5 Profiles That Will Inspire You to Climb Kilimanjaro

“Milad was nowhere to be seen and I suspected that he had turned around at Stella point with the assistant guide assigned to him. As I began walking down from the top, he appeared in the distance, slow, dazed, but going for it.”

Dalia
Known to the rest of the team as “Mama Simba”, Dalia joined us with her husband for their first major trekking experience back in February 2020. Like most first timers she didn’t really know what to expect but kept a super positive attitude throughout. Although every day brought its own challenges it wasn’t until Lava Tower on day 3 of the trail that Dalia came face to face with the mental hurdle that Kilimanjaro is so famous for. Lava tower is the longest day on the trail and it is also the first time that trekkers breach 4,000 meters in altitude. This is where your body tells you that you can’t go any further and your mind fights back and pushes that boundary beyond what you thought possible. I observed Dalia closely that day as she pushed past her boundary and discovered strength that she didn’t know she had.

Milad
Over a decade ago Milad was involved in a major car accident that rendered him almost paralyzed. He spent more than half a decade going from operating table to operating table with very little hope of regaining full mobility. Thankfully, he pulled through but walking wasn’t enough for him. Milad has joined our team for both the Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route and Kilimanjaro and has been an inspiration to our whole community. On summit day Milad was the last person to arrive. I remember waiting at the top as our team members and assistant guides arrived minutes apart from one another, took their summit photos, and turned around. Milad was nowhere to be seen and I suspected that he had turned around at Stella point with the assistant guide assigned to him. As I began walking down from the top, he appeared in the distance, slow, dazed, but going for it. We summited together that morning and it was one of the most meaningful summits that I’ve ever experienced.

“She must have said she can’t make it 100 times in the last 100 meters before Stella point on summit night.”

Tatiana
Even when she got a bad sunburn on her head, she was still smiling. Tatiana was the life of the team back on our 2018 adventure and immersed herself fully in the experience from the moment she landed at Kilimanjaro airport. Even on summit night when she was cold and tired and I’d check up on her at our rest stops, she’d always reply with a smile that she was doing fine. At one point she even offered me a snack. In my 10 treks of Kilimanjaro, I’ve never seen a trooper who just gets on with it like Tatiana.

Rula
She must have said she can’t make it 100 times in the last 100 meters before Stella point on summit night. There was a moment 30 minutes from the top where Rula, who was now 6 days into her very first adventure, turned to me tired, cold but with fight still left in her and she asked me if I thought she could make it. I looked straight into her eyes and said “If you want to make it, then you will make it.” 30 minutes later we were on the crater rim having completed one of the most challenging ascents due to weather that I’d ever experienced on that mountain.

Ghenwa
Not long before Ghenwa joined our team in 2019, she began a physical transformation that brought her back from the brink of being dangerously overweight. That journey moved out of the gym and onto the trails when she decided to join us and make the roof of Africa her first adventure experience. Driven and determined are the words I would use to characterize Ghenwa’s ascent. She had a very clear target and she wanted to be there more than anyone I’ve ever had the pleasure of trekking with. For her, just trekking to the first camp was a dream she believed she could never realize only months earlier but there she was on the roof of Africa watching the sunrise on a new day and on the new possibilities that she had unlocked for herself.