Fife businessman describes emotional North African ascent in fundraiser for Fife charity

A Fife businessman has raised thousands for a local charity that provides wheelchair access and support for those in need.

Jim Parker, who runs Fife Properties, scaled North Africa’s highest peak, the 4167 metre high Jebel Toubkal in Morocco, in aid of the Craw’s Nest Trust. He raised an impressive £3000 in the process for the Fife based charity.

However, the climb was not all smooth sailing for the trekking group. There were even fears that the ascent might not be possible due to snow, something that Jim found surreal given the weather in Marrakech.

He explained: “I had a feeling. I was thinking ‘this might not actually happen, maybe it’s not going to be possible’. That was about a week before when we started to see the photographs from Marrakech.

“You don’t expect it. When you’re sitting in 25 degrees in Marrakech and then you look onto the Atlas mountains in the background and they’re completely covered in snow. It’s a bizarre experience.”

Jim said the unpredictable weather conditions meant that the group was climbing over snow that was as much as two metres deep at times.

He said: “You have bothies on the way up – tea bothies where you can stop and get a cuppa, but you were literally walking over them because of the snow”.

Despite the challenging conditions, Jim and his group made it to the summit earlier than expected, and he described the experience as “intense” as he drove himself onwards.

He said: “The battle in my mind was incredible, one voice was continually telling me to stop and give up while I kept forcing myself on, one step at time. My energy levels had dropped like a stone as we went for the summit on day two rather than day four”.

He said that he didn’t expect the emotional feeling that swept over him as he reached the summit.

He said: “I was a lot more emotional than I thought. I actually didn’t think I was going to be like that at all. It was a totally different experience to what I’ve done before. That combined with the lack of sleep, the lack of food, trying to do it in two days rather than four, pushed me to my limits”.

Jim said he felt his initial goal of £1000 felt ambitious, but with his final total sitting at £3000 he described the total as “unbelievable” and heaped praise on the local community for its response.

He added: “I was extremely surprised but the community was absolutely brilliant. Social media and the press is a great platform for sharing all these stories and rallying the troops.

“It’s never about one person doing everything, it’s about everyone coming together to do simple and smaller things. It’s that old thing about rising tides lifts all ships.

“Everyone putting in that £5, £10 or £20 - that’s what made a fundamental difference”.

Jim was able to film the final moments of his ascent to the summit. The video uploaded to YouTube shows an emotional Jim reaching the peak before turning the camera to show off the stunning North African vistas with uncharacteristic snow peaked hills hundreds of metres below.