Climbing the Mount (Everest!) - All in a Season’s Work for our Castle Guides

‘Do you climb up here everyday?’ is a question our castle guides frequently get asked as visitors make their way to the Western door of the castle - with the frequent response being, yes.

The climb is quite the ascent, being 60m (200ft.) from sea level to the Northern Terrace and many of our visitors can’t quite believe that our guides do this everyday as part of their commute. The significance of the climb got our castle guides thinking and they decided to put to the test just how high the climb over the course of the season by tracking both individual and collective team ascents.

As we are now nearing the end of the season, we have decided to report on the progress made by our castle guides so far - you might be surprised by the statistics!

There are fifteen castle guides that work one - five days a week and to date their climbs go as follows:one guide who is new to the team has already ascended Cornwall’s highest peak, Brown Willy (420m), another has made it to the summit of Ben Nevis (1,343m). Two guides have almost made it to the top of the Matterhorn (4,468m) and three more are not far behind them. Three more intrepid guides have summitted Mont Blanc (4,478m) and the final five have made it all the way to the top of Kilimanjaro (5,895m), with three of them even closing in on the summit of K2 (8,611M). By the end of the season, several of the guides will have climbed well above the height of Everest (8,848m) and may even reach the height of a cruising 747 aeroplane (12,192m)!

Cumulatively, the team have climbed to the top of the Stratosphere (50,000m) and are almost half way across the Mesosphere (63,000m). It is estimated by the end of the season, the team will have reached the Karman Line (100,000m) - More commonly known as the edge of space!

There really is no wonder that our castle guides have the odd aches and pains or that the biscuit barrel in the staff room never remains full for long! So do spare a thought next time you are on your morning commute for our castle guides - Not forgetting the facilities team and Lord and Lady St Levan!

Written by Rachel Diston, Castle Guide Supervisor