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An Australian man has died just moments after completing a difficult climb of one of the world’s most famous mountains during a dream trip after his retirement.
Former Canberra Times and Australian Community Media (ACM) print editor Jon Clarke died of altitude sickness just 100 meters from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania on February 26.
Clarke had recently retired in 2021 and considered the trip to Africa’s highest peak the “trip of a lifetime” to celebrate his 60th birthday.
His family lost contact with him the day before his death and were waiting to hear from him for several days before receiving the heartbreaking news.
They were told that, despite being seriously ill, Clarke begged the others in his group to take him “to the top”, but they were eventually forced to descend to try to save his life.
Recently retired ‘journalist’ Jon Clarke (pictured with his wife Jenene) died of altitude sickness on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro
Clarke was on the seventh day of the climb when he began to feel the effects of altitude sickness.
His eldest son, Lewis, said he had trained for six months before the trip and walked four hours a day to stay fit.
Altitude sickness occurs when a body is not acclimated to lower levels of oxygen at high altitudes and develops faster if a climber does not slow down to regulate.
The likelihood of severe altitude sickness increases at altitudes above 3,000 metres, putting Clarke in danger when he was just below Kilimanjaro’s height of 5,895 metres.
Symptoms of the disease include difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, fluid in the lungs, and blue-tinged skin and nails due to lack of oxygen.
Despite the threat of altitude sickness, between 30,000 and 50,000 people climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro each year.
Of those who attempt to climb the mountain, only between three and ten people die each year on the mountain.
Lewis said his father died doing what he loved: traveling.
“I hope he enjoyed it. He trained very hard for the walk and I think he was excited to show us pictures when he got back,” she told the Canberra Times.
Former colleagues of Clarke remembered him walking during his breaks at work while pondering his next travel destination.
Clarke was on the ‘trip of a lifetime’ when he succumbed to altitude sickness just 100 meters from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro (pictured)
He and his wife of 31 years, Jenene, were inspired globetrotters who traveled together to China, Vietnam, Fiji, Cambodia and Hawaii.
He was remembered for his friendly demeanor, and his family kept a running joke that he could strike up a conversation with anyone no matter where they were in the world.
Australian Community Media editorial director Rod Quinn remembered Mr Clarke as “one of the smartest, most respected and most professional people I have worked with in the industry”.
‘He was an active, common-sense voice in the way we ran the business. If he could do anything to help us publish the paper he would,” Quinn told the Canberra Times.
“On top of all that, he was a great guy.”