Mt. Kilimanjaro, Dispatch #1

We (Shauna Culhane, Katie Brooks and Genevieve Richardson) landed at Mt. Kilimanjaro International Airport on Tuesday, May 31st. We made it here safe and sound after a challenging day of air travel from Boston through Amsterdam. We were met by Dan Jenkins, our Lead Guide from Earth Treks. Dan is super helpful and we are all so excited that he is guiding us on this journey (Dan and Eric Kapitulik climbed in Northern Pakistan on Nanga Parbat 4 years ago). The team then spent the next two days at the Kia Lodge in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania where it felt like we were in some exotic island bungalow!

We left the lodge to begin our ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro on Thursday morning, June 2nd and climbed to Camp 1, Camp Machame at 10,000′. There is one other woman in our group which is great because it gives us flexibility in our travels and we can do more things because of the smaller group. Everyone climbed well and felt really good despite the quick gain in altitude which can cause altitude sickness (headaches, upset stomach, nausea or worst). After spending a restful night, we departed Camp Machame early on Friday morning. After a 5 hour climb, we arrived in the early afternoon at Camp 2, Camp Shira at 12,500′ and spent the rest of the day getting replenished by the sun, while eating chicken wings and popcorn and drinking strong, black coffee (it was delicious despite it not coming in a Starbucks mug). We have been very fortunate with weather, inspired teammates and a supportive African crew. Tomorrow, we set off for Camp 3, Camp Barranco at 14,000′. During the hike, we will climb to Lava Tower at 15,000′ for acclimatization purposes. We are all climbing well and feeling strong. When not climbing and struggling for breath we are trying to become fluent in Swahili (thankfully, our climbing is going better than our Swahili…).
Blue skies ahead, moving forward… Attacking!
Talk soon! Shauna, Katie and Genevieve

Mt. Kilimanjaro, Dispatch #2

Jambo Rafikis (“Hello Friends”)!
Yesterday, we arrived at Camp 4, Karanga Camp (approx 13,500′) after a challenging, beautiful day on Mt. Kilimanjaro!
We awoke early Sunday morning and began our climb from Camp 3, Camp Barranco to Camp 4, Camp Karanga. The climb started with the Barranco Wall, an almost vertical rock face approximately 700′ high. The walking poles we have used so far have been a great help on the more level parts of the mountain, but were useless on the Barranco Wall where we were forced to use our hands to lift ourselves up on sections of this rocky wall. The Barranco Wall is also called “the breakfast wall,” as many people lose their breakfast after trying to climb this… Thankfully, this was not the case with The Program Team!
After surmounting the Barranco Wall, we climbed to Lava Tower at 15,000′ for acclimatization purposes and then descended back down into the Karanga Valley and our camp at Karanga Camp. We consistently climb to higher elevations and then descend back down into our camps because acclimatization works best by following one of the golden rules of climbing big mountains; “Climb high. Sleep low.”
Typically, a rest day is taken at Karanga Camp prior to ascending to high camp, Barafu Camp (15,500′), but we have decided to skip our rest day. We are all feeling great (no sickness: altitude/diarrhea thus far! Touch wood) so we have decided to move to Barafu Camp in a few hours and then make our final ascent to the summit, Uhuru Peak (19,341′) around 2:30am on Tuesday morning (approx 7:30pm EST Monday night). We expect to summit around 6:30am (10:30pm EST Monday night) and have an opportunity that few experience- watching the sunrise over Africa… while wearing our Program gear! We figure that if it was warm enough for Univ of Albany (Albany, NY) inJanuary and Bates College (Lewiston, Maine) in February, it has got to be warm enough for 19,341′!
We have had an amazing trip so far with countless “life changing” experiences, but as with most things in life, the best experience has been the opportunity to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro as a team and work and play with the people we have met. The porters are such kind people and their work ethic is amazing. We carry our day packs (15- 20lbs), but they carry at least 50lbs worth of gear, equipment, our bags, you name it…ON THEIR HEADS! It is unbelievable. They set an extremely high standard of The Program’s 2nd Core Principle: We are physically and mentally tough!
Hope all is well with you and your teams! We will check back in as soon as possible (hopefully, after we have reached the summit of Africa).
Love, Katie, Shauna and Gen

