Jon Clarke: Aussie retiree dies 100m from the summit during ‘trip of a lifetime’ to Mount Kilimanjaro

An Australian man has died just before completing a difficult climb of one of the world’s most famous mountains during a dream post-retirement trip.

The former head of printing for the Canberra Times and Australian Community Media (ACM), Jon Clarke, died of altitude sickness on February 26 just 100 meters from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Mr Clarke had recently retired in 2021 and saw the trip to Africa’s highest peak as the ‘trip of a lifetime’ to celebrate his 60th birthday.

His family lost contact with him the day before his death and waited several days to hear from him before receiving the heartbreaking news.

They were told that despite being seriously ill, Mr Clarke had begged the others in his group to take him ‘to the top’, but that they were eventually forced to descend to try to save his life to rescue.

Mr 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 keep fit.

Altitude sickness occurs when a body is not used to lower oxygen levels at high altitude and develops more quickly if a climber does not slow down.

The risk of severe altitude sickness increases at altitudes above 3,000 metres, putting Mr Clarke at risk when he was just below Kilimanjaro’s height of 5,895 metres.

Symptoms of the disease include shortness of breath, palpitations, fluid in the lungs, and blue-tinged skin and nails due to lack of oxygen.

Despite the threat of altitude sickness, approximately 30,000 to 50,000 people climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro every year.

Of those who attempt the climb, only three to ten people die on the mountain each year.

Lewis said his father died doing what he loved: traveling.

‘I hope he enjoyed it. “He trained really hard for the walk and I think he was excited to show us pictures when he got back,” he told the newspaper Canberra Times.

Former colleagues of Mr Clarke recalled him walking during his work breaks as he pondered his next travel destination.

Mr Clarke was on the ‘trip of a lifetime’ when he succumbed to altitude sickness just 100 meters from the summit of Kilimanjaro (pictured)

He and his 31-year-old wife, Jenene, were inspired globetrotters who traveled together to China, Vietnam, Fiji, Cambodia and Hawaii.

He was remembered for his friendly demeanor, with his family keeping up the joke that he could strike up a conversation with anyone, no matter where he was in the world.

Australian Community Media editor-in-chief 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 and level-headed voice in the way we ran the company. “If he could do anything to help us get the paper out he would,” Quinn told the Canberra Times.

“Besides, he was a great guy.”