When Davie Hill stood at the summit of Island Peak, a Himalayan mountain just a few kilometres from Everest, he stuck a chilled hand into his pack and pulled out a packet of Dairy Milk mini eggs.
His daughter Charlotte bought them for him in Aberdeen and he’d carried them in a Ziplock bag through the busy, chaotic streets of Kathmandu, to one of the world’s highest airports and on a 10-day hike up into the thin air of Everest base camp.
From there, the chocolates survived the three-day trek to the 20,226-feet Island Peak summit as Davie endured -20C temperatures, midnight starts, minimal sleep and sheer, plodding, acute exhaustion.
And when he finally reached the top, Davie – bone-tired but elated – knew exactly what to do.
He handed an egg to each of his three companions, slung a fourth into his mouth and savoured the moment.
“I’ll tell you what,” he says, now safely returned from the roof of the world. “It was the best chocolate I’ve ever had in my life.”
Davie’s high-altitude chocolate feast was part of a promise to daughter Charlotte.
But real reason he was there was his other daughter, Georgia.
Why did Davie climb to the top of Island Peak?
Georgia was born two weeks premature on March 19 2019 in Aberdeen’s neonatal unit.
She weighed less than half the average baby and even before she was delivered by C-section had been diagnosed with duodenal atresia – a 1-in-8,000 condition where the tube that connects the stomach to the bowels is too narrow.
When she was just one day old, she had life-saving surgery to correct the stomach tube.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s development has been complicated by the discovery of a microduplication of a chromosome.
Now aged four, she is non-verbal and has some hearing difficulties.
Davie and wife Ange, from Alford, have spent the past year raising money to help parents in a similar situation.
The trek to the Himalayas was a major part of that, an attempt to find a challenge almost the equal of what Georgia has conquered already in her short life.
Together, Davie and Ange have raised a colossal £32,000 for The Archie Foundation, much of it raised during the trip to Island Peak.
“I felt I needed to do something big,” Davie explains.
From Kathmandu to the thin air of Everest base camp
The adventure started when Davie landed in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal and the launchpad for most attempts at a Himalayan peak. Davie works offshore in oil and gas and has visited cities all over the world.
But the din and hustle of Kathmandu was a new experience for the 41-year-old health and safety advisor who found himself walking the streets of the city in a daze.
The next stage was a flight from Kathmandu to Luckla, an eagle’s den of an airport high in the mountains and regarded as one of the most dangerous airports in the world.
Passengers disembarking have their first introduction to the effects of high altitude – the airport is almost 10,000 feet above sea level.
But as the mountain paths rise upwards to Everest base camp, Davie’s next stop, the altimeter edges up and the air gets thinner.
The dangerous path to Island Peak
After the 10-day trek to base camp, Davie and his small crew of a guide, a sherpa and Neil, an amateur climber from a separate expedition, prepared for the final push to Island Peak.
The group may not have been going all the way to the top of Everest, which peaks at 29,035 feet, but the smaller summit still posed considerable risk.
Conditions above base camp are treacherous for unwary climbers. Shifting crevasses and collapsing ice flows still kill, especially in the peak climbing months of April and May when most people are on the mountains..
Meanwhile the high altitude combined with strenuous climbing can overcome less experienced climbers.
In this year’s climbing season, as Davie attempted his own ascent, 17 people died on Everest, many from altitude sickness.
Climbing into the void with Georgia beside him
Davie remembers the three-day grind up to Island Peak, over crevasses, past towering seracs of glacial ice and up 45 degree slopes.
One morning while it was still pitch black he unknowingly traversed a mountain ridge. When the sun came up he saw the vertical drop metres away.
Most of the time, all he could focus on was putting one in front of the other. But there were also occasional moments of beauty, when the stark, deadly landscape revealed its magnificence.
In those moments, Georgia was at the front of his mind.
“I got my first sight of Island Peak two days prior to actually doing the peak and I was blown away,” Davie recalls. “I remember turning to Neil and I was buzzing. I thought to myself, this is going to happen.”
An amazing total for The Archie Foundation
Back in Aberdeen, Ange was helming the fundraising efforts.
She remembers the worry of having Davie on the mountain, and how different it was to when he would be away for work. She says the relief at hearing that Davie had reached the top, and later got back down safely, was immense.
But it was worth it. The £32,000 the family have raised is the biggest amount from an individual donor to The Archie Foundation.
Georgia, meanwhile, is progressing. Her signing is “unbelievable”, Ange says, and the four-year-old remains “so resilient – she just gets on with it”.
The fundraising will continue, and the Hills are on the lookout for future sponsors.
Whatever they do next, however, will have Georgia at its centre.
All of this work is on behalf of her, and the people that ensured she made it through those early, nightmare years.
“Georgia could have easily died,” Davie says. “That’s the grim, grim reality of it. She could have easily died many times.
“We will be forever grateful to the people that helped. And that’s why this journey doesn’t just stop. It’s going to continue in various different methods in order to make sure that the pot continues to grow.”
To contribute to the Hill’s extraordinary fundraising effort for The Archie Foundation, click here.
