt Tahat is the highest mountain in Algeria, it is located amongst the spectacular volcanic peaks of the Hoggar Mountains in the south of the country. Our trek started in Tamanrasset, one of the largest towns in the Sahara. Our expedition involved 7 days of walking across this rocky desert region. We had local guides and our equipment was transported by camel. Sleeping in tents or outside under the stars was spectacular - the locals call it a 5000 star hotel! Even in February, daytime temperatures went as high as 30 degrees but nights were cool, the highest peaks can get snow in winter. This is considered to be the largest outdoor museum in the world; many rocks and caves have rock inscriptions and paintings depicting people and many animals that no longer exist in the Sahara such as Giraffe, ostrich, gazelle, etc. The desert was once a more humid and fertile place where nomadic tribes hunted with bows and arrows.

On day 4 of our trek we climbed Mt. Tahat. We left camp at 7 a.m. and reached the base of the mountain at an altitude of around 2250m after an hours walking. From here we followed a rough trail steeply up for about 2 1/2 hours to get to the top. The route is not technical but a good head for heights and confidence on steep loose ground is a must. The top affords spectacular views across the mountains and plains of the remarkable Hoggar region. Tahat is widely given an altitude of more than 3000m. Our 3 different GPS readings gave similar results of 2895m. We took pictures of the WAAE flag at the summit. Our trek and climb was remote and the only local people we had contact with were our guides and staff, they were certainly not aware of the scale of HIV/AIDS in Algeria.

Some days later we are all back in the comfort of our homes with Algeria a memory of friendly hospitable people and spectacular scenery.

I thought the climb up to the 253m high hill above Malta should take place at a special day. I decided on Malta's Independence Day, 21.09.09. It would have been easy to reach the mountain by bus, but I trekked about10 or 12 km. The summit itself is unreachable, because the army radar station is there. The picture was created with the friendly help of two Maltese, who photographed me about 150 meters from the radar station, after I had explained to them the meaning and purpose of the flag.

A violent wind greeted us as we left the minivan. The hut at the foot of Rysy is located 8 miles from the parking lot. It is a windy and cold day. When we reached the hut, it dawns slowly. At dinner, we see a little light coming from the mountain, and later we sit at the table together with a Polish climber. He advises us to go off early and to rush, if we are to successfully realize our project.

We went to bed. The alarm clock was set, but the weather forecast doesn’t look good. In fact, next day the summit was overcast. Thereto squalls with a force of 6-7, spread the water of the lakes through the air. So we started our trial later. We only went as high as the clouds in the sky admitted, took pictures and promised to try it again next day. Unfortunately my girl friend had to go back to work next day, so I should go up to the peak alone. On 2 December, I woke up early in the morning as usual and looked at the weather. Clouds still pressing the atmosphere. I began to read a book. At 9:15 o’clock, it suddenly cleared.

With the idea that it will be too late to reach the summit in time, I grabbed my backpack and went quickly. At the beginning you only have to walk around a lake, followed by a smaller rise of just over 100m, and then you have to walk around a second lake. On the other side of the lake, I found the first snow fields that form a closed snow cover. I'm putting on my crampons, the snow is pretty handy and the way leads rapidly uphill. Soon I'm past the point that we have reached a few days ago. I walked around a small mountain, and went into a snow gully that leads almost to the summit. This channel is about 300 meters in height and is steep in some places up to 50 degrees.

I reached the summit after two and a half hour, enjoying spectacular views from the peak. The valleys were in a stable clouds cover, only the top of the mountain was visible. I quickly portraited myself with an analogue camera. Then I started my return. On the first lake I met two Polish students, who were on a second summit. We make a few pictures of the flag and went back together. At 15 o’clock we reached the hut by Morskie Oko and drank contentedly tea.

Manja Graaf and Gustav Subklew from Greifswald.

We started our climb up Mt Fuji from Sengen Jinja Shrine, an ancient Shinto shrine at the base of Mt Fuji. Sengen Jinja Shrine marks the beginning of the traditional pilgrimage route up Mt Fuji.

After a pleasant walk through the foothills of Fuji, we started gaining elevation at the point in the trail called 'Umageishi'. 'Umagaeshi' means 'Horse Return,' and it has this name because in the past this is where climbers would have to get off their horses to continue up the mountain. Of course, nobody rides horses for transportation in Japan anymore, but Umagaeshi still marks the point on the Mt Fuji treck where you begin to sweat.

We stopped for the night at Seikan-Sou hut at Mt Fuji's 5th station--halfway there! I say 'stopped for the night,' but in reality we ate dinner at the hut, went to bed quite early, and got up at midnight to continue climbing in order to see the sunrise from the summit.

From midnight on September 7th until about 5am on September 8th, we climbed in the dark up Mt Fuji. The mountain's 5th Station (Mt Fuji is divided into ten 'stations' that mark your progress to the summit) is at the treeline, and above this point the scenery is just volcanic rocks. There were no trees to obscure your view of the summit.  All we could see was a trail of lights (the lamps of the many mountain huts) leading to the summit.

Finally, after hours of climbing by the light of our headlamps, we reached the final approach to the summit of Mt Fuji. Mt Fuji is a sacred mountain in Japanese tradition, and the summit itself is a shrine. The final stretch to the summit is marked by a beautiful Shinto 'torii' gate, which we passed through just as the first light of dawn began to break through the clouds. We reached the summit of the highest mountain in Japan in time to watch a brilliant sunrise break through the nighttime clouds.

In our climbing expedition, we set a goal and hoped we could handle the challenge and adapt to any unexpected events. Our challenges on this trek gave us occasion to remember what grace it takes for people to adjust to the unexpected challenges of living with HIV/AIDS. The hundreds of millions of people living this challenge were on our minds and in our hearts as we brought the flag to the summit of Mt Fuji.

Annamarie Ruelle

The Mt Karisimbi, an extinct volcano is part of the Virunga volcanoes and is located in Volcano National Park. The Virunga Mountains are also home to the last mountain gorillas, and it is not allowed to walk there alone. Moreover soldiers are needed as escorts because the Karisimbi lies on the eastern border of the Congo, were civil war has lasted since 4 years.

You drive to the starting point at around 2200m altitude, 35km with a jeep. Normally the tour takes 2 days. But a military commander from Belgium had made it with a local soldier in only 10 hours. I wanted to achieve this goal as well. The problem trouble was, none of the park ranger wanted to do this.

Finally, they have called a young, athletic colleague, who also took it as a personal challenge, and agreed on it. So we started the tour in the morning at 5 o’clock by car. Around 6 o’clock Hope, my 25 years old guide, four soldiers and I started. The scenery was fantastic; walking through most dense rain forests was just fabulous and felt like walking through a fairy tale forest (magic forest).

The path, however, was consistently muddy and sometimes you have to go through longer passages with ankle-deep mud. I had to fight several times to keep hold on my shoes. The soldiers and Hope went with terrain rubber boots, which was certainly the better choice.
After 3 hours we reached the camp site at 3700m altitude and took a 10 min. break. Our `security` changed. Everything was wet and slippery.

After exactly 5:30 hours we reached the summit at 4507 m. We hoisted the flag of the waae at the highest point of Rwanda, shot a few photos and started immediately on the return journey. Unfortuanately soldiers are not allowed being taken on photos , consequently there is no group photo.

