To be honest with you, this is going to be the hardest physical and mental challenge of my life!
The other week, I wrote about how I want to hike Mountain Rwenzori and my hopefulness that I’ll reach its highest peak, Margherita (5109 meters above sea level). Thank you all for your goodluck wishes. I am now more energised. However, even writing that goal scares the hell out of me. I’ve never hiked any mountain in my life let alone walked for that long since most of my work requires sitting down with a laptop all day and night.
Hiking a mountain like Rwenzori calls for big-time preparations, especially for first time hikers like myself. These preps include to mental, physical and cardiovascular exercises among others.
When I just got the idea to hike Mt. Rwenzori, the third highest in Africa after Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro, I knew it wasn’t for me as most of the prerequisites were against me. Maybe I should start with a much shorter mountain, I thought!
But it was my 25th birthday and hey, I wanted to do something new, something I had never done before. It had to be out of my sphere and challenging. Something that I’d look back to and say, “Because I never gave up, I made it.” Cycling to Jinja and back, solo travelling through SouthEast Asia for 90days were among the ideas that came to mind. But I didn’t make up my mind then.
Then one day, out of the blue, I read a story about how Mountain climbers survive on Mt. Everest (the tallest mountain in the world) and how it takes them between eight to 12 months of preparation.
Guys, part of their preparations involve; jogging, cycling, walking in extreme coldness, hiking other “smaller” mountains like the Kilimanjaros of this world. Friends, these mountaineers do strength and stability training which includes lifting weights between 20kg-30kg, working on their core, back, abs, arms and upper body not forgetting the legs. Now, this here, gets me even more excited.
Tip on the iceberg, days later, I saw a surge of beautiful photos of hikers who had recently been in the Rwenzoris. These were incredible images of snow and smiles way up at the highest point in Uganda. That also got me excited.
I then thought about my 25th birthday tribute and well, you now can connect the dots and as they say, the rest is History.
I don’t just want to hike, I want to reach the summit. I want to get to the point where it reads, “Margherita Peak 5109m a.s.l., the highest point in Uganda and DRC”. That right there, is the goal that is even making me write all this.
Back to the Mt. Everest climbers and how they prepare for their once-in-a-lifetime adventure. You see, hiking mountains is easy, but summiting is HARD STUFF. Physical fitness alone isn’t a gurantee that you will reach the summit. Things like altitude sickness and lower oxygen intake make most climbers give up. I’ve read that up there, above 5000 meters, oxygen reduces to about 20% making it harder to breath. When it’s hard to breathe, your body and mind can’t function normally.
Wait, I have not talked about the freezing temperatures up there and the need for your body to acclimatise. Everest climbers take over 60 days on the expedition. For Mt. Rwenzori, it only requires 8 days maximum. I read no Ugandan has done it, but also I heard that many Ugandans have got to the summit. Which is which?
Anyways, the Everest base camp is 5600 meters above sea level! Guys, this is like the starting point where one sets off for the 8800 meters summit. I’m yet to find out at how many meters above sea level the Rwenzori basecamp is at and I’ll share details here.
Enough Everest, back to my reality. I want to use the next 50 days to train hard. With a group of hikers, I’ll forge my way and learn a couple of things as I train.
I’m making this a public secret so that at any moment when I feel or want to give up during training or while on the hike, I will remember that there are people following this to whom I’m answerable or accountable. I for one know that I can do this. But most times I tend to give up so easily on things I start passionately. This time I’m saying no to stopping – I’ll put in all that it takes – I’ll get through with it.
Still on accountability, during all the preparations and the hike, I’ll start a campaign to raise funds procure materials for young schoolgirls to make their own reusable sanitary towels.
Over the years, Gain Confidence Africa (a non-profit NGO) has been going around schools teaching these girls how to make reusable sanitary pads among other activities. These girls come from poor families and it’s literary impossible for them to buy a pack of sanitary towels. All funds raised during my campaign during the hike will be sent to Gain Confidence Africa to procure and handover materials to over 100 vulnerable girls in different schools in Mukono district. That’s my other goal for this hike.
Therefore, if you want to support me on this journey as I celebrate 25 years on earth, this is the starting point. I’ll share a link in coming blogs showing how you can support.
Otherwise, I welcome all your feedback or even any techniques that you think can help me ascend to the Rwenzori summit come November. I’ll personally keep you all updated on my training, challenges and all that comes along.
Updates will be across all my social media accounts including some videos on my vlog channel Kwema Vlogs , so go subscribe to it.
Guys, let’s have fun as I train and go attack the Rwenzoris.
