Scaling Mount Kilimanjaro with no training and sheer determination
It’s touted as suitable for beginners but reaching Africa’s highest point means contending with intense exhaustion, freezing temperatures and extreme altitude.
A view of Mount Kilimanjaro from Amboseli in Kenya. Getty Images
It’s 4am and I am more than 5000 metres above sea level. The outline of my destination looms in the distance, the moonlight bouncing off Mount Kilimanjaro’s ice caps, while silhouetted jagged slopes frame the path forward. Headlamps flicker far ahead in a spotted trail – the lights of fellow summit hopefuls – the space between us concealed by a dark expanse.
My push to Uhuru Peak, the highest point on the African continent at 5895 metres, coincides with the night of the October supermoon – I made sure of it. Our ascent began at 1am, my body fighting for hours against a combination of intense exhaustion, freezing temperatures and extreme altitude.