Mt. Kilimanjaro, Dispatch #3

Teammates, we just finished the toughest day that we have had since arriving in Tanzania, but the challenge only made standing on the summit (19,341′) and watching the sunrise over Africa that much more rewarding!
We arrived at high camp, Barafu Camp (15,300′) early yesterday afternoon and had a delicious lunch of cucumber soup, french fries, chicken, grilled cheese and watermelon. We spent the rest of the afternoon resting and thinking about the challenge ahead. After an early dinner at 5PM, we attempted to sleep as much as possible before starting our summit attempt. “Attempting to sleep,” and “sleeping” are two very different things however. How anyone could sleep hours before they attempt to climb 4,000 feet to the summit of Africa remains a mystery to us!
We rose from our sleeping bags at 1:45am and departed for the summit at 2:30am. We climbed well and had the unbelievable experience of watching the sunrise over Africa at dawn on Tuesday morning. After pictures on the summit and waving hugs and kisses to all of our friends back in the United States (and Canada) we descended back to Barafu Camp where we were greeted by the shouts and cheers of the porters and a well deserved breakfast.
We will descend the mountain tomorrow and return to the Kia Lodge for a day before heading to the Ngorongoro Crater and a two day safari which we are all looking forward to before returning to the U.S. this weekend. Right now, we aren’t sure what we are looking forward to more; the safari or the warm showers back at the Kia Lodge!
Everyone is tired, but feeling well. The differences between camps, and the trails between camps have been amazing; the novel terrain has continually humbled us, while the beauty of the landscape has taken our breath away (or maybe that’s thealtitude). Nevertheless, we have enjoyed every second of our journey, have taken only photographs and have left only footprints, have met many new rafikis (friends) and have learned so much about their culture. In the truest sense of the word, Kilimanjaro has been awesome.
We are eternally grateful for the opportunity as we have learned more about ourselves, the expansiveness of the world, and the power of nature in the past week than perhaps at any other time in our lives.

Mt. Kilimanjaro, Dispatch #4

Teammates, we have made it safely back home to the US after an amazing two week experience that brought us from the rainforests at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro to the summit of Africa to the Ngorongoro Crater where we came face to face with lions, zebras, elephants and every other African wildlife imaginable! After a successful summit push on June 7th, we descended to Millennium Camp (12,590′) to spend our final night on the mountain and we just beat the cold, windy weather that was beginning to hit high camp as soon as we departed. We spent the last night on the mountain at Millennium Camp which has a perfect view of the summit and we were even able to see the lights of the headlamps of fellow climbers as they pushed for the summit a day after our climb.
We had one last breakfast on the mountain that consisted of oat porridge, pancakes, avocado and fried bananas. We were sent off in style on the morning of June 8th with a traditional song and dance by the porters and the African guides. This song remained stuck in our heads for the remainder of the trip so we can assure you that it was a very catchy tune! We descended off the mountain with a 5 hour hike to the gates that brought us back down through the rainforest. We were able to take our time along the paths to enjoy the beautiful flowers found along the trails and take in our final views of the summit while still on the mountain. The downward motion proved more challenging than we initially thought and we were grateful to reach the gates in the early afternoon as our legs were quickly growing tired of the downward descent. We said our final goodbyes to all the porters that accompanied us along our journey and made it possible for us to have such a fun and successful trip! We were so impressed by their kindness, generosity and work ethic on the mountain. Some of our favorite memories will be the numerous conversations we had with the porters in camp where we were able to exchange stories and get to know them on an individual basis.
Since we had summited a day earlier than planned, we were able to spend an impromptu night in the nearby town of Moshi. We stayed at the Keys Hotel and were able to get our first hot showers in 7 days! We cleaned up and hit the town for some shopping in the local market and dinner in Moshi after a wild taxi ride from out hotel. We walked around the market where they sold everything from beaded sandals to dried crickets. We had dinner at an Indoitalian restaurant (a restaurant that offered two different menus of both Indian food and Italian food). We all went with the Indian menu and ate delish garlic chicken kebabs and garlic naan. It was fun to explore the town and we all walked away with some great gifts for family and friends back home after we learned how to properly negotiate with the local merchants.
After sleeping in a bed for the first time in a week and another hot shower, we left Moshi and traveled back to the Kia Lodge where we unpacked from the climb and packed up for the safari.
After a relaxing after noon spent lounging by the pool and catching up with family and friends on email, we went to bed early to rest up for an early morning to begin our safari after a dinner of fish, veggies and potatoes! Raymond, our Safari guide, picked us up at 730AM and we set out for our safari adventure!
We traveled for about two hours to the city of Arusha where we stopped in a grocery store to get a couple of items and checked out some of the local artisan stores. We also found a coffee shop that served some delicious, bold African coffee! We continued on to Lake Manyara to check out the over 127 miles of African wildlife. We were greeted by the baboons as soon as we pulled into the park and drove around the grounds for the remainder of the afternoon where we saw giraffes, elephants, hippos and zebra. It was amazing to see the animals in their natural habit and it was so exciting to spot the animals far in the forest. A definite highlight of the day was seeing two lion cubs sleeping in hollowed out tree trunk.