At exactly 15:06 we were back in the jeep and just needed 9 hours for 2300 meters height point and back. All participants were proud of their achievements; Hope was properly celebrated by his colleagues and even the fellow villagers shared full interest in this “expedition”.

The Team of DIAMIR Adventure Travel went also for the highest peak of Russia. Successfully they climbed with the flag of the world aids awareness expedition flag the peak and send a picture from the 56433 meter high summit.

Brigitte and Stefan have got in touch with us with good news from Ireland:
Since two weeks we are now in Ireland and waiting for good weather to climb the Carrantuo-hill. There is the worst summer since recordkeeping of weather began. It continuously rained cats and dogs, well, until yesterday. In the morning no cloud in the sky, so we put on our alpine boots and ran up the mountain before the Irish weather God changed his mind again.

Detailed report: After asking at the B & B operator, an avid mountaineer, a few days ago about the best route on the Carrantuo-hill, we moved off from Cronin’s Yard on the 10th of September in splendid sunshine. The numerous commemorative plaques on the hut of the Kerry Mountain Rescue Teams exhorted us to be cautious despite of the "only" 1041 m altitude. By Hag's Glen, the path became slightly increasing up to the verge of the seas Lough Callee and Lough Gouragh. Via the Brother O `Shea route the now steeply path led through Eagle's Nest, passed a waterfall, to a wonderful lonely mountain lake. After a steep ascent through Brother O `Shea Gully, the view was opened to the other mountain range behind the Carrantuo-hill. From there we climbed the final 100 meters along the rocky ridge and were soon on the highest peak in Ireland. There we hoist the flag WAAE with the number 7700 and of course started a conversation with some locals, who were there at the same time. As noted in many previous discussions, the Irish people find the commitment of the World Aids Awareness Expedition extremely necessary and good. After a long break, lots of pictures and nice discussions at the summit, we climbed down through Devil's Ladder, and arrived in the evening at Cronin's Yard, our starting point. We are proud to be a part of the "waae" by bringing the message against AIDS, "The summit is reached" to Ireland.

Best regards from Ravensburg

Brigitte and Stefan

The flag of the world aids awareness expedtion was flying in the sky of the highest peak of the Ukraine for a moment and displayed a number, to which needs to be pointed: 540.000 -more then half a million people of the Ukraine are HIV-positive - about one percent of its whole population.

The Howerla (2.061m) was climbed by Steffen Müller and Mathias Kolta on August 15th, 2009.  

A TWO-pronged Mildura adventure team has recently returned from a successful expedition in Vanuatu that put six climbers on the summit of Mt Tabwemasana -- the highest mountain in the archipelago.

In reaching the mountain top, the climbing team became the first westerners on the summit in 2009, and joined a select group of less than 200 to make the top over all time.
The tour party included team leader Mark Wilgar, and Will Hudson, Debra Carter, Josie Bowes, Courtney Bailey and Sydney-based Chris Raywood.

Mr Wilgar said that "with similar numbers parading up and down Mount Everest every year, it has made the experience feel unique and highlights the challenge involved in making the climb". "Big mountain climbs demand a fair bit of luck," he said. "We did well with the weather and had a magnificent team of local guides carving a path with machetes through thick jungle. Without their expertise and support we were no chance."

The Mildura team began preparations for the trek months in advance, including regular training hikes along the Mildura riverfront complete with backpacks. However, Mr Wilgar said the team could never have prepared for what they were about to experience in Vanuatu. "We did do some uphill work, but in a flat region like the Mallee and with little known about Mt Tabwemasana, nothing could have prepared us for the trek," he said.
"There was so little information available on the mountain, however we were able to track down a man from the United States who reached the summit last year and provided some useful information."

The group flew from Mildura to Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu, via Melbourne and Sydney, followed by a four-wheel-drive trek to the south-west of the island, and a slow ocean journey up the west coast to remote Kerepua village in a heavily laden small boat powered by just a 25 horsepower motor, ... but the real journey was yet to begin. Mr Wilgar said part of the challenge of climbing Mt Tabwemasana was simply getting there.
Rugged 4WD trails, open ocean travel, and multiple river crossings all came before the mountains proper.

Over the following days members of the party would question themselves, both physically and mentally and teamwork would be crucial to success on the mountain. "There was never any thought about turning back, but given the dangerous terrain, constraints of time, and fickle mountain weather, we were no certainty to make the summit," Mr Wilgar said. "We all had our moments of fatigue, but our local guides made an enormous contribution, picking up heavy packs when team members struggled," he said. "Their efforts were simply amazing".

The packs were filled with light-weight tents, basic cooking facilities and enough rations to last the journey. "We had a checklist that made us self-sufficient for six-days away from civilization, and even a bit longer should our plans fall apart," he said. "In a crisis the locals can always find food in the forest including bush pig, freshwater eels, mountain crabs, yabbies, and wild fruit."

The local guides cut a swath through dense tropical forest and thickets of razor grass on the climb, but nevertheless the vegetation took its toll. "We were a bit of a mess from the knees down," Mr Wilgar said. "We were pretty badly lacerated on exposed skin, and one of our party was stung by wasps when one of the guides disturbed a nest, but in the scheme of things we survived relatively unscathed," he said. "Given the climate, the terrain, and the change of food and water, it was remarkable that there was nothing more serious than minor infections". "The trek was quite relentless and we were physically and mentally drained, but we all arrived home in one piece."

Mr Wilgar said the thick jungle presented just one of many difficulties along the journey.
"There was the small matter of ascending almost 6000ft above sea level in dangerous terrain, before negotiating a frightening ridgeline to the summit," he said. "We almost lost a guide through a gaping hole in the mountain, and found a place or two where your life was hanging by a tree root, but it did make for great adventure!"
"We all had moments of hardship, and I'm not sure anyone would go back for a second attempt.
"There were a few days of hard climbing and nights of uncomfortable sleep, but we battled our way through with a wonderful team ethic and a bit of good fortune".
"The degree of difficulty and danger was much higher than we anticipated, but the views above the clouds were unforgettable and made the challenge all the more worthwhile."
But as the group neared the summit and as a final test of mental (and physical) strength, each of the team bridged an exposed and weathered section of mountain, with only grass tussocks and roots to pull you through 2000ft of thin air! "I think we were all too nervous to look back at each other," Mr Wilgar said. "We were relying on these roots to not give way and leave us in a 2000-foot freefall," he said. "We were literally hanging out into thin air and hanging on for dear life". "It was a great final test of will, but upon reaching the top we soon realised that we would have to come back past that same empty space. Twice the fun!"

As an aside to the mountains, the team raised a flag for a Berlin-based AIDS/HIV awareness organisation looking to have their flag on the top of every national high-point on earth.

In a second part to the Vanuatu adventure, a team including four young children, trekked their way across Tanna (southern Vanuatu), camping everywhere from surf beaches to an active volcano. The Fraser girls -- Ellen, Lauren and Mikaela -- and Mark's own son Patrick led a treacherous and at times frightening traverse of booming Mt Yasur before descending 1500 feet of steep slope to the volcano's ash plain.

