Innovation to the top -- climbing Kilimanjaro in a wheelchair

Bern Goosen is a South African quadriplegic, and tomorrow he will begin his third attempt to mount Kilimanjaro. In a wheelchair. He won’t be pushed. He won’t be carried. He will use his brute strength to get there, and you can watch it all on your computer.

Thanks to the collaboration of local technology companies, all housed at Pretoria’s Innovation Hub, us couch potatoes can now track the journey and interact with the climbing team using the internet.

This is a first. There will be a daily live video, voice streaming and hourly GPS plotting via satellite. And if you feel aptly moved, you can even SMS a message of support to Bert during the climb (35500, R3 a message).

This is an amazing story on many counts.

First, the personal drive of Bert Goosen is inspirational. I complain when I have to climb a flight of stairs, and here we have a quadriplegic who is climbing the mountain for the third time, in a chair he modified himself (no brakes!). His friends say that Bert “comes alive” when he is on a mountain, and he is using the climb to challenge people to find their own “mountains” and conquer them. As he says, he “feels more useless here, than up there”.

Second, the entire technology aspect of the trip was schemed in 45 minutes, and implemented in less than three weeks. That says a lot about the collaborative powers enabled by the creative environment of The Innovation Hub. Not only do they have the technology potential, but the culture of the hub seems to be such that it promotes … well … innovation.

Third, the challenges the technology has to overcome are not small. All the equipment has to function in extreme temperatures. The laptops (Panasonic Toughbooks) and digital cameras have been tested at -15 degrees, and they work. You put your laptop in the freezer and then try to send an email! The power supply is coming from new solar panels from Flexopower, which provide adequate power even in full cloud coverage. There is a movie channel online (powered by MMB) that will show the live video. There is a satellite hook-up for communication.

I encourage you to follow the climb during the next 10 days or so. I am going to be blogging it “live” to tell you about the progress, and offer some more information on Bern and his expedition. The climbing team consists of Bern, his friends, sponsors and corporates. It will also be monitored by Guinness World Records.

To see a video of Bern training for the climb, click here to see a video. It is quite a sight. After watching it, your own limitations will somehow seem so self-imposed.

And that, if you ask Bern, is the whole point of the climb.