Star Trekker

When round timber haulier Karl Jones set out to climb Island Peak in the Himalayas and be back at work in 10 days he took his favourite trucking magazine with him

- Dan Parton

Most people planning an expedition to climb a famous peak in the Himalayas usually take into account details such as the need to have time to acclimatise. But Karl Jones is not most people. He and his friend Dilwyn Howells were more concerned with how quickly they could climb the mountain and get back home to run their businesses.

So when they decided to climb Island Peak in Nepal (see box) they worked out an itinerary that got them there and back within 10 days. Expeditions such as this usually take more than 21 days, but Karl runs around timber haulage business in South Wales, operating a fleet of 17 timber trucks, including two Volvo FH16 750s, and 22 trailers and drives full-time, so getting back quickly was imperative. Dilwyn, meanwhile, is a founding director of Premier Forest Products and also wanted to get back home quickly.

“We took the challenge on and because we both own companies we were basing it on how fast we could get back to work, which in hindsight was a stupid thing to do because you need time to acclimatise when you go to these places,” says Karl.

He and Dilwyn trained hard before they left for Nepal, knowing how important fitness was. They had trekked to base camp at Mount Everest last year so knew what was required. Poor weather then had meant they weren’t able to see many of the amazing views so they decided to tackle Island Peak.

After arriving at Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla in northeastern Nepal, Karl and Dilwyn trekked for seven days to get to Island Peak base camp. This included one day’s acclimatisation at the Namche Bazaar village on the Everest trail.

Once they arrived at the base camp, at about 5 pm, they were told by the Sherpas that because the weather was good they would go for the summit in the morning. And by morning they meant 1 am.