Team Tane (Shane and Tarryn Quinnell) managed to summit the Battian peak of Mt Kenya over the weekend after several false starts due to adverse weather. Even on their successful climb, the couple had to brave snow, hail and lots of rain while climbing up the sheer rock of the mountain’s northern face.
Team Tane have been travelling up through Africa, from South Africa on their #SuzukiAfricaSkyHigh adventure that sees them driving their Suzuki Jimny, known as Badger, to the five highest peaks in Africa and climbing them.
To date, the couple have climbed Mt Kenya (5 198 m), Mt Stanley (5 109 m), Mt Speke (4 890 m) and Mt Baker (4 844 m) and are heading for Mt Kilimanjaro nest.
The recent summit of Mt Kenya took the couple up the northern face of the Batian peak. known for its notorious 700-metre sheer rock cliff, which Team Tane climbed up over two days and where they slept on the mountain halfway up the climb.
“Summiting Batian has been a dream of ours for the last decade. It is a tough and technical climb and often forces climbers to turn back after they got lost or the weather turned nasty. We are so thankful that we could make it all the way to the top!” says Shane.
Shane and Tarryn have created a rough-and-tumble adventure through 10 African countries, which they called the Suzuki Africa Sky High Adventure, in homage to the support from Suzuki and their trusty 2011 Suzuki Jimny, which serves as their 4×4 transport for the entire trip. At the heart of the adventure is their attempt to summit the five highest mountains on the continent, starting at the lowest and ending with Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest.
“We are now more optimistic than ever that we can successfully climb Mt Kilimanjaro. In two weeks’ time, we will attempt this feat and in doing so, finally conclude our life’s dream of scaling Africa’s high five,” says Tarryn.