We left Montreal yesterday. A 12-hour flight to Doha, Qatar, and an 8-hour layover here before boarding a flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport near Arusha and Moshi in Tanzania. We will be there tomorrow morning and three years of waiting will finally end. The Climb for Kids trip that was to start three years ago, just as Covid hit is finally about to happen. We will get a full rest day in Arusha then we start climbing the mountain via the Lemosho Route this Wednesday.

Our first group photo with our new Climb for Kids jackets

Lots of planning, fundraising, and training has gone into this trip. There are 17 climbers in our group and we have raised over $35,000 for Christie Lake Kids. Covid did not put a stop to this year’s trip. We will get the chance to climb the mountain and highlight the important work that Christie Lake does to transform the lives of children in Ottawa every day.

Our GPS link is ready and starting in two days, you can follow us up the mountain – share.garmin.com/climbforkids. If you do follow us, we hope you will make the extra effort to donate something to CLK. All our pages are here and you can donate to any of the climbers in this year’s group.

We have climbed in Peru and Europe (TMB) and I think this will be the most challenging trek. This time there should be lots of people on the mountain with us, this is the height of the summer climbing season. But don’t think that this in any way makes this an easy climb. The success rate for summiting Kilimanjaro is between 45%-65%, but this rate varies with the length of the route. We will be on the Lemosho route for at least 8 days – 6 days up and 1.5 days down. The slow pace allows the body to acclimatize to the higher altitude and this gradual approach is the way to heighten chances of success.

Tonight is our second overnight flight. It is gruelling and I think everyone is pretty tired. Writing this post, it’s hard to keep my eyes open. We arrive tomorrow morning and then we get another day to restore before heading out. The next week will be really interesting. I try not to say too much to people about what to expect, people need to form their own experiences.

What I can say is this. Climbing a mountain over 3850 m is really difficulty. Living at high altitude is hard to adapt to and you have to get used to doing everything very slowly. People take these experiences as an every day adventure. To generate community interest is very difficult. We were supposed to be interviewed by CBC Ottawa, but this didn’t happen. Too much hype about the new Barbie movie.

Still, we are not doing this to make an impression. There are many better reasons for climbing at high altitude. We really appreciate all those who have supported us so far.

It’s almost midnight in Doha and we are preparing to board the next leg of our flight. Whatever happens, we are turning a leaf on Covid and we are again engaged in the wonderful work of assisting Christie Lake with its Transformative Recreation programs. Hope you will be there with us – this is worth following.

Once again, Communities Will Move Mountains.

Hope to see you on the mountain!