Badassery Magazine November 2017 Issue 18 | Page 41

C
limbing the highest
mountain in Africa that
claims about 10 fatal-
ities each year is not for the
faint-hearted. The reactions
reaped by this fact are visceral –
either people say No, thanks! or
if they are like me: They figure
out how to train for the feat and
then they run toward it, hoping
to summit its topmost peak on
Kilimanjaro at the end of 5-8
days hiking.
Although I did not reach the
topmost Uhuru Peak at 19,341
feet after a 5-day hike in early
October, I did reach the base on
the second highest landmark at
Gilman’s Point at 18,400 feet,
despite feeling the most exhaust-
ed and the coldest I’ve ever felt
my entire life. My eyes were
closed much of the way on sum-
miting at midnight, just feeling
and hearing my way a step be-
hind my Tanzanian guide, Frank,
and feeling terrified that I might
lose my fingers and toes as frost-
bite started (oh fun!) to set in as I
felt freezing temperature almost
immediately despite wearing ski
gloves and 2 pairs of wool socks.
Oh and don’t get me started on
high altitude sickness. Although
vomiting (oh joy!) did not happen
until I got back to the Kibo base
camp at 15,430 feet, during the
midnight ascent I also tried to
put out of my mind the fact that
my temples and back of my head
were throbbing as if 6” screws
were slowly being drilled into
the lobes. Thanks, high altitude
sickness symptoms, you are a
real doll!
I did learn a few things about
myself and about this badass
mountain during my ascent from
day 1 through day 5 of my hike
that can be related to business or
personal life:
Do the hard shit, go for the
gold, go big or go home.
The phrasing varies but the
message is the same: Visual-
ize your biggest dream and the
vehicle with which you will get
there (e.g. for me it’s Kilimanjaro
and the vehicle is my physical
and mental state via hiking for
5 consecutive days; or, it’s hit-
ting New York Times bestseller
list – a holy grail for authors like
myself and it’s still a dream of
mine and I’m going to get there
one day). If you can dream big
and know the vehicle with which
you will achieve that dream, you
will stretch your potential and
give yourself the permission to
be phenomenal, and visualiz-
ing that very possibility is step
numero uno. Six months ago I
began training for the big hike
and that given enough time and
preparation, I knew that I could
probably do it. It is believing
that I CAN and going after
big goals that I am able to
accomplish what I have done.
So although I did not reach the
highest peak on the mountain
that locals affectionately refer to
as “Kili”, I did reach my highest
personal record of 18,400 feet
elevation, and I walked away
feeling pretty good about it.
Sow the seeds and reverse en-
gineer your process.
I dreamt of being atop one of the
continental peaks in the world
but I knew six months ago I
probably couldn’t summit when
I hadn’t had training or condi-
tioning. So how do I get there?
I sowed the seeds – trained and
hiked as often as I could in my
home state of California for six
months; researched via talking
to people who have hiked Kili-
manjaro and did online research
as well; put all the wisdom and
advice I had received before
my trip into my training hikes
with regards to pace, hiking
essentials, safety, and preventive
measures against high altitude
sickness. And I reverse engi-
neered my process. One does
not make a gigantic jump from a
so-so, infrequent hiker like I was
in April 2017 to an avid hiker
able to get near the roof of Africa
without stepping stones. So my
method in reverse engineering
the training stepping stones in
six months were:
Hike for 10 hours a day while
carrying a 20-lb pack to reach
approx 11,000 ft elevation 
hike for 8 hours a day while
carrying a 20-lb pack to reach
approx 10,000 ft elevation with
steep incline in the first 2 hours
 hike for 8 hours a day while
carrying a 15-lb pack at 8,500
ft elevation with a 1,500 ft in-
cline in the first hour and a half
 hike for 8 hours a day while
carrying a 10-lb pack at 8,000 ft
elevation with gradual, slow in-
cline with many switchbacks 
hike for 6 hours a day while car-
rying an 8-10-lb pack at 4,500 ft
elevation with gradual incline.
And so on and so forth.
The learning curve to whatever
new thing you are doing and
the build-out of your business
could be steep, but there are
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