Maisha marefu (long life)! Shauna, Katie and Gen

Sam Cila joined the New York National Guard right after 9/11. His unit was deployed in October 2004. Sam was finishing his year long tour when he was injured by an IED blast on July 4, 2005. Sam survived the blast due to the quick response of his medic and unit. Since the injury, Sam has received over 40 surgeries and suffered devastating injuries to his left arm. Because of the amount of nerve loss to his upper arm, Sam’s hand was considered a secondary injury. He spent three years fighting a never-ending battle and eventually received an amputation. Sam competed in the 2010 Ironman World Championship this past October in Kona, Hawaii and shares his experience of overcoming adversity on his way to the finish line.

Since I was a kid competition flowed through my blood.  I was competitive about everything I did.  After I lost my hand,  my competitive streak only grew larger.  My injury created a fear that I would never be able to compete at as high a level as I once did and this fear only made my drive that much greater.  I realized that I had not only lost something physically,  but mentally as well and challenged myself to not only get back to the athlete I was before my injury but to surpass it.

Part of my rehabilitation involved running so I began to train for 5Ks and 10Ks.  As I was able to properly train and compete  in these races, my confidence grew and I set my sights higher and higher.  I began racing in Sprint and Olympic triathlons  and eventually it was a gradual build up to the point where I set my sights on the ultimate challenge of competing at Kona.   I race with a prosthetic “biking hand,” although if there were a prosthetic I could wear to make me run faster, trust me,  I would wear it!  With every race I competed in, I had two goals in mind: compete against myself and beat as many able  bodied athletes as I could.  Kona was a special experience.  It was an amazing feeling to be at the biggest endurance  venue in the world amongst the greatest athletes, I honestly felt privileged to be counted among them.  Standing on the  beach in Hawaii, I thought to myself “You couldn’t kill me in the streets of Baghdad and you certainly aren’t going to  kill me here.”

I was confident in my training and knew that my dream of one day competing at the World Championships was going to be  fulfilled and I had my family to thank for that.  One of the greatest challenges of the Ironman is the sacrifice  that I have to ask my family to make.  The training is long, which means a lot of hours, especially on the weekends  that are spent away from home.  In a way, competing at Kona was a way to say thank you to my family who had been with  me through my injury, the rehabilitation and the training.

I was not nervous at the start of the race.  I knew that I had properly prepared greatly in part to my wife and kids  and my teammates and coaches.  I did what I do before every race and crumpled up my race bib- there is something  wrong with having a perfectly pressed number in my opinion.  For the race, I wore The Program logo on my chest.   It served as a constant reminder of what I was there to complete.  So many thoughts cross your mind when you are  racing but I was always brought back to the Spartan shield on my chest, which kept me going and reminded me to keep fighting.

The emotions I felt at the end of the race were overwhelming.  It was amazing to think of how far I had come since my  injuries in 2005 and it was an unbelievable feeling to cross the finish line.  It was a victory for so many things and  most importantly I was able to prove to myself that no challenge will stand in my way.  And for the record, I didn’t cry.

- Sam Cila