Reflections of a 13 Year Old Kilimanjaro Climber

“…just being in the presence of the mountain has completely changed me.”

Kilimanjaro was absolutely no doubt the greatest experience of my life, just being in the presence of the mountain has completely changed me. The first couple of days were hard, I’m not going to lie. It was hard, just the whole experience of sleeping in a tent and a sleeping bag in the freezing cold. As the days went by things started to fit in and become much easier, we started getting used to the weather and altitude, it stopped raining so we would find ourselves in a dry camp. For 6 days straight I lived off of cans of tuna and instant noodles which slowly started to make me lose my appetite, which trust me is something you do not want to lose up there. It could literally make or break you.

But other than the technicalities there was a couple of things that we all learned and one of them is, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how tired you are, you have two options, you can either sit there and sulk and moan about how tired you are which will only waste time and get you more tired. Or, you can just keep going and deal with it. Because up there in the mountain there is no time for complaining.

Another thing that we all kept in our minds is to take everyday step by step, never rush into things it will only make matters worse for you. Do not think about what is to come, think about where you are now rather than where you will be. I dealt with this on a very personal level where I got really sick and it was only on day 4 and I was thinking about the summit night which was 3 days later.

“I’d like to think of Kilimanjaro as a mental game, it’s not much of a technical climb but boy is it a mental challenge.”

It will put you into a whole new state when you stop thinking about the future.

I’d like to think of Kilimanjaro as a mental game, it’s not much of a technical climb but boy is it a mental challenge. If you do not prepare yourself mentally there is absolutely no way you can summit Kilimanjaro. You will find that you will have to eat when you don’t want to, you will have to sleep when you don’t need to and you will have to keep going when you just can’t.

But by far, the thing you have to remember not just on the mountain but in real life is that family always comes first. No matter what you want to do, family always comes first. On the night of our summit my father got really sick and because of how high we were we thought it was altitude sickness, but it was not. He was severely dehydrated and had sun stroke. So we had decided to give an altitude medicine which only made his state worse. The medicine ended up depleting his body of all the waters and minerals which you can only imagine what it did to him. So my brother and I were given an offer to continue the summit with one of the guide, we easily denied that offer and decided to descend with our father, knowing that we only had 700M to go we still made the choice to stick with our dad. It gives you a sense of responsibility taking care of the one person who normally takes care of you. I ended my trip with a feeling of success and accomplishment and reaching my own summit.