An Adventure A Year Ago

A year ago last Saturday, I completed one of the greatest adventures of my life so far. To write about it is to experience it once again.

Our guide woke us at 4 am. Overcome with nervous excitement, my fatigue stubbornly subsided as I unzipped my sleeping bag and began to suit up. My head brushed up against the roof of my tent. There was frost built up from a night of heavy breathing; at 18,800 feet, you tend to breath harder. Stepping outside, the cold dark wind blew across the camp as I stared upwards to our goal: Uhuru Peak, the summit of the world’s highest freestanding mountain, Kilimanjaro.

Despite the ungodly hour, the camp was bustling about and I was the second climber to rise and make it to the breakfast tent. I stared at my food with bitter contempt. My characteristically voracious appetite had long since disappeared, but the athlete in me knew I must eat.

Once we departed from the campsite, we made our way slowly up the steep, rocky southern face. I knew cold, but I did not know mountain cold. The biting gusts of Chicago’s winter lakefront seemed like a chilly spring breeze compared to the Kilimanjaro slopes.

I felt the weakest and most vulnerable I had ever felt before. The earth and heavens began to spin around me and my knees buckled. My pack began to weigh down on me as a symbol of my pride. Though I made it a point to carry it throughout the entire trip, now was no time for stubbornness; I gave up my pack to the porter.

The weight was lifted, but the shiver remained. I began to shake uncontrollably with cold. In hindsight, I knew about as much of the cold as Jack London’s protagonist in To Build a Fire. But when the sun rose above the face, in all its glory, I felt rejuvenated and reborn. Step after step I finished the climb and successfully reached Uhuru Peak.

The experience solidified my lust for mountains and wilderness. The trip solidified my need to wander and travel. From then on I knew my desire to experience all the world has to offer was no passing fancy. I intend on fulfilling this craving.