THE SHINING MOUNTAIN
‘REMEMBER YOUR WHY.’
On the evening before we were going to summit the mountain that had become so huge in our lives, accomplished mountaineer Sibusiso Vilane, our team leader, gathered us all below the crater rim. He spoke quietly, but his words struck home: ‘Remember your why.’ Four days into hiking the Rongai Route, we were about to summit Mount Kilimanjaro from Camp Kibo, one of the three volcanic cones. He was reminding us to hold on to what it was, in our lives, that had brought us to that point.
Sibusiso is the first black African to conquer the Three Poles Challenge (South Pole, North Pole and Mount Everest). I was comforted by the fact that we were in good hands… but I was also terrified.
Our long walk to the summit started at midnight. When the sun finally rose a lifetime later, we were already standing near the top: 5 895m above sea level. And we were all digging deep to find our why.
Group dynamics are always interesting, but few things are more bonding than sharing the hardship
