Claycastle on top of the Mountain 14th Feb 2011This week I spoke with Warren Tivy who during the year undertook a charity climb to one of the world’s best known mountains Kilimanjaro in Africa which is 12,000 meters above sea level. Warren musican, producer, sound engineer and owner of Claycastle Studios in Youghal decided to do some work for charity and he was doing work for different bands and acts who were all raising funds for the Charity Africa Direct so it did this seemed like a good idea at the time.
He had to raise €6,000 to go to Nairobi where he spent two days visiting the projects that the funds were being used for. Warren said he had never seen anything like it; Nairobi is like any other city it’s busy and bustling But driving out to the slums where over 2 million people live in abject poverty he got a sense of what this was all for. What prompted him to do this I asked and he said one of the things he found interesting about this charity was that every penny and cent raised was handed over to the charity who were working in the slums providing care health basic needs to the people living in these slums.
After spending two days there they headed across the Serengeti by bus it took over a day to travel to Mushy on the other side of Kenya to base camp for the climbing. Warren had already spent the year working out getting fit and working in the gym as well as doing lots of running. He met with many other climbers who were treating it a little more serious then Warren and his fellow climbers from Ireland. It was a rough trek where you worked your way up through the rain forest first before hitting the volcanic rock of the mountain. It took seven days to climb and each night you would sleep over at that point you reached that day, It was tough going as the higher you climbed the altitude started taking its toll, for the last two days Warren says he felt sick constantly headaches and tired, sick feeling in your stomach. It was awkward as the higher they climbed the chances of illness increased the problem with that was because of the altitude there were no helicopters able to fly at that altitude due to lack of air so it was going to be tough on anyone who had to turn back down the mountain.
On the sixth day they arrived at Kabuki Huts where they spent several hours just getting used to the altitude and at 1am they set off to reach the peak in order to be there for dawn. It took six hours and it was only a small distance but with ice and lack of oxygen it was tough going. At around 7am they reached the summit and managed to see the dawn break. On the way to the summit they met many other climbers who had to turn back because of illness but the Irish group continued on.
I asked Warren what went through his head when he was standing on the summit. He said it was an emotional time the first thought that went through his head was oh my god I now have to climb down this mountain again. But it was beautiful standing there looking around at the world below you. As time was short they only got to spend a few minutes at the summit when they had to make there way back down. The hardest part of it was the sweat that had built up under his protective clothing had turned to ice and as he descended it started to melt, within a short time he was soaked through and had to continue climbing down. By the time he got back down the mountain he was down to wearing a t shirt because of the morning sun and the heat it was difficult climbing down and they had to stop several times on the way down to acclimatise and get used to the altitude. I asked him would he do it again and he replied that he would do it all again, he is raising money all the time for the charity Africa Direct.
It’s good to see a local musican taking on such a large task all to raise funds for charity.Currently Warren and the crew at Claycastle are working on different projects but one that sticks out is the Marine session Live CD vol 2. After the success of the first CD they decided that so many musicians responded that they had enough material to start a second album so that’s what they are working at now, if you see Warren or any of the bands he works with playing in an area near you go along and support them.
He had to raise €6,000 to go to Nairobi where he spent two days visiting the projects that the funds were being used for. Warren said he had never seen anything like it; Nairobi is like any other city it’s busy and bustling But driving out to the slums where over 2 million people live in abject poverty he got a sense of what this was all for. What prompted him to do this I asked and he said one of the things he found interesting about this charity was that every penny and cent raised was handed over to the charity who were working in the slums providing care health basic needs to the people living in these slums.
After spending two days there they headed across the Serengeti by bus it took over a day to travel to Mushy on the other side of Kenya to base camp for the climbing. Warren had already spent the year working out getting fit and working in the gym as well as doing lots of running. He met with many other climbers who were treating it a little more serious then Warren and his fellow climbers from Ireland. It was a rough trek where you worked your way up through the rain forest first before hitting the volcanic rock of the mountain. It took seven days to climb and each night you would sleep over at that point you reached that day, It was tough going as the higher you climbed the altitude started taking its toll, for the last two days Warren says he felt sick constantly headaches and tired, sick feeling in your stomach. It was awkward as the higher they climbed the chances of illness increased the problem with that was because of the altitude there were no helicopters able to fly at that altitude due to lack of air so it was going to be tough on anyone who had to turn back down the mountain.
On the sixth day they arrived at Kabuki Huts where they spent several hours just getting used to the altitude and at 1am they set off to reach the peak in order to be there for dawn. It took six hours and it was only a small distance but with ice and lack of oxygen it was tough going. At around 7am they reached the summit and managed to see the dawn break. On the way to the summit they met many other climbers who had to turn back because of illness but the Irish group continued on.
I asked Warren what went through his head when he was standing on the summit. He said it was an emotional time the first thought that went through his head was oh my god I now have to climb down this mountain again. But it was beautiful standing there looking around at the world below you. As time was short they only got to spend a few minutes at the summit when they had to make there way back down. The hardest part of it was the sweat that had built up under his protective clothing had turned to ice and as he descended it started to melt, within a short time he was soaked through and had to continue climbing down. By the time he got back down the mountain he was down to wearing a t shirt because of the morning sun and the heat it was difficult climbing down and they had to stop several times on the way down to acclimatise and get used to the altitude. I asked him would he do it again and he replied that he would do it all again, he is raising money all the time for the charity Africa Direct.
It’s good to see a local musican taking on such a large task all to raise funds for charity.Currently Warren and the crew at Claycastle are working on different projects but one that sticks out is the Marine session Live CD vol 2. After the success of the first CD they decided that so many musicians responded that they had enough material to start a second album so that’s what they are working at now, if you see Warren or any of the bands he works with playing in an area near you go along and support them.
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