It’s a busy Tuesday morning in Potterrow when I sit down with Westley Spurlock, one of the Edinburgh students embarking on an eight-hour hiking challenge to raise money for charity. We only talk for around half an hour – he has a lecture to get to – but our conversation hightails through a range of topics including his goal, his plan to climb Kilimanjaro, and finally his self-diagnosed “optimism problem”.
Westley introduces himself as a first year biology student from London. He’s quick to tell me that he’s just one member of a team of six students planning to climb Arthur’s Seat as many times as possible in eight hours. The marathon climb will take place on Sunday the 11th of February 2024. Beginning at 8am, the whole team of six will ascend and descend the mountain as many times as they can before 4pm.
According to Westley, doing the climb once took between one and two hours, so he’s hoping for 6 full repetitions. I mention that this seems ambitious, but he remains confident: “I’m pretty convinced we can do it.”
When asked where the idea came from, Westley tells me that it was “kinda pulled out of the blue,” but eventually confesses, somewhat sheepishly, that it was his idea. He was inspired by a 24-hour rowing challenge he participated in during school to raise money for Papyrus, a charity dedicated to suicide prevention for young people.
This challenge is part of a longer campaign to raise money for Dig Deep, a charity that provides clean water and education in Kenya. For over 10 years, Dig Deep has collaborated with the Kenyan government, local businesses, and communities to provide clean water, safe toilets and good hygiene in Bomet County. Their work has provided villages and schools with over 72 rainwater harvesting systems which are currently supplying more than 35,000 people with clean water.
As an incentive for fundraising, Dig Deep offers volunteers a trip to Tanzania to climb the highest mountain in Africa: Kilimanjaro. Westley’s team is part of a wider fundraising group, composed of roughly 30 students from Edinburgh, all aiming to raise £3,000 each for the charity in return for the trip.
I asked Westley what attracted him to the charity and found his answer refreshingly honest.
“It is… To be honest, it was their whole scheme of giving us the opportunity to go to Tanzania.” Westley admits that he likely would not be raising the funds had it not been for the motivation of the trip.
“The target is £3,000 – half that goes to the charity and half goes to funding the trek – I think it’s a great testament to the charity that they know how to get that £1,500.”
He hopes to reach the goal through fundraising events, relying mostly on the support of friends and family, and acknowledges feeling “lucky” to be in the privileged position where this is possible.
It’s around this time that we’re interrupted by the offer of free promotional Redbull, which – of course – we accept. I press pause on the video that I had been using to record our conversation and we talk more casually for a few minutes, during which time he discloses that he has “a problem with signing up for things.”
I begin recording again and ask what he means.
“I have this habit of just…” He cracks open his drink. “I think it’s optimism, or something? Of just assuming that everything is going to be great. Or maybe just not knowing what you’re going to get out of something, makes it worth signing up for. There’s always the possibility that it’s going to be great.”
In our brief conversation, I’ve come to understand that Westley is truly as optimistic as he says he is. He’s somebody who can start at the beginning a challenge – an 8-hour climb, 24-hour row, a target of £3,000, at the base of the mountain – and imagine how good it might be to see the view from the top.
The Arthur’s Seat challenge will begin at 8am on the 11 of February. To follow the progress of Westley and the rest of his team, head to their Instagram page @edinburgkili, and follow the link in their bio to support with donations.
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Nicolas Hoizey is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.