"The kids were quite amazing and willing to go places that had the grown-ups looking the other way," Mr Wilgar said. "Walking the rim of an active volcano is a slightly unnerving experience, but we're all home in one piece and looking forward to 2010."

Early 2010 planning may see the team back on Espiritu Santo, traversing the island from the south via a pygmy village and a hair-raising 1.5km ridgeline. Follow Mark's adventures at www.runningwateradventures.com.au

The highest peak of the Republic Moldova, Dealul Balanesti, is not really a mountain, maybe just a hill with its 430 meters of altitude. Moldova is an agricultural state and the corn fields don’t stop at the highest peak of the country.

During our hike, we were actively supported by the organization “Aids Foundation East West” which is located in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. When we told them about the “world aids awareness expedition”, they were thrilled and spontaneously offered us their help…. And it was needed!

The Balanesti is not really a striking location, no big difference to the other hundreds of hills who surround the village “Balanesti”. We had to spend half a day to find the actual highest point of the state. We had to ask several times but were always directed to the village with the same name as the mountain.

Marina, a local woman from the village was so kind to show us the way. She took her horse and directed us through the labyrinth of trails which were formed by the horse trolley to the peak of the Balanesti.

We met Constatin at the peak. He is a lonely watchman who takes care of the antenna station at the peak. We invited him to become part of our expedition. The summit was reached, the flag of the “world aids awareness expedition” was flying for a few minutes in the sky of Moldova.

The Balanesti was climbed by Mathias, Steffen, Andrei, Ecaterina, Radu, Jonny and the watchman Constantin, who is actually every day up there.

The “Aids Foundation East West” educated people about the topic of HIV. They have offices not just in the Republic of Moldova but in the Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia… more information can be found at www.afew.org.  

Annotation for the correct name of the country:
The official Name in Germany is “Republic Moldau”. In colloquial language we call the country “Moldawien”. The term “Moldova” is used more and more frequently.

Expedition report of the  Tunisia Tour 15. 07. 09
By Detlef Kern

Together with Martina Hanus, I have already done the climb of the Grauspitz in Lichtenstein for the world aids awareness expedition. This time, it took us to Tunisia to set a sign in the fight against AIDS.

Our flight left at 12.07.2009 at 11:00pm from Hanover. Our friends, Harald Lagemann, who was with us at the Grauspitz, Bianca and Frank drove us to the airport and after a glass of champagne we were ready for take-off.

In the afternoon of the next day, we met with our tour management to explain our intention and to rent a car for the next day.

Wednesday at 8:30 am, the rental place delivered our car and gave us a brief introduction of the car. It was extremely hot in the car but the nice gentleman from the rental place assured us that the air-conditioning was working.
Shortly after our departure, we had to get gasoline for our “expedition-car”. As we noticed later, during our 200 kilometre drive, several much cheaper gas stations came along the way. Our drive takes us to the west. The next bigger city is Kairojan in which we had to find our way through the chaos of de-tours and one-way-roads. Well since I had been trough Eastern Africa, this did not make me nervous at all.
After 2,5 hours, we arrived in Kasserine and used a quick stop at a gas station to find out how to get to the forestry office for our permits to enter the park. The guy at the gas station was quiet smart. He used his cell-phone to organize us a cab which showed us the way to the office.

Trust me, the bureaucracy of Germany is nothing compared to here. It had to take five people to get the signature for our papers. After receiving them finally, we only had another drive of 30 kilometres to the mountain. By noon we arrived with more then 40° Celsius and in the rush due to our time schedule.

We got really excited when we made it to the big gate. After a while I was able to find two rangers in their housing. They seemed to be quiet excited to see common people after some time. It looks like not too many people find their way to this National Park. After controlling our papers and permits and the request for some cigarettes we were allowed to enter.

We parked our car, and got ready for the next two hours of hiking to take the flag in the fight against HIV and AIDS to the peak. The official dark figure for Tunisia is estimated to be 5400.

The descend was quiet quick and after a short chat with our rangers, we said goodbye and found our way back to the hotel.

Sometimes it is just a slim line between luckiness and accidents, especially in the mountains. Just in May, the world aids awareness expedition flag was carried to the highest peak of the world, Mt. Everest, by Dr. Dr Artur Rudolph.

In the same time span, Gerald Myers was on his way in Alaska to climb the highest peak of the United States and to set a sign against HIV/Aids.

During his attempt to climb Mt. McKinley/Denali( 6.194 meters), Gerald Myers lost his life. The danger of mountaineering in extreme regions and under bad weather conditions should not be underestimated. On May 20th, he planed to reach the peak with the flag. The National Park Denali reports on their homepage that Dr. Gerald Myers left on Mai 19th from the 14.200 feet high base camp. He was seen on the West Buttress Route several times. As a solo-climber he was on the route with minimal gear. His body has not been found yet. The park authorities hope to find out more when analysing several photographs taken during the search.

Mt. McKinley is one of the Seven Summits and belongs to the seven highest mountains of the continents. Due to his location in the state of Alaska, hard conditions are not unusual. The temperature can drop to -60 degrees Celsius, which becomes through the wind-chill easily -83 degrees Celsius. Due to his northern location, less oxygen is available in the height than in mountains closer to the equator.

Gerald Meyers found out about the world aids awareness expedition via the internet and agreed to take the flag to the peak during his private Mt. McKinley tour.
We consider the highest peak of the United States of America as climbed. The flag was at the mountain, maybe even at the peak. We dedicate the summit success to Dr. Gerald Myers, his family and friends.

Official information can be found on the homepage of the National Park Denali:
http://www.nps.gov/dena/parknews/search05262009.htm

After driving for two days via Munich and Zagreb, we arrived in <Montenegro on Tuesday evening. In the capital of theBavarian State, we met the three winning couples of the quiz and all together, with the whole team, we got en route to MontenegroThe PanAmericana Experience was initiated by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Globetrotter Equipment and organized by Joachim Franz and team. After the two days of driving, we were rewarded with a warm welcome in our hotel. Quickly, we settle down and had a nice dinner, but no one is staying up too long since we all had to start our mission the very next day of climbing the peak and setting a sign against HIV /Aids.

Before lunch all the needed materials need to be packed for our days in the mountains: Tents, cutlery, stoves, trekking meals, sleeping-bags, mattresses. Everything need to fit in our backpacks and will be carried to the summit – and back. After a light meal we finally start our hike: At 1:00 pm we walk along the Black Lake, through Durmitor National Park. The road is turning into a trail, the trail into a small path. Bit by bit, or foot by foot, the team is getting closer to the stage finish. We planed to set up our tents at 2.200 meters and to establish our camp for the night. But till we get up there we have a long and rough hike in front of us. Via gravel and snowfields we need to find a secure path. It is raining one hour after the other. Around 8:00 pm, our group finally reaches the desired position. No peak in sight, somewhere hidden in the clouds in front of us. Tomorrow we want to try the last stage to the peak. Before, we need to decent to 2.050 meters to set up the tents. We don’t find enough room for all the tents on the tiny green space, some need to put theirs onto the ice filed. Who has been sleeping on ice in the end of June? An absolute new experience for all the winners. Quickly, the cooking utensils are being prepared; we are melting ice and snow to get some fresh water, to enjoy a hot meal of trekking-food and a soup. Afterwards, all get into their sleeping bags and enjoy the peacefulness of the Montenegrin Mountains.

The next morning, we get up quiet early. Everybody wants to be ready to make it to the summit of Bobotov kuk. But the weather forecast is not looking good: Thunderstorms, wind, rain. This is just too dangerous for our group of fourteen members and our three Montenegrin friends. But without a picture from the flag on the peak, we won’t get back down. This is why Ralf, Matti and the three members of the Montenegrin Mountain Rescue Team carried the flag up to the peak and take the important picture for the world aids awareness expedition.

A few hours later, they have made it. The flag of the waae is flying in the fog of the sky. It dunns us all of the official dark number of HIV/AIDS infected cases of this country. The dark number is 1.000. The total population of Montenegro is only 625.000. When one sees the relation, it is a shocking number. We set a sign in the fight against the pandemic; hopefully the numbers will go down.

After our return to the base camp at the foot of the national park all participants were happy to experience such an event: The found their way via the mountain range, fought against the rain and spend a night in tents on ice. And, they did something good, participated actively in the fight against HIV and Aids.

The next day a reward is awaiting us: More then 50 kilometres off-road driving with our Multivan PanAmericana! We drive on small muddy roads, bumpy sections in the highlands of Montenegro. For lunch we are invited by a Montenegrin family which astonishes us with their hospitality: Self-made potato soup, self-made cheese and yogurt, and meet from self-bred cattle. Extremely delicious.

In the next few days we returned from our journey to Germany: Via Dubrovnik, along the beautiful coast, to Ljubljana, Munich and Hanover. An indescribable week with many diverse impressions lies behind us.

Thank you Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and thank you Globetrotter Equipment, you made a dream come true!

Please visit the online diary of the PanAmericana Experience at www.vwn.de. Read entries and look through the great photos of this wonderful expedition.  

Iceland = Niceland ?!

In May, the weather seems to be unpredictable on <country-region Iceland. The flag of the world aids awareness expedition was on Iceland, but not on the highest mountain, the Hvannadalshnukur! During my stay on Iceland, the complete South was under the influence of thunderstorms and the rope team to the glacier was cancelled. Alone, no way! I was quiet bumped because I had been excited to do this mountain for the world aids awareness expedition. Well, instead I hiked 50 kilometres round trip to the highest waterfalls of Europe, the Dettifoss. Since the roads were not drivable, I found my way through snow, ice and mud, fighting against the wind and had a real adventure, which I won’t forget. When I arrived at the waterfall to take the picture, the battery of my camera was almost flat. Oh well, the luck did not seem to be with me.

Overall I have to say that I had a great experience and a wonderful time meeting the people of Iceland.

I also took a picture with the flag in front of the glacier Svinafellsjökull. During some conversations I had with young local people in Reykjavik, I found out that approximately 30 persona are infected with HIV on Iceland. The flag indicates that there is no official dark figure of cases as well. A fact, which is quiet upsetting when one knows he is in Europe. I believe this is a reason why we have to support the world aids awareness expedition with its various endeavours.  Enjoy doing what you and good luck with the weather….yours Kay!

It was a fast decision we made to participate in the world-expedition of Joachim Franz and to contribute to the fight against Aids. Also, our destination with the 1952 meter high peak Olympos of Cyprus was found quickly.

A bit longer was the time period from the idea to the realization. However, when we narrowed down the date, everything went quickly again: Only 10 days after booking we flew to the island.

Of course we spent some free time in the island and combined our mission with a short vacation. After half of our break, we decided to get to the peak of the Olympos.

The Olympos with its 1952 meters is located in the Troodos-Mountains. On the highest peak is a British radar station which was installed in 1974 and is used for air-traffic control in a range of 1500 to 3000 kilometres. Due to this military occupation, we were not able to take the flag all the way to the peak.

The Troodos-Mountains are located in the south-western part of the island; the area is forested and is supposed to have aspeciose wildlife. For Example eagles and freely living Cyprus-Mufflons (we were not able to see any of those wild sheep), which can bee seen on the token coin of the Cyprian Euro.

The drive into the mountains was amazing: Different vegetation, bigger and smaller villages and a beautiful view into the different valleys and to the mountain-range.

The Climb…

A paved road leads to the summit due to the military zone. We would have been able to just drive the car all the way to the part where the blocked road begins. Or we would have been able to walk up there. Both seemed a bit too easy to us, so we decided to pick a route which would lead us all the way around the mountain and hiked out of the village Troodos, the so called Atalante-Trail, which leads around the peak, is nine kilometres long, and even provided us with a view to the 40 kilometre away Mediterranean Sea.

At the place where we wanted to take the picture, we even met a group of Greek soldiers who have a little military base on the peak as well and an ice cream van. After asking the soldiers, they were so kind to take the picture of us, however, they were not willing to get onto the photo as well.

For that entire head, sweat, flying insects which we have never seen before, we were proud and happy to have made our summit picture and to become part of the summit successes of the world aids awareness expedition.

Exhausted but happy has „Team Namibia“reached the highest peak of the country, the Königstein” and was able to set the world aids awareness expedition flag. We do not have a full report yet. However, the pictures we received tell us that it was not just a fantastic view the team had from the mountaintop but also tell us that the group had a rough and long walk to get there.

Regina's article:

With a wonderful preliminary to the climb of the Königstein, the highest peak of Namibia, the presentation of the 50.000 Euro donation from the “be your own hero” Association, our tour began.

Together with the directors Dirk Schuchard and Tom Staats, Joachim Franz was able to present the wonderful cheque to Reverent Stefan Hippler, the chairperson of the HOPE Cape Town Association during the annual Cape Town fundraiser “Ball of HOPE”.

The “be your own hero” Association is located in Wolfsburg/Germany and is achieving preventative work against HIV and Aids as well as governing the donations which are raised in the frame of the world aids awareness expeditions by extreme endurance athlete Joachim Franz.

Since 2008, a cooperation between Hope Cape Town and the German association exist. Donations worth 100.000 Euro haven been made so far through “be your own hero”. More then 6.000.000 people are affected by the pandemic in South Africa. The money is going to be used to be actively involved in the fight: Supplies for the local children’s hospital, the training of medical staff and the education of street workers are financed.

Before the climb of the next summit, I was able to be part of the HOPE Ball in Cape Town and happy to witness al the people who are active in the fight against HIV/Aids.

The second day of our journey was not less exciting. It was the day of my marriage to Rainer through Reverent Stefan Hipller in Cape Town. Joachim Franz was my wedding witness.

Finally, we got started with our little five person group for the climb of our mountain in Namibia: Dirk Schuchard,  one of the directors of the “be your own hero” Association, Carsten Richers, Mandy Sachse and my husband Rainer Jensen who was in charge of the picture taking.

Approximately 350 kilometres away from Windhok, is the mountain range with the 2573 m-high Königstein located. Shortly after Windhok a solid sandtrack started which made us shake in our vehicle. More and more we all were looking forward to our hike. Finally, after six hours, we got to our camp at the foot of the mountain. The next morning, at six a clock, we were brought to the mountain together with our guide. An ancient Magirus Deutz was bombing through the calmness of the early morning. It took us at least 90 minutes for the 30 kilometres through the rough terrain. At long last we got to our starting-point.

A two-day long march is in front of us within a stony area. The path is not really to discover, but due to our guide Ephrahim Matheus, who knows this area for more then 20 years like no other are we equipped for every situation. Especially his knowledge of every watering whole is quiet important to us. Dirk, who was been a member of the cape2cape, has a Déjà-vu: “It looks the same as in Malawi on Sapitwa Peak”. There, he had to climb, crawl, creep and jump from rock to rock during a brutal heat and a long march. Luckily, at “our” mountain, everything was a little smaller, cooler and more slowly. However, for our debutants Many, Carsten and Rainer, the hike was more then enough. All the more, it was great to reach the peak together and to fly the flag of the world aids awareness expedition. The dark-figure of HIV infected persona is 230.00: We sat another sign in the fight against HIV/Aids.

The expanding tourism in Namibia has, together with other factors, led to an increase in the amusement-structure. With this, prostitution and human trafficking increased. The prostitution benefits from the depletion of big parts of the human population. Some children fall for the false promises of the slave traders, who offer them well paid jobs but actually abuse them sexually.  Various studies show that the effects of child prostitution, abuse and child trade in the familial environment are underestimated.  According to those studies, every third girl and every fifth boy is sexually abused before reaching the age of 18 in Namibia. At the same time, the fear of becoming infected with the HI-virus plays a big role. Males and females believe in the superstition that children can not get easily infected with Aids. Sexual intercourse with minors and virginal children is believed to have cleaning and medicative effects.

So called “miracle healer” advice HIV-infected males to have cohabitation with an underage virgin. This has fatal consequences for the youth. Especially those, whose immune system is weakened through the effects of poverty, are at a high risk: They can get infected with the HI-virus, are injured psychological and bodily.

With the exhausting decent new tasks in the fight against HIV/Aids lie ahead of us.

Mountain Club Korab reached the peak. In the beginning of May, a group of 25 club members, togehter with Simon Simonovski were able to take the flag of the world aids awareness expedition to the highest peak of Macedonia. Well done

Pictures can be found on this Webside. The high ammount of snow shows the severe conditions the group experienced during their tour.  Read more about the hike soon!

Christina Ledig climbed the highest peak of Singapore with the aids awareness expedition flag. Together with Patrick Poetzsch, she climbed the 166 meter high Bukit Timah.

Expedition-flag on Mt. Kinabalu of Malaysia Christian Kühn and Julia Schuppan made.
In the morning of March 13th 2009, they reached the highest peak of Malaysia, Mt Kiniabalu, and were able to set up the world aids awareness expedition flag.
The 4096 meter high summit was reached in the morning at 5.20 am.

The article >>>

The team of DIAMIR was able to get the flag up to peak of the 6893 meter high Ojos de Salado. The expedition flag made it to the summit of the highest peak of Chile. To be continued.

On February 6th, Holger Wukovich and his friend Jörg Hemmes of Celle/Germany started out to get up the highest point of the emirate Qatar. The idea had driven them to support the world aids awareness expedition while doing some business in the desert-state. Qatar has more then 1.000.000 Qataris and another 800.00 guest-workers from all over the world but especially from India, Pakistan, Nepal, the Philippines and Europe. Foreigners are not represented in the health statistics of Qatar, as well as the HIV/Aids statistics. Due to this fact, the numbers of infected persona living in the emirate Qatar is likely to be higher then the officially estimated 1000 infected.

The wrong mountain!

When we decided to apply for the Jabel Rum, the highest mountain of Jordan, we expected the climb not to be that difficult. Especially, since we found out via the internet that a mountain guide is needed but could easily be booked on the spot. The climb of the mountain itself was not the problem, more the external circumstances which forced us to climb an alternative and smaller summit.

In good spirits we arrive at the Visitor Centre of Wadi Rum in the evening of December 18th, 2008.  Right ahead, we were trying to figure out how much a guide would cost us.  The first announcement was 180 Euro, and after a tough negotiation, the guide asked for “only” 150 Euro – just too much for 800 Meters in altitude and a guide in Jordan. Our budget for the vacation was not planed to cover those tremendous costs, and especially, the expanses would not benefit the world aids awareness expedition directly. This is why we cancelled the hike up Jabel Rum.  Of course we had a bad conscience. Without anything we were not willing to return home and decided to get onto a smaller summit – the Burdah Bridge. We were not able to get to this mountain without a local guide as well, but this time, we were able to afford him. So, we finally went for our hike. However, we were quiet impressed when we saw the young guide running in front of us barefoot. He jumped from rock to rock. We followed him trustfully and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  After a while we slowed down and started to take breaks more often. Finally, we got close to the summit, prepared our cameras, got the expedition-flag ready. After a few steps we reached the summit!  On the Burdah Briged, we had a great view of the landscape and were able to shoot our summit picture.  The decent on the other side of the mountain was more challenging. We were sliding down the hill, quiet often on our bum, the slipy crevices were really tough.  However, it was good to have had the guide. Without his help we would not have been able to find the Bridge.  Further more, even with the high prices for the tourists; a journey to Wadi Rum is definitely worth it. While talking to local people, they surprisingly told us that Wadi Rum is not the highest mountain for Jordan, they claim Javal Umm Alada to be the highest mountain, which supposedly is one meter higher then the other. Whatever, the mission to fly the flag of the world aids awareness expedition inspired us.  We are very happy that we were not disqualified for not making it to the summit and we wish all combatants successful climbs of their mountains.

Iris Lemanczyk

Nici de Jong

Climb of the Boggy Peak is stopped by a restricted area!

On the 21st of January 2009, we arrived with our cruse-ship in St. John’s of Antigua. Already the organization of a cab was difficult because one of the drivers told us, that it is a restricted area. However, after a while, we found a driver who was willing to get us to Boggy Peak.During the drive through the city we could already see an advertisement which is dealing with AIDS. It was produced with the financial support of Canada: On a billboard a call for the usage of condoms was displayed.The next step was to find the starting-point of our hike of the highest mountain of Antigua and Barbuda. It was not easy because even the local people were not sure where to go. Fortunately, we had printed out some satellite pictures and were able to locate the trail on them.During the beginning heat we stated our climb quiet optimistically.Unfortuntely, after a while we came to a sign which did not allow us to go any further. The road was blocked and the staff told us that we were not able to go any further.Well, we were not able to complete the total hike, but did our best. We returned with a picture of the expedition flag at the point as close as possible to the peak. Even we did not stood at the highest point; we were able to support the expedition and the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Regards, Lutz & Martina Berge

Pico de Fego, the highest mountain Cape Verde and 2829 meters high. It is located on the island Fogo and is a beautiful volcano. Today, on Dezember 27th 2008, at 10:45 am, our group - consisting of Melitta, Otto, Patrick, Jürgen, Hans-Jürgen and Alexa, together with Fernando and our local guide Paulo - is flying the expedition flag near the crater of the still active volcano. Brigitee, Scarlett, Stefan and Felix join the group spontaneously for the hike when we told them about the world aids awareness expedition.

We got started during dawn because the team wanted to get up to the top in about for hours. Moving forward was hard: Making two steps forward in the ash of the volcano and sliding one back or taking half-meter-high steps. The conditions for this hike were not easy at all. Hans-Gerd, Anna, Ursula and Peter were highly motivated but decided to for us returning from the peak. However, they made it up to the 2400 meter mark.

It was quiet a struggle for all of us; nevertheless another summit was reached to fly a flag in the fight against AIDS and HIV.

It is said that approximately 4.000 people, this is one per cent of Cape Verde’s population, are infected with HIV/Aids and live on the little archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in front of the western African Coast. We were not able to find information about the 800.000 emigrants who left for the USA, Brazil or Europe and their rte of infection. This is why the flag contains a question mark instead of the official dark number. For now we have to leave this question unanswered.

However, one percent is not much for a country which belongs to Africa. In other parts of the continent, the numbers are 20 percent or even higher. A lot of prevention-work and education is done on the island. Especially now, a few days after the World-Aids-Day on December 1st, we can see a lot of people wearing T-Shirts with slogans to fight the pandemic. Even the health- care system has some gaps, this part seems to work. It is common to distribute condoms in hospitals and during various events for free. Cape Verde can be seen as a simple but well functioning example in the fight against HIV/Aids.

Reasons for this are the different channels of information: Education, members supporting their families while living abroad and the functioning foreign aid. After 500 years of Portuguese colonial-history, with a focus on slave trade, not too many possibilities for economic ideas are given on the extremely dry archipelago. Nevertheless, many people come back after having emigrated earlier. This fact and the international aid help the island to become a take-off country.  The health care system benefits from this fact as well.

During our journey with the travel agency One World from Dortmund/Germany, we were happy to get to know the country, the fantastic music of its people and to set a sign with them in the fight versus HIV and Aids. The idea of the expedition matches well with One World’s sustainability.

Some quiet tough 968 meters

When we, from OrphanAid Africa in Germany, heard about the chance to be participating in the world aids awareness expedition, we came to the following conclusion quiet easily: We are going to join the expedition in Ghana!

OrphanAid (OA) is a non-governmental organization from Ghana, who supports orphans and neddy children through supervision, protection, medical supplies and educational possibilities. The head-office of OA is Ayeniah, a village 40 kilometres north of the capital Accra. Here, OrphanAid built a small school, a hospital and runs Children’s Villages. Many of “our” children are HIV infected. This is why prevention and HIV-education play an important role for OrphanAid. In doing so, OA is closely working together with the Ghana AIDS Commission, which developed a nation-wide fight against HIV/AIDS.

Due to this reason, the participation in the world aids awareness expedition was a very interesting and thrilling challenge. It was important for us not only to have members of OA from Germany but people from Ghana and of course the children of the Children’s Village to participate in the expedition. So we generated quiet an unique and international group. The team consisted of representatives of OA from Germany and Ghana, students of the in Ayeniah founded OA school, volunteers of OA from Australia and Japan, as well as friends and other supporters. Overall we were a group of 39 people in the age of 12 to 46 who climbed the highest mountain of Ghana, Mount Afadzato (986 meters) on October 19^th.

Physicists take part in an expedition for Aids-infected people

A puncture somewhere in the African desert made an Unkeler physicist couple become aids activists: Heinrich Geuther and Sabine Köppe climbed the highest mountain of Ethiopia, the Ras Dashen Peak. They put a flag on the summit with the dark-number of Aids-infected person for this African country. With their spontaneous action, the two saved the success of the “cape 2 cape” aids awareness expedition from the North Cap to Cape Town.

This action was initiated by the extreme-sports-athlete Joachim Franz from Wolfsburg/Germany, to create more awareness for the topic of Aids. Franz and his team decided to climb the highest mountains of 20 countries and to fly a flag with its proper official dark number of HIV/Aids cases. With this action, the activists are doing a fundraising for the organization “HOPE Cape Town” which was founded by the German priest Stefan Hippler.

During the tour, in the Marsabit-Dessert, two of the expedition-vehicles broke down and forced the Franz-Team to return to Nairobi. The climb of the Ras Dashen Peak was in danger. However, back in Unkel/Germany, Heinrich Geuther read from the accident and offered his help spontaneously. Two weeks later, Geuther and his partner were in the middle of an adventurous expedition.

Not everything ran smoothly

Because of a thunderstorm in the late evening the satellite telephone isn’t working too well and we have difficulty understanding the news from the mountain. According to what we make of things, our team reached the summit of the 3446 meter high Mafadi Peak at around 17h30 and raised the banner with the South African flag and the dark figure of HIV/AIDS cases in the country (6.1 million). They want to spend the night in a cave somewhere beneath the summit. That’s it, and we just sit and wait.

Around 14h00 we hear voices. The mountain team is back down again and they are all well, more or less. Regina tells us about the rain and the storm that was raging at the summit. She shows us how she had to lean against the wind, unfortunately there’s no wind down here and she loses her balance for a moment. Markus’s feet look as if he had soaked them in hot water for 24 hours. More wrinkles than an old man of 120 years. Dominik is a bit worse for wear. “I’ll never go up a mountain again!” He was totally exhausted on the last few meters to the summit and as he thanks his comrades for helping him up to the summit his voice falters and there are some small tears in his eyes.

Our mountain team got back to the orphanage at 08h00. They spent the last night in a dormitory in the Sani Pass Chalet at some 3000 metres. They now appear to have recovered a bit from the efforts of the previous day. They covered the 25 kilometre ascent and descent over the grass and moss covered hills in just 8 hours. Wild horses, sheep and goats were grazing peacefully, the silence been broken only by the rushing streams and the melody of the wind. Adolf, the local mountain guide is making a good pace in his old wellington boots and brings Joachim, Regina, Markus, Werner and Dirk to the stony summit of the Thabana Ntleyana. There, at the summit of the 3482 meter high mountain in Lesotho the team raise the flag with the estimated number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country (290.000).

Nathi was flabbergasted, as he met with Joachim, Regina, Mark and Dieter at the foot of Emlembe. Our guide for the highest peak of Swaziland has never experienced that this tour was attempted with a mountain bike. Well: it is high time! But it isn’t that easy anyway. First they move upon the well-worn tracks very fast forward, but then all traces will be lost between rough stone, the terrain rises abruptly. The bikes have to be shouldered. Our athletes have to carry the bikes about two miles, at times; the slope is more than 20 percent.
Nevertheless, one and a half hours later they stood at the 1863 m higher summit. Unfurl the banner with the flag and the dark figure of HIV-infected persons and AIDS patients in Swaziland  (260,000). The obligatory photo was shot and they went to the return journey. This time, almost the entire route on the saddles of their Merida bikes. Nathi is impressed, although he is only a bit slower at his typical local run speed, than the others on their bikes: "Wow, that went even faster than expected!"

The impression that Mozambique is the “rain forest” land becomes more apparent. Our mountain team get a feeling for this on their way to Mount Binga. It rains without a break as they fight their way through the jungle. Water falls from the heavens, from the trees, from the bushes and ferns and also from the knee high grass. As if that’s not enough, there are plenty of streams to cross from stepping stone to stepping stone, and if you make a false step you get really wet. 

The jungle is steaming, and with it our mountain team and the tents. Alexa, Dominik, Detlef, Markus and Werner have two small emergency tents in which they spend the night. It’s a very cold night as they are all absolutely wet through. In the early hours of the morning they continue the ascent, crossing through a high moor until they eventually reach a labyrinth of boulders some 200 meters below the summit. At 07h30 they stand on the highest point of the Mount Binga, 2436 meters above sea level and fly the flag from Mozambique with the estimated number of HIV/Aids cases in the country, 2.2 million people.

At 15h30 a mobile phone rang at the foot of the mountain. It’s the summit team that’s calling, but it’s a bad connection but we understand what we have to do. We have to drive up as far as possible and take plenty of water and drinks with us, as soon as possible. We don’t know what has happened but it doesn’t sound good. We’ve never got the roofs of our California Beach vehicles down as quick as we did today and got them ready for moving. Ten minutes later and we have found our mountain team, totally dehydrated and absolutely exhausted. Dirk, who was on his first mountain had been hit particularly hard. All he could say was “That was a mountain – that was a mountain that was definitely not for beginners.”

And he was right. The ascent took nine hours with only one short break along the way. At the beginning it was hot man humid, sweat coming from every pore. Together with Edson and George, the local guides, Joachim, Regina, Alexa, Dieter and Dirk struggled through the dense undergrowth. It was a jungle of bushes, ferns and fallen trees sometimes they were crawling on their hands and knees. When they reached the vegetation line the real torture started. Giant boulders and stone barriers towered above them, a labyrinth of stone. They had to jump from boulder to boulder, crawl through narrow rock tunnels time and time again. Joachim cursed: “Every time you think that you’ve passed the worst part it starts all over again, hour upon hour. Where is the summit?”

Then at last, at 06h15, they made it. It’s a fantastic view over the Mulanje Range, over villages, valleys, plantations and the whole region. What is more important is the fact that our banner with the flag of Malawi and the estimated number of HIV/AIDS cases (1.4 million) is now on the summit of the 3001 meter high Sapitwa Peak. That is the main thing. Dirk knows that as well: “It’s not for me it’s for the good cause.” He must have anticipated what was waiting for him on the way down, exactly the same torture. Boulder jumping, crawling and the descent took just as long as the ascent.  It gets at your knees, turns your thighs to jelly and the thermometer stand at 45 degrees.

Finally, I am back and made a little contribution to your project. Attached you can see the picture we shot on the summit of the highest mountain of Mauritius, the Black River Peak, also called Pition de la Riviére Noire with 827 meters. The biggest difficulty was to find the way to hike up the mountain. The local people seem not to be really interested in the mountain and the regular tourist guide was not a big help either.

The team included Björn Röhrle, Wolfgang Marchner, Florian Dillinger and Petra Griesel.

New highest point found in Zambia – Peak “C2C”

At 07h00 Markus, Werner, Dominik and Detlef set off together with the forester Maxwell and his friend the agricultural engineer Myvero. Our team fully equipped with trekking clothes and the two local guides in shirt sleeves and flip-flops. This strange group followed a footpath through the bushes, climbed slowly upwards beyond the vegetation border and followed a stone path to a junction. To the right, Maxwell told us is the highest point Zambia’s. Markus compared this to his GPS system: “That can’t be true, we have to go left.” The point that Markus showed appeared to be higher so they went left.

When they reached the point the GPS showed an altitude of 2335 meters and this is actually Zambia’s highest point. Maxwell laughed heartily as all the people here seem to do. “ You are only the third group of white people  that have come here in this year and you are such a big group, but I have taken the all others to the left side!” Now we can give the newly discovered peak a name and we decide very quickly to call it “Peak C2C”. On this peak our banner is now flying with the estimated number of HIV/AIDS cases (1.2 million, ten percent of the total population).

The Kili has been taken

The path was long and hard but it was a successful. This morning at 07h00 Joachim, Alexa, Regina and Dieter stood together with their guides Charles, Gringa an Barraca on the summit of the 5896 meter Uhuru Peak and unrolled the banner with the estimated number of HIV/AIDS infections in Tanzania (1.6 million). The highest mountain in Africa, the Kilimanjaro has been taken.

It only took 74 hours altogether through persistent rain that turned into snow above 4200 meters. Due to the short acclimatisation phase, they all suffered from headaches. In particular Regina and Markus were hit very hard. They left a visible trail along the summit crater. Markus commented at the end of the long uphill climb: “I’ve never been so sick in all my life.”

Today we received the news that we had been waiting for: Mount Kenya had been conquered! Joerg Ehrlich and Gerhard Czerner from our mobile mountain team in Africa climbed the very difficult 5199 meter mountain. They climbed through rain and light snowfall to put the flag of Kenya and the extremely high number of estimated HIV/AIDS cases, 1.500.000, on the summit.

Egyptian Flag is the first which flies in the sky of the new continent.

At 10h30 our mountain guide arrived: He’s in sandals, jogging trousers and a worn out fleece with a very old army parker. He leads our group comprising of Joachim, Werner, Markus, Dominik and Oliver towards the summit. Moab has also decided to join the group.

After a three hour trek the mountain team reaches the summit of the Jabal Katherina. The summit flag with the estimated number of HIV/AIDS cases of the country (13.000) is flying at an altitude of 2629 meters above a glorious landscape, an endless world of summits and gorges shining red in the afternoon sun.

All in all it was a successful day

Cardinal Barragen has written a message for our Ambassadors Book and praised our awareness work on HIV/AIDS. He wrote: “You are Brothers and Sisters in your honorary cause.” In his name, Bishop Redrado presented Joachim and his Team with the medal of the “Good Shepherd Foundation” for the fight against HIV/AIDS. He also accepted a copy of the book “God AIDS Africa” from Stefan and he asked Joachim to write a report about the “world aids awareness expedition” for the magazine of the office, “Dolentum Hominum – Church and Health in the World.”

We move on the St Peters Square to enroll our banner. The flag of the Vatican City and a big question mark – for the Vatican City there are no official figures and no estimated figures on HIV/AIDS.

In the early evening we received a report from out mountain team in Switzerland. Here’s the original message from the Dufourspitze:

„Unfortunately the summit wasn’t possible. We set off with 30 kg rucksacks to the Monte-Rosa-Hut. The first problem: there wasn’t any water for cooking in the hut so we had to climb further to get snow to melt. The weather was good, but because of the extra climb we needed a rest day as we reached the hut during the night. We started the summit ascent at 02h00. We were expecting hard snow so we left the skis behind, which turned out to be the right decision as we had to go up through endless boulder terrain. To carry the skis would have been madness. We then went up the glacier. The snow was hard in places but sometimes we were knee deep in snow. It was clear that because of the trail work we wouldn’t reach the summit (an altitude difference of 1850 meters from the hut). At 05h30 we reached the first area of crevasses at 3400 meters. Because of the fresh snow only the larger crevasses were visible. It was totally dark at that time and to cross the crevasse area only equipped with our headlights was just too dangerous. We made some night photos with the banner and then decided that we would have to turn back. It wasn’t an easy decision to make. We would have loved to have made the photos at the summit, but unfortunately that wasn’t possible.”

Wilhelm & Thomas

They made it! Alexa, Regina, Dieter and mountain guide Ode got out of their sleeping bags at 06h00 this morning and after a quick breakfast started on their long march. Five kilometers across the glacier, first in the early morning light until the rising sun bathed the fantastic mountain landscape in a red shine. The wind piled the snow into bizarre sculptures along the way. Using small snow bridges they passed glacier cervices that appeared to be bottomless, for Regina, a new and somewhat frightening experience.

They arrived at the foot of the Aguille de Toule, struggled across a steep snow field and then negotiated the narrow mountain path to the summit. At 09h15 it’s done: The flags of France (estimated HIV/AIDS cases 210.000) and Italy (250.000) flutter in the wind on the Mont Blanc.

Together with friends on the highest summit of Germany

Its only 4 o’clock in the morning and its pretty loud in our vehicle village at the foot of the Olympic ski jumping arena inGarmisch-Partenkirchen. Gas cookers are burning and water is boiling. There’s a smell of coffee and soup in the air. Rucksacks are being packed, ice axes checked. The mountain team is preparing for the next ascent. Today they are going up the Zugspitze. It is 2962 meters above sea level and its Germany’s highest mountain.

An hour later and they are on their way: Joachim, Alexa, Regina, Dominik and Werner. There are also three friends of the team who arrived very early to join them. Achim from  is HIV positive and was also on the start of the B42 marathon in Berlin, Gerd from Starnberg and Thomas from Saarbrücken.

It’s totally dark as the team goes through the very narrow Partnachklamm and a very fine drizzle makes the slippery surface even worse. As they move higher up the rain ceases but it stays misty. Banks of cloud drift over the flanks of the mountain. The difficult climb just below the summit is very icy. But then, at 13h00, after an eight hour climb they are at the summit. Oliver and Rainer who came up in the cable car are waiting for them there. The photographer Rainer has already been on three “aids awareness expeditions”. There’s slight snowfall as they unfurl the banner with the figure 81.000, the estimated figure of HIV/AID infected people in Germany.

A mystical setting

We’ve made it: At 07h30 this morning our flag was raised on the summit of the Großglockner, in 3798 meters on the roof of Austria. It’s there to remind us of the situation of the more than 20.000 people in the alpine republic that are not registered as being HIV positive or AIDS infected.

Möllehöj ist he king-mountain of Denmark. Yes, size matters

Denmark show itself from its friendly side. The sun is shining and the temperature is around 15 C. The Media and Culture Attaché from the German Embassy in Copenhagen is also there to meet us, even though it’s early Sunday morning. Christian Baukhage greets us and listens as we tell of our experiences in the Scandinavian countries and wants to know about our further plans. In our Ambassadors Book he wishes us not only success with our summit ascents but also “enough public awareness for one of the most important topics that ever touched mankind”. Before we leave he gives Joachim the German- Danish friendship pin “To show that HIV/AIDS an international problem is.”

We drive back to the Danish mainland and through to the village Ris. This is where the highest peaks in Denmark are huddled together in the countryside. There are three altogether and even the Danes don’t seem to know just which one of them the highest is. It would appear that every time they are measured a different one is the highest. At the moment, the Möllehöj is the favorite – and it’s only centimeters that decide it: 170.86 metres. Viggo Rasmussen, responsible for projects in the social committee in the neighboring town of Skanderborg explained it to us. “The Yding Skovhöj is 172.54 meters but only because a barrow grave was built on it in early times. Without the grave it is only 170.77 metres.”The Ejer Bavnehöj has only 170.35 metres, but it has a 12 metre high tower on top of it. So if we want to reach the highest point in Denmark this is the right one. Especially as we cannot go onto the Möllenhöj, as it is on private ground. 

For Regina, Dominik, Werner and Detlef this means that they not only have to run up the mountain, which is quite easy, but that they also have to sprint up the many steps to the top of the tower. At the end however the flag with the “dark figure” (9300) is raised over the Danish countryside.

Today was a super day

Everything went down very well. To start with, at exactly 13h30 our flag was placed on the summit of the Galdhöpiggen, 2469 metres above sea level. The highest mountain in Norway and in Scandinavia had been conquered. Joachim, Alexa, Dieter, Dominik and Werner had to do some very hard work to get up there.  The sun shone most of the time, but our team was the first on the mountain and for many hours they had to make a trail through the knee deep snow. There was a biting wind that blew the snow forward and made it feel like icy needles on their cheeks. But at the end of the day they received the reward for their efforts.

The fist summit of the “cape2cape” is reached, at least almost.

The first summit photo is made. Well nearly. Apparently not only some of the official offices in Europe are opposed to the topic of HIV/AIDS, the nature appears to be against us as well. The highest summit in Finland, the 1328 metres high Halti didn’t want to be conquered. But we were there and we want to present our message, so when the main summit can’t be reached, we will present our message on the nearest peak that is 100 metres below. So we put our summit flag that shows the flag of Finland and estimated number of HIV infections (3100) there.

Detelf Kern flies the expedition flag in the sky of Liechtenstein

It is a Thursday before noon and just beautiful weather. At approximately 10:00 am our group ( Martina H., Harald L and myself Detelf K.) from the district of Peine/Germany left to start its 700 kilometres journey to the South. After six hours we cross the boarder of Austria/Lichtenstein and get closer to the place from where we wanted to start the hike up the Grauspitz. The little village Steg is going to be our base-camp. First we were trying to locate our mountain but because of the cloudy sky we are not able to see him. Two huntsmen explain to us that the mountain can not be seen during rain, fog or strong winds. They also tell us that a dead person was found the other week in the valley and give us the advice to be very carefully even during good weather conditions.

8:00am and the sun is shining!

We have a good breakfast and start our hike to the east. In a distance of 10 kilometres it is possible to see the rough and grey mountain-wall of the Grauspitz. After three hours we are getting closer and the wall is just standing tremendously steep in front of us. After taking a break on a mountain pasture we are ready to climb “our” mountain. It is quiet a steep hike, across loose gravel and rocks. 45 minutes later, the team reaches 2400 meters. The wind is blowing strong on the summit, which is visible to us, but still needs to wait on us. After checking the weather conditions, the surrounding mountains and still remembering the words of the huntsmen, we decide not to go any further for safety reasons.

After we took the photo with the flag on the summit, Harald’s backpack found its on way down into the valley. The fist 50 meters of the descend are the most challenging and the only thing we have in our mind is “DON’T SLIP”. If so, you can find yourself 500 Meters further down…

The look to the east proved us right. The clouds covered the mountains completely and it started to rain. The beautiful panorama became a completely grey silhouette. Fortunately, Harald found his backpack and we were able to hike back to our little mountain-hotel. Completely soaked, the chef of the hotel gave us a warm welcome and fixed us a wonderful hot meal. We felt extremely recovered after the good meal. On the next day, after a good breakfast, we had to leave for Germany again. The weather forecast said that more rain is going to fall.

The money which was raised during our expedition will support Aids-orphans in South-Africa. HOPE CAPE TOWN in South-Africa is sponsored directly as well as the School for Life in Thailand and various other projects in Germany.

Tom Staats covered a distance of more than 300 kilometers - world-wide action against AIDS.

When the Braunschweiger extreme sportsman Tom Staats Saturday evening on that 322 meters high Vaalsberg in the Netherlands hoisted the flag, he had covered more than 300 kilometers - in aKettcar, because the Trip from Vechelde up to the highest point of the Netherlands was a part of the "world of AIDS awareness expedition 